One year of Young EFIS: achievements and future directions

Abstract

European Journal of ImmunologyVolume 51, Issue 8 p. 1875-1878 News & EFISFree Access One year of Young EFIS: achievements and future directions Rami Bechara, Division of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USASearch for more papers by this authorCarmela Cela, Department of Cell Biology and Immunology, Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, SpainSearch for more papers by this authorAnne Hahn, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKSearch for more papers by this authorGizem Kilic, Department of Internal Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this authorFederica Laudisi, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorEllen McAllister, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg, Freiburg, GermanySearch for more papers by this authorNoushin Mossadegh-Keller, Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, INSERM, Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille Luminy, CIML, Marseille, FranceSearch for more papers by this author Rami Bechara, Division of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USASearch for more papers by this authorCarmela Cela, Department of Cell Biology and Immunology, Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, SpainSearch for more papers by this authorAnne Hahn, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UKSearch for more papers by this authorGizem Kilic, Department of Internal Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this authorFederica Laudisi, Department of Systems Medicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorEllen McAllister, Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg, Freiburg, GermanySearch for more papers by this authorNoushin Mossadegh-Keller, Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, INSERM, Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille Luminy, CIML, Marseille, FranceSearch for more papers by this author First published: 04 August 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/eji.202170085AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Reflections and looking forward: one year of yEFIS Just over a year ago, in March 2020, many cities around the world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Against the backdrop of this unfolding situation, a group of dedicated young immunologists (YIs) in Europe started a collective network to support and promote junior researchers working in immunology: the young EFIS (yEFIS) [1]. Under the framework of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS), the group started to recruit representatives from across Europe and has been growing ever since (Fig 1). The mission of yEFIS is to bring together all young immunologists working in Europe and establish a platform for networking, collaboration, support, and promotion of these researchers. To achieve this aim, dedicated Working Groups were created. The idea of Working Groups is to have flexible and independent teams that work on a focused task for the required time. This workflow allows multiple projects to occur simultaneously and to make the most of all the volunteers' precious time (Fig 2). The first year has been a whirlwind of organisation, establishment, and learning on the go. But as yEFIS continues to take shape, we expect great things for the future of this group. Figure 1Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Growth of yEFIS since its approval by the EFIS board. YI: Young Immunologists, EJI: European Journal of Immunology, ECI2021: European Congress of Immunology 2021. Figure 2Open in figure viewerPowerPoint The organisation and structure of yEFIS Task Force, Network and Working Groups. Created with BioRender.com. New Young Immunologist groups in Europe We were aware that the creation of a dedicated group for YIs in Europe could not replace the importance of national YI groups within every national society of Immunology to support junior members in their scientific formation and career development. The ability to connect on a cross-institutional basis and across cities provides a complex network that is vital for collaborative research, but also for future career prospects. Additional support by the national societies, in the form of mentoring, awards, and presentation opportunities, is also important to ensure the next generation of researchers can continue in the field. For this reason, one of the principle aims of yEFIS is to promote the establishment of national YI groups within every EFIS member society. Before yEFIS was created, only three national societies had dedicated groups for YIs in Europe (Austria, Germany, and Italy) [2]. Thus, we felt the urgency to support our yEFIS national representatives in setting up their own junior groups, including the board, bylaws, and official accounts. The groundwork, time, and organisation that national representatives have given to this cause were impressive, and the results have been amazing! In the months following yEFIS establishment, there was a blossoming of YI groups across the continent (Fig 3). At first, Dutch, French, and Turkish YI societies were officially created in the summer of 2020. Later, Croatian, Greek, Swiss, Scandinavian, and Ukrainian YI groups were set up at the beginning of 2021, whereas Czech, Luxembourg, Spanish, and many other YI societies have been recently established or will be formalized shortly. This surprising result in such a short time has highlighted the desire of YIs to create their own communities to better address specific needs among young immunologists. We are confident that many other YI groups will arise in the coming months, increasing the number of young member societies in the yEFIS community. Figure 3Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Overview of the Young EFIS (yEFIS) network (blue). National societies with dedicated early career societies are highlighted (dark blue; representative logos on the left). Collaboration with the European Journal of Immunology The EJI working group aims to build an ongoing collaboration with the European Journal of Immunology (EJI, @EurJImmunol). yEFIS highlights recent papers published in EJI on social media to bring attention to the highest quality research (including some of EJI's COVID-19 articles) as well as the different innovative approaches in immunology, such as the Guidelines for the use of flow cytometry and cell sorting in immunological studies [3]. Nevertheless, the benefits of highlighting EJI published papers go beyond promoting science, since these actions highlight the work of the first author, usually a junior researcher. With the same focus of benefiting young scientists, yEFIS partnered with EJI to organize a webinar on the editorial world. The seminar, given by an associate editor at EJI, was geared towards the yEFIS network to provide an introduction to publishing in scientific journals. The subject of this webinar was chosen after a survey to identify yEFIS members’ interests. Overall, more than 100 YIs registered to attend the webinar, and the majority of them found the content of the webinar very helpful. Therefore, yEFIS is determined to continue this seminar series in the future. In addition, yEFIS is celebrating EJI's 50th anniversary by contributing to a special series of interviews with established, mid- and early-career immunologists. The interviews are mainly focused on the interviewees’ career paths, including some advice for young scientists as well as perspectives on EJI. Collectively, yEFIS is dedicated to providing support for young immunologists through its interaction with EJI that will inspire further actions and collaboration. Participation in the international Day of Immunology events Since 2005, the International Union of Immunology Societies (IUIS) teams up every year on April 29, with regional groups and national immunology societies to highlight and promote research in immunology during the International Day of Immunology (DOI, see the recoding of the event here). This year's theme was COVID-19. yEFIS contributed actively during the DOI with a public relations campaign shared on social media in different formats. In particular, yEFIS, in collaboration with EFIS, IUIS, and Immunopaedia, created a video series #ThankYouImmunology, highlighting young immunologist's views on the COVID-19 pandemic, the contributions of immunology to human health, and describing their favourite immune cells, among other questions. Collectively, 30 videos were uploaded on the 2021 DOI YouTube channel. Of those, yEFIS highlighted eight YIs representing six different European countries. Moreover, yEFIS videos were displayed during the IUIS-EFIS international webinar on April 29th. Following the success of this campaign, yEFIS is committed to continuing the ongoing collaboration with EFIS and IUIS for future DOI events. Furthermore, yEFIS created portraits of leading immunologists who contributed to major discoveries in immunology, including Paul Ehrlich, Louis Pasteur, Faith Osier, Ozlem Türeci, Shimon Sakaguchi, and others. Each profile was accompanied by the voice of yEFIS members who take inspiration from these figures in their own research careers. yEFIS also wanted to reach the general public by distributing an infographic on the major questions and answers about COVID-19 vaccines in different languages including English, German, French, Turkish, and Italian (see here or in the news section of www.yefis.org). Lastly, yEFIS Task Force members, representing their national immunology society, contributed to different events for the DOI. The German Society of Immunology (DGfI) created posters to inform the general public about COVID-19 and vaccination (see here). The National French Society for Immunology (SFI) in collaboration with the French Club of Young Immunologists (FCYI) broadcasted an educational video campaign featuring children's views on Immunology and COVID-19 (see here). Altogether, yEFIS has strongly contributed to the appreciation of immunologists by a large audience through the DOI 2021. Communication, social media presence and campaigns As a strategic action, yEFIS decided to opt for a strong social media presence to reach young immunologists from all over Europe. As Twitter is the preferred social media platform for academic chatter, and where the presence of institutional or personal research accounts is increasing every day, we thought it would be important to promote yEFIS actions through this media. In a year of presence on Twitter yEFIS account reached over 800 followers. The yEFIS Twitter account was created with the objective to inform and promote immunology events and interesting initiatives, such as seminars, conferences, or even job openings and opportunities for early career research funding. Recently, yEFIS was involved in two campaigns related to science and immunology: the aforementioned International Day of Immunology (DOI) and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. For the latter, we highlighted the profiles of women from the yEFIS network, sharing their passion for immunology with a broad audience. These initiatives were very successful, achieving more than 27000 impressions from the activity on DOI. For the purposes of facilitating networking, especially during the last year with minimal in-person interactions, yEFIS also maintains a community page on LinkedIn. Another important action yEFIS recently took is the creation of a monthly newsletter publication to keep our members informed and to build a stronger community. With this newsletter, we tried to reach members that are not present on social media, so they can also be updated about network events and interesting news. The newsletter highlights subjects such as yEFIS Working Group events, relevant immunology news, career opportunities, and recent PhD graduates sharing their research experiences. The newsletter has been an improvement in how our network operates since it helps to reach one of the main goals of yEFIS: to provide direct contact among our members to grow a large and diverse young immunology network. As a communication initiative, it is also important to mention yEFIS website as a noteworthy landmark of our organization. The Communication Working Group maintains all the information on the yEFIS website, where we post all the initiatives that our Working Groups and members are conducting. Involvement in ECI2021: a special yEFIS session for junior researchers The yEFIS task force has several other Working Groups, including education, career development, and diversity. These groups were only recently formed, in late 2020, which is reflective of the dynamic structure of the task force to serve as supportive framework for the ideas of our members. There is also a Working Group involved in the organization of a dedicated yEFIS session during the upcoming European Congress of Immunology (ECI), taking place virtually from September 1st to 4th. We conducted a survey to see which topics are most interesting for our members. The themes “Careers outside of academia” and “Funding opportunities for early career researchers” received the most votes, which is why we decided to shape the yEFIS ECI session around those two topics. We invited a member of the European Research Council to present early career research funding opportunities. Furthermore, we will have a panel discussion where we want to highlight the different career paths scientists can pursue and the ways to be involved in scientific advances beyond being at the laboratory bench. We are happy to announce that we will be joined by science communicator Kat Arney, editor at Nature Immunology Alexandra Fleming as well as EFIS president Andreas Radbruch. Two more representatives from industry research and science policy will join the discussion. Members from yEFIS will also collaborate with editors from EJI to chair an interactive panel session. Here, prominent immunologists from across Europe will be invited to share their insights on a variety of topics with the YI community. Additionally, we plan a dedicated yEFIS social event where we aim to create a platform for contacting yEFIS members and facilitating networking opportunities. Special interest groups In addition to the task force Working Groups, we have also set up interest groups. These groups are oriented towards scientific expertise and fields of research. Each interest group has its own Slack channel where members can post questions about protocols, share interesting publications, or advertise job postings. The Mucosal Immunology group, for example, also organises regular seminars. This is an easy and uncomplicated way to get in touch with peers working on similar research questions, which is more important than ever in the times of virtual conferences and thus, restricted access to networking opportunities. A list of all interest groups can be found on our webpage (see here). The future of yEFIS The first yEFIS elections were held in July 2021 in order to select a new leadership team to continue the work of yEFIS. The new team will guide and support the next phase of yEFIS as the network continues to grow and fresh ideas become reality. As young scientists, we are aware of the struggles facing young immunologists across Europe and want to advocate for improving the situation. The Equality & Diversity Working Group is focusing on supporting inclusion among immunologists. On the other hand, the Career Development Working Group aims to organize activities related to career skills, such as funding, mentoring, and work-life balance. We also aim to strengthen the network between young immunologists, to share their problems, and find solutions. We love immunology, and we would like to inspire more young people to become immunologists. Therefore, we plan to organize campaigns to attract young minds to the fascinating immune system, raise awareness about diseases connected to immunology, and spread scientific knowledge and awareness more broadly. Science and research are, by their nature, collaborative and universal. While our work is primarily focused on the European situation, there would be many benefits of creating a global network of YIs. A global junior research community of immunologists would help to form more connections, share more ideas, explore more opportunities, and improve support and mentorship. Has this inspired you to become involved? We always need fresh ideas and motivated individuals to sustain the momentum of this initiative, locally and globally. References 1Costas-Ramon, S. et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 2020. 50: 1254– 1256. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 2Schober, K. et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 2020. 50: 480– 483. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar 3Cossarizza, A. et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 2019. 49: 1457– 1973. Wiley Online LibraryCASPubMedWeb of Science®Google Scholar Volume51, Issue8August 2021Pages 1875-1878 FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation