Earlier this year, we put a call out to the early-career researcher community to join our Early-Career Advisory Group (ECAG) and help improve science culture and communication.
Following the application process, our new ECAG members were elected by our current members, as well as recent eLife Ambassadors and members of eLife's early-career reviewer pool. The eLife team narrowed down the applications to a shortlist based on our requirements and goals for diverse representation, from which the new members were then selected
This year, there were 250 applications. Of these, 22 candidates were shortlisted and five were elected.
Meet our new ECAG members
Joining the ECAG are:
Mariana De Niz, Postdoc at Institut Pasteur, France
“... I can contribute towards increasing openness and integrity in the way science is done and shared by working on a model that breaks down language barriers for science, and as a microscopist, integrating open science into the pipeline of publications that include imaging.”
Lamis Yahia Mohamed Elkheir, Lecturer, PhD Student at University of Khartoum, Sudan
“I am now extremely excited to join the ECAG which will not only provide me with the unique opportunity to grow within a diverse and resourceful community but will also give me a space to voice the needs of early-career researchers, especially from African developing countries and promote practices that could lead to a healthier research environment.”
Laura Han, Postdoc at University of Melbourne, Australia
“During my time as a member I’m hoping to listen to others so I can be an echo box for early-career researchers: grabbing attention for challenges they face, facilitating opportunities that boost our career prospects, and propagating ideas that give joy to an academic career.”
Regina Mencia, Postdoc at Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral, Argentina
“As a new member I'm hoping to discuss topics that worry the early-career scientists and work together with editors towards a more inclusive and transparent planning system that can boost young scientists’ work."
Divyansh Mittal, PhD Student at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
“I want to provide early-career researchers a global platform to present their work to much-wider audiences and open up new collaborative opportunities to take science forward.”
As part of the ECAG, our five new members will represent the voices of early-career researchers as we work to address bias in the publishing process, increase equity, diversity and inclusion in eLife’s communities, and work towards greater openness and integrity in the way science is done and shared.
You can read more about the work of the eLife Early-Career Advisory Group over the last few years in the following blogs:
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