Making your voice heard: Organising and advocating for early-career researchers
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
11:00am in New York | 4:00pm in London
Join us on Wednesday, May 31, for our next #ECRWednesday webinar. We’ll be hosting a discussion on making your voice heard; how the early-career community is self-organising locally and internationally to influence the future of research communication.
Our speakers, announced below, will explore examples of where early-career scientists are getting their peer groups together in person and online, how they’re advocating within their institutions, and what we can achieve once we have these strong groups in place. You can read more about the speakers and their experiences below.
Every #ECRWednesday includes an hour of live, video discussion followed by a chat on Twitter.
Meet the speakers
Corina Logan, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge.
Corina aims to improve scientific rigour by promoting ethical and non-discriminatory publishing practices. To achieve this goal, she is a member of OpenConCam, on Zoology’s Library Committee, on the Journals Coordination Scheme School of Biological Sciences Consultative Committee, serves as the Postdoc Research Convenor as a Postdoctoral Bye Fellow at Murray Edwards College, and gives talks on ethical publishing and open peer review.
Gary McDowell, Executive Director of Future of Research, University of Cambridge.
Gary McDowell is the Executive Director of Future of Research (FoR), a non-profit organisation that promotes grassroots advocacy amongst junior scientists to advance improvements and reform of the scientific enterprise, and aims to increase transparency about academia to provide junior scientists with the information they need to navigate successful careers using science.
Osman Aldirdiri, Director, Open Sudan.
Osman Aldirdiri is a medical student at the University of Khartoum. He is the founder of Open Sudan which is a student-run project concerned with Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data advocacy among educational institutions. The project allows students to contribute significantly to the open movement worldwide. The project has many activities including campus campaigns, policy statements, and OER content development.
Osman is working also with the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) to promote open access, open education, and open data among medical students in more than 120 countries.
Nick Shockey, Director of Programs & Engagement, SPARC.
Nick Shockey is the Director of Programs & Engagement at SPARC where he focuses on fostering and supporting communities that advance Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data. In this capacity, Nick founded the Right to Research Coalition, an international alliance of student organizations—collectively representing millions of students in over 100 countries around the world—that promote policies and practices that make open the default for research. In 2014, Nick launched OpenCon, a conference and community that works to identify, cultivate, and empower leaders within the next generation to advance openness in research and education. To date, OpenCon has reached more than 4,000 in-person participants across 80 countries and catalyzed dozens of new projects, organizations, and campaigns. Nick is also particularly passionate about working with libraries to support their institutions in adopting open practices for research and education.
Brianne Kent, Post-doc at the University of British Columbia, co-organizer of Future of Research Vancouver, and member of the eLife Early-career Advisory Group.
Brianne Kent is a neuroscientist who specialises in translational research methodology that bridges the gap between biomedical discovery and clinical application. Her research focuses on Alzheimer’s disease, with the goal of identifying early biomarkers and novel targets for therapeutic interventions.
