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<b><h4>What broader responsibilities, apart from your research, have you taken on over the course of your career, both within your university and externally?</h4></b>

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<b>Professor Lewis Halsey, Professor of Environmental Physiology, University of Roehampton</b>

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So beyond my research, I've taken on a number of responsibilities over the years: internal responsibilities at my university and external responsibilities, particularly once I became an academic. So internal responsibilities include being on the ethics committee, being what's called a Programme Convener, so overseeing the administration of certain degree courses, and then, for example, external to my university, I’m currently a board member at a journal called 'Biology Letters'. I'm on the editorial board of Animal Biotelemetry. For a good number of years until recently, I was a co-opted member of the animal section of the Society for Experimental Biology.
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<b><h4>What challenges and benefits did you encounter within these roles?</h4></b>

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<b>Professor Lewis Halsey:</b> I've experienced a number of challenges, and benefits, taking on these various roles. There are many, many benefits: getting to know other people, networking, getting to understand how processes work, for example, working for grant funding bodies, and assessing other people's grants, and suddenly having to judge them is a real eye-opener for how to write a good grant.

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There are challenges as well and in a sense, those challenges become benefits, because you gain experience in how to deal with those challenges. These challenges normally boil down to interpersonal ones. So how do you come to a consensus with people you may disagree with about things? How far do you push challenging them? Are you prepared to have a different opinion to the majority? And also things like, how do you ensure that good ideas, generated at a meeting, are actually followed through? 
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<b><h4>What advice would you give to new researchers regarding such roles?</h4></b>

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<b>Professor Lewis Halsey:</b> The advice I'd give to new researchers regarding such roles is: have the confidence to take them on if you get the opportunity. You don't have to take on everything. Don't say yes to everything, because then you can be burdened with an awful lot. But don't say no to everything. Try something out. Don't assume you need to have had experience before you take on a role, because otherwise, you'd never take on the role. And have confidence that you do have something to offer, something to give to that position. 