‘Everything is about other humans’: Nicole Arbour, Belmont Forum, on her career switch from neuroscience to anthropocene

Nicole Arbour, PhD, Executive at Belmont Forum, chats about her unlikely career path

initially published on Medium's Writer's Blot

Nicole Arbour, PhD is a fast-spoken University of Ottawa adjunct professor in the Geography Department, and the Executive Director of Belmont Forum, an international organization that funds environmental sustainability projects with direct societal impact across the world. But it might surprise you to know that Arbour started her career with a PhD in Neuroscience.

Illustration of Nicole Arbour by Maria Rosales Gerpe

Women scientists: to stay or not to stay in academia

When she began her career path, Arbour did not know exactly the profession she wanted to pursue. “I can’t say I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up; I knew what I liked: when I was applying to university, I applied to Biochemistry but I also applied to Fine Arts,” recollects Arbour.

But she did begin to know what she didn’t want to do by the end of her PhD. “I think that’s when I realized that I didn’t want to grow up to be a researcher, and it wasn’t because I didn’t like science, but it was because of the research environment in Canada at the time,” Arbour says, referring to the place women held and still hold in the academic science space.

To date, women make up less than 40 percent of all full-time university faculty in Ontario, and in all of Canada, according to a report by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (EQCO), an agency of the provincial government.

Similarly in the US, 44 percent of tenure-track faculty, and 36 percent of full professors (29 percent in Canada) represent those who identified as women, states the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and the EQCO, respectively.

The latter statistics persist despite women making up the majority of non-tenured academic positions in the US, and Canada (EQCO and AAUW data), or that, globally, women constitute the majority of students in post-secondary education, UNESCO reported in 2023.

In other words, societal pressures on women continue to detrimentally impact their careers. This was evident in Arbour’s own career path.

“When I decided to do my PhD, one of my supervisors took me aside, and told me, ‘Nicole, if you do your PhD, you will never have children,’” says Arbour, remembering how this moment profoundly changed the way she viewed research.

“I went in and did my PhD anyway, but toward the end of my doctorate, I was looking at the women around me and they did not look happy. They had no lives outside academia,” remembers Arbour, who is a mother today, noting that at the time she was deciding whether to stay in academia, women academic researchers who had chosen to have children were constantly berated for it.

More creative than you think: Arbour on the importance of communication and creativity in science as transferrable skills

Her experience in academia prompted her to begin exploring other options. “I decided to start a student newsletter about alternate career paths in science, so that I had an excuse to interview people,” she says, chuckling. Through these efforts, she started her career outside of academia with a research role at Spartan Bioscience, now Geomadix, having essentially networked with then CEO, Paul Lem.

From then on, her career trajectory became tangled in serendipity and hard work. “Chance favours the prepared mind,” tells Arbour of a saying attributed to Louis Pasteur, and which she firmly believes has guided her life.

When Spartan downsized, shortly after she graduated from her PhD, she was let go as part of layoffs the company conducted to stay afloat. This moment was a blessing in disguise as it was a significant turning point for Arbour’s career as a natural science researcher.

Steve Wright, then Spartan’s Chief Engineering Officer, and his family were moving to Australia, Arbour recounts. “‘I bet you’ve never thought of this your entire life, but I’m sure you’d be amazing at this job,’ he told me, as he handed me the posting for his wife’s job, and encouraged me to apply,” Arbour retells of this pivotal moment.

The job: the science attaché for the British High Commission in Ottawa. In this role, she wouldn’t be a researcher anymore; instead, she would be responsible for applying for grants to fund the projects fostering research collaboration between UK and Canadian universities, which in turn could impact UK policy affecting science and innovation at both the country’s national and international level.

After a successful interview, Arbour was no longer a researcher, but a communicator, and a great one at that. “Within a year, I led the Science and Innovation team across Canada,” she recounts.

Still, the role was a big change for Arbour who had performed research first as a neuroscientist then as a biotechnologist in the diagnostics industry. “You learn how to speak differently, to be more concise, to basically sell science to political scientists, economists, historians,” relates Arbour.

But Arbour notes that scientists are more creative than they give themselves credit for: “when you’re thinking of a project, you’re always thinking of all the possible outcomes, and pitfalls; this takes much imagination.”

Indeed, in addition to thinking outside the box, ample writing occurs throughout science careers. Throughout her path in academia and industry, for instance, Arbour contributed to grants, and review articles, authored publications, and abstracts for poster and PowerPoint presentations.

All this training is what Arbour attributes to being able to convince people that Canadian research collaborations were a good way to spend money as the science attaché for the British High Commission, and later on as the Senior International Advisor for the National Research Council (NRC), the Acting Deputy Head for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, and other policy and Anthropocene roles prior to her current work at Belmont Forum, where she focuses on coordinating the development of multilateral calls for proposal in the global environmental change research space.

‘We aren’t trained to be uncomfortable’: On rolling with the punches and other advice for those wishing to work outside the lab

Then, and now, she continues to compete for funds to realize projects, something many scientists dread and one of the reasons why they leave academia. “No matter where you are in life, you will always have to find resources to fund a project. The difference is that when you’re doing it in Academia, you’re to fund your staff and your own salary, and sustain a lab. In my job, it doesn’t feel as personal, like isn’t life or death,” alludes Arbour about how applying for grants felt for her when she still was in Academia.

Indeed, the grant landscape in Canada’s academia has been labeled “precarious” and in 2022, an advisory panel was launched to evaluate the federal research support system. At the British High Commission, and other working positions since then, Arbour’s salary and that of her staff were covered, so worrying about livelihood was not an issue.

But aside from funding competitions, Arbour’s career path has led her to unexpected places, including a stint in Vienna, Austria, where she did not know German, the main spoken language, and during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, where communication was of critical necessity.

“We aren’t trained to be uncomfortable. And so, getting used to a bit of discomfort is really important because that’s how you grow,” advises Arbour on work and life changes. “But part of that is willingness,” she adds. “Asking yourself, ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’” Arbour is referring to both the willingness to try things and to learn from them.

“Think about the value add. I’ve applied to many different jobs that I didn’t get in my lifetime, but every one of those jobs gave me an opportunity to learn, update my CV, and see the different interview processes,” explains Arbour, adding that they also give ‘social capital’ or the opportunity to network and make an impression on people for the future.

Currently Arbour lives in Montevideo, Uruguay, where she works for Belmont Forum and where the national language is Spanish, also foreign to Arbour, who’s up for the challenge.