The UPDICE team met at UCL on 11 June. In the morning, Mark Brouard, Basile Curchod, and Helen Fielding offered advice to the UPDICE PDRAs about academic careers. This was followed by an afternoon symposium, ‘Women in Photochemistry’, at which Profesor Jenny Clark (Sheffield), Dr Julia Lehman (Birmingham), Dr Rachel Crespo Otero (UCL), and Dr Cate Anstoter (Edinburgh), talked about their research and career paths. The day ended with a dynamic Q&A session, during which the early career researchers in the audience sought advice from our guest speakers about the challenges faced in establishing an academic career.