For the second time we hope to convene and facilitate a worldwide community of like-minded researchers to promote responsible behaviours in science. The eLife Community Ambassadors create and disseminate solutions that accelerate positive changes within academia. Researchers in life sciences and biomedicine are invited to apply by March 24 to join the programme.
Who is this programme for?
This initiative is open to scientists from all parts of the world and walks of life, who seek to create a widespread change to openness, collaboration and transparency in scholarly culture. If you’re ready to take this shared vision to your community and engage it in advancing these goals – join us.
What is expected of eLife Community Ambassadors?
You will be engaging your colleagues locally to raise awareness and encourage adoption of a number responsible practices. Supported by eLife’s Early-Career Advisory Group (ECAG), you will have an opportunity to learn about initiatives that are already in place as well as share your perspective and ideas with a like-minded global community. Together, we will be looking for ways to accelerate the transition to more open, collaborative and reproducible science.
Peer-to-peer learning is an essential part of the programme. You will have ample opportunities to learn from others and you will be expected to share knowledge of relevant resources and experiences with us.
As part of the programme, you will be expected to support the ECAG’s activities – get involved with our webinars, disseminate materials and help develop and implement strategies to improve science communication. You will have an opportunity to run preprint journal clubs, deliver workshops on aspects of reproducibility relevant to your discipline, advocate for more inclusive career and funding opportunities in science, and more. You will be expected to report on your progress and challenges.
You can read about examples of what the Ambassadors accomplished previously here, and you can find out even more about their activities by browsing their blog at ecrLife.org.
What are the benefits of joining the programme?
By joining eLife Community Ambassadors, you will be welcomed to a diverse, global community working together to achieve common goals.
We will equip you to communicate effectively about our shared aims and offer support for your own initiatives – such as journal clubs, seminars, peer support groups and other activities. If you are already involved in promoting good practices in science, you will be able to draw on our support to scale your efforts. If you are skilled in programming, you will have the chance to interact with our innovation team to introduce novel, open-source solutions for science communication.
You will be able to interact with the ECAG on a regular basis during the year, learn about new concepts and develop new skills, and network with other Ambassadors worldwide.
How to apply?
The programme is open to active researchers in life sciences and biomedicine, whether they work at a university, a governmental or non-governmental research institute, or in a research position with the industry.
We are happy to consider candidates who are on parental or health leave from their regular work at the start of the programme, so long as the leave is not expected to last for the entire duration of the 2019–2020 edition (that is until April 2020). We would not want the activities related to the programme to negatively impact on their circumstances.
We value diversity of all guises. We especially encourage applications from medical and graduate students, as well as researchers from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.
The applications are open until March 24, 2019.
The recruitment process this year is formed of two stages – both will be performed remotely. Following the March deadline, we will contact everyone about the outcomes of their applications, and we will inform selected candidates about the details of the task for the second stage of the process.
Please email ambassadors [at] elifesciences.org if you have any questions, or tweet them to @eLifeCommunity.
Individuals currently engaged in policy or science communication roles and similar that are not directly involved in active research are not eligible to join as eLife Community Ambassadors. However, if you fall into this category and feel that your resources and expertise could benefit our volunteers, please email community[at]elifesciences.org. We will be happy to discuss what opportunities we see for connecting you with the programme.
Interested in finding out more about opportunities, events and issues that are important for early-career researchers? Sign up to the eLife Early-Career Community newsletter or follow @eLifeCommunity on Twitter.
