We are launching a new programme of monthly webinars to give early-career researchers in the life and biomedical sciences a platform to share opportunities and explore issues around building a successful research career.
The programme of free, online events, which will take place on the last Wednesday of each month, will feature webinars exploring funding opportunities, how to build an independent research career, and the latest tools in research communication — helping all early-career researchers to make the most of their research career.
The community behind eLife — including the research funders that support the journal, our editors and referees, and our Early-Career Advisory Group — are keenly aware of the pressures faced by junior investigators seeking to develop a successful research career. In addition, our mission is to help scientists accelerate discovery. We do this by operating of a platform for research communication — one that not only enables rapid communication of results, but that also encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours in science. Therefore, we are embarking on a new project to showcase success stories and share experiences related to career-building and responsible research behaviours amongst the early-career community.
The eLife #ECRWednesday programme kicks off in 2016 with the following webinars:
Communicating your research: What’s the deal with preprints?
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
11:00am in New York | 4:00pm in London
A discussion of the benefits and opportunities that depositing your work in a preprint server brings, featuring
 | Buz Barstow, Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI Fellow at the Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, New York |
 | Jessica Polka, Director of ASAPbio and visiting postdoc at Harvard Medical School, Boston (Image credit: Rick Groleau) |
 | Nikolai Slavov, Assistant Professor at Northeastern University, Boston |
Careers: How to get an independent position
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
11:00am in New York | 4:00pm in London
Three early-stage group leaders tell their stories, and share their top tips and advice for finding your own independence. We’ll hear from
 | Megan Carey, Group Leader and HHMI International Early Career Scientist, Champalimaud Neuroscience Program, Lisbon, Portugal |
 | Gunther Hollopeter, Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY |
 | Emmy Verschuren, FIMM-EMBL International Group Leader at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, Helsinki |
All webinars will include a Q&A session with the panellists and will be followed by a Twitter chat to continue the discussion, from @eLife_careers and listed under #ECRWednesday.
The #ECRWednesday webinar programme complements our wide range of initiatives to support early-career researchers, and follows last year’s series of webinars on funding opportunities for postdocs, featuring the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), Sir Henry Dale Fellowships by the Wellcome Trust, and Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (NRSA) by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). You can find out more about our work for early-career researchers at elifesciences.org/careers.
You can browse and register for upcoming webinars at elifesciences.org/events.
We welcome your suggestions for future webinars - what would you like to discuss? Please contact Naomi at n.penfold@elifesciences.org or join an upcoming webinar to let us know.
