Early Career Researchers Research Articles

ECR Spotlight – Sara Nørris Christoffersen

ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Sara Nørris Christoffersen is an author on ‘ Strong acclimation effect of temperature and humidity on heat tolerance of the Arctic collembolan Megaphorura arctica’, published in JEB. Sara is a PhD student in the lab of Simon Bahrndorff at Aalborg University, Denmark, investigating how climate change affects invertebrates in the Arctic terrestrial environment.

Neural crest development and disorders: from patient to model system and back again - the NEUcrest conference.

The neural crest (NC) is an embryonic multipotent and transitory population of cells that appears during late gastrulation/early neurulation in the developing embryos of vertebrate organisms. Often called "the fourth germ layer", the NC is characterised by incredible mobility, which allows the NC cells to migrate throughout the whole embryo, giving rise to an astonishing number of different derivatives in the adult organism, such as craniofacial skeleton, adrenal gland, enteric nervous system and melanocytes. Because of these properties, neurocristopathies (NCPs), which is the term used to classify genetic diseases associated with NC developmental defects, are often syndromic and, taken all together, are the most common type of genetic disease. The NEUcrest consortium is an EU funded innovative training network (ITN) that aims to study the NC and NCPs. In March 2024, the early stage researchers (ESRs) in the NEUcrest consortium organised an in-person conference for well-established and early career researchers to discuss new advances in the NC and NCPs field, starting from the induction of the NC, and then moving on to migration and differentiation processes they undergo. The conference focused heavily on NCPs associated with each of these steps. The conference also included events, such as a round table to discuss the future of the NC research, plus a talk by a person living with an NCP. This 3-day conference aimed to bring together the past, present and future of this field to try and unravel the mysteries of this unique cell population.

How are early-career dementia researchers considered and supported on a national level by dementia plans and organizations? An overview of global policy approaches.

Despite representing an essential workforce, it is unclear how global policy efforts target early-career dementia researchers (ECDRs). Thus, this study aimed to provide an overview of policies through which ECDRs are considered and supported by dementia plans and organizations. G20 member states were evaluated for their national dementia plan alongside policies of leading dementia organizations. Data targeting support for ECDRs were extracted and subject to content analysis using inductive coding. Findings were categorized and narratively synthesized. Only China, Denmark, England, Greece, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Spain, and the United States mentioned ECDRs in their national plan. Additionally, 17 countries formalized ECDR support via dementia organizations. Support efforts included research funding, dissemination and networking, career development, and research advice. Few nations formally recognized ECDRs in dementia plans or through dementia organizations. To facilitate equal prospects for ECDRs, top-down approaches are urged to enhance and align their efforts. Few G20 countries (8/46) had national dementia plans for early-career researchers. Targeted support comes from government and nongovernmental dementia organizations. Support includes funding, training, advice, research dissemination, and networking. Inconsistent definitions and eligibility criteria are barriers to accessing support. Global coordination and top-down policy will aid early-career dementia researchers.

Evaluating a grant development public involvement funding scheme: a qualitative document analysis

BackgroundUndertaking Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) when developing health and social care research grant applications is critical. However, researchers may not have any funding to undertake PPI when developing grants. In response, the National Institute for Health and Care Research- Research Design Service for Yorkshire and the Humber in the United Kingdom, provided Public Involvement Fund Awards of up to £600 to fund PPI activity when researchers were developing grant applications. Researchers provided post-activity reports about how they utilised the Public Involvement Fund. These reports were analysed with the aim of evaluating the usefulness of the Public Involvement Fund and to provide learning about supporting researchers to undertake PPI when developing grants.MethodsThe project was a qualitative document analysis of 55 reports. Initially a researcher coded four reports and three Public Contributors provided feedback. Researchers coded the remaining reports and identified key findings. A workshop was held with the three Public Contributors to develop the findings.ResultsResearchers accessing the Public Involvement Fund award were generally early career researchers or clinicians who did not have other sources of funding for pre-grant PPI input. Researchers felt the award was useful in enabling them to conduct PPI, which strengthened their grant applications. Some researchers found that the award limit of £600 and guidance encouraging expenditure within three months, made it difficult to undertake PPI throughout the full grant development process. Instead, the majority of researchers consulted Public Contributors on one or two occasions. Researchers struggled to recruit diverse members or run group sessions due to the time pressures of grant deadlines. Researchers wanted training on undertaking PPI alongside the financial support.ConclusionsResearchers, especially early career researchers found having a Public Involvement Fund award instrumental in enabling them to undertake PPI when developing grant applications. It would be beneficial for similar schemes to be widely available. Schemes need to provide sufficient funding to enable meaningful PPI and allow researchers to hold the award for long enough to facilitate involvement during the whole grant development process. Researchers continue to need training on undertaking PPI.

Knowing/ unknowing: the breath between in poetry

ABSTRACT Debates about decolonising research have a tendency to be theoretical without much focus on the embodied and methodological engagements that are required to shift the colonial gaze that research continues to have. This article contributes to decolonial debates with a focus on positionality and research methods as they emerge in research relationships. It argues for poetry as a decolonising tool for scholars to do good work, through exploring the author’s experiences as a graduate student navigating the intersection of their age, racial and gendered social location with their early career research engagements. It presents poetry as a form that can facilitate reflexivity for a humanising, decolonial, more ethical and healthier research praxis for all involved.

ECR Spotlight – Emma Strand

ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Emma Strand is an author on ‘ Coral species-specific loss and physiological legacy effects are elicited by an extended marine heatwave’, published in JEB. Emma conducted the research described in this article while a PhD candidate in Dr Hollie Putnam's lab at University of Rhode Island, Kingston, USA. She is now a postdoctoral scientist in the lab of Tim O'Donnell at Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, Gloucester, MA, USA, investigating sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, focused on developing genomic tools to advance research-based sustainable management of marine environments, and climate change resilience, focused on investigating how marine organisms respond to rapidly changing environments.

ECR Spotlight – Agnès Lewden

ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Agnès Lewden is an author on ‘ Changes in body surface temperature reveal the thermal challenge associated with catastrophic moult in captive gentoo penguins’, published in JEB. Agnès is a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr Aude Leynaert and Dr Antoine Stier at IUEM – LEMAR – Technopole Brest Iroise, France, investigating captive and wild populations of penguins to understand core and body surface temperature variations in the function of physiological state and environmental parameters.

ECR Spotlight – Marjoriane de Amaral

ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Marjoriane de Amaral is an author on ‘ Gluconeogenesis in frogs during cooling and dehydration exposure: new insights into tissue plasticity of the gluconeogenic pathway dependent on abiotic factors’, published in JEB. Marjoriane is a PhD student in the lab of Luiz Carlos Kucharski at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, investigating metabolic and physiological adjustments of anurans during exposure to environmental stressors.

Facilitated Peer Group Mentoring for Underrepresented Biomedical Researchers: Facilitators' Experiences and Implications for Dissemination of a Curriculum.

Peer group mentoring facilitated by senior faculty represents an effective approach. However, for underrepresented biomedical researchers, access to senior faculty from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups is limited. We explored motivations, benefits, and challenges for facilitators enrolled to deploy an intervention in the context of a randomized controlled trial that tested two peer group mentoring strategies for underrepresented early career researchers. Peer group sessions were co-facilitated by two senior underrepresented faculty. Thirty-six faculty were recruited as facilitators over four years. The facilitators' primary motivation was advancing the diversity of the workforce, the primary benefit was satisfaction from helping underrepresented researchers, and the primary challenge was time. Understanding motivations, benefits, and challenges of facilitators informs efforts in recruiting and retaining facilitators and disseminating this curriculum and others like it, to the broader community.

Are we bridging the gap? A ten-year probe into NIH grants for early-career and independent investigators in oncology.

9010 Background: Ongoing gender disparities persist within National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, specifically evident in NIH R01 grants within Oncology. A crucial aspect of addressing this issue involves a comprehensive investigation of discrepancies between early-career and independent principal investigators (PI). Here we present a ten-year analysis of gender distribution of early career vs. independent grants in the NIH under the field of Oncology. Methods: We implemented an R script utilizing NIH rePORTER, tidyverse, and janitor libraries for data retrieval. This script defined fields for retrieval which looped over fiscal years 2012 to 2022. The script executed API requests with criteria that included fiscal years, activity codes, and search terms that are relevant to oncology to extract grants from NIH rePORTER. We defined the early-career grant category to encompass the top 3 most active NIH K and F grants (K01,K08,K23, F31,F32,F33). In contrast, the independent research grant category included the top 3 most active NIH R grants (R01,R21,R35). The gender library was used to predict the gender of each principal investigator (PI) based on their first name. Ggplot and gtsummary packages were employed for data visualization and statistical analysis, automatically selecting appropriate tests based on data type. Results: Over the fiscal years 2012 to 2022, a total of 44,545 active early-career grants were funded by the NIH. Females (n = 24,243: 54.4% [95% CI:53.7%,55.0%]) surpassed their male counterparts (n = 20,302: 45.6% [95% CI:44.9%, 46.3%]) by holding more active early-career research grants. From 2012 to 2022, there was a significant upward trend that was noted in active early-career grants funded to females (1,818 to 2,969, p < 0.01). Similarly, males exhibited a noteworthy increase in these grants when comparing 2012 to 2022 (1,780 to 1,986, p < 0.001). Despite both genders experiencing an uptrend in active early-career NIH grants, females demonstrated a 48.3% increase, while males experienced a more modest 11.5% increase. In comparison, a total of 236,804 active independent research NIH grants were disbursed in the NIH R category from 2012 to 2022. Females (78,439: 33.1% [95% CI:32.7%,33.4%]) had fewer active independent NIH research grants compared to males (158,365: 66.9% [95% CI:66.6%,67.1%]). Males observed a 6.4% increase in independent NIH grants, rising from 14,419 to 15,343, while females exhibited a notable 48% increase, expanding from 6,193 to 9,195, from 2012 to 2022. Conclusions: In the realm of oncology, gender disparities are not evident among early career investigators as there were 53.7% of early career grants funded to females over the decade. Conversely, females accounted for only 33.3% of independent research grants. These observations emphasize the importance for targeted interventions to foster equal opportunities within the field of Oncology.

A Bright Future for Electrodeposition

The Electrodeposition Division, which was founded in 1922 as the second ECS division, celebrated their centennial anniversary at the 242nd ECS Fall meeting in Atlanta. For the occasion, the division organized several sessions with invited contributions to honor the achievements of 100 years of electrodeposition, but also to take a closer look at the present trendsetters and give a perspective on future challenges and opportunities in this thriving field. Our then newly established Electrodeposition Early Career Forum (ECF, founded in Spring 2022) organized a full day symposium with contributions from outstanding early-career researchers involved in cutting-edge research across a broad range of areas of active electrodeposition research. It turned out to be a fantastic day with invigorating talks full of ideas. The ELDP division decided to share some of the excitement with the ECS community and asked our ECF members to suggest topics and participate in the articles for this summer edition of Interface dedicated to Electrochemical and Electroless deposition. Dr. Kent Zheng, assistant professor at the University of Texas and Dr. Martin Leimbach, postdoc at TU Ilmenau, Germany, took up the challenge. Together with us, humble guest editors, four articles have been selected centred around three important topics: (1) electrodeposition for manufacturing and sustainability, edited by Prof. Luca Magagnin; (2) electrodeposition for energy applications, edited by Prof. Natasa Vasiljevic; and (3) new electrodeposition approaches extending the material library, edited by Prof. Philippe Vereecken.

CREATE activities for early career researchers in 2024

CREATE activities for early career researchers in 2024

OpenLogos in the context of custom language models for the business sector: A historical perspective on the roots of natural language generation

In the framework of Multi3Generation COST Action (CA18231), we have provided the OpenLogos tools and resources to the community with the belief that (i) they can be beneficial to Early Research Career researchers and (ii) they can also assist startup companies with limited resources in initiating endeavors to create their Natural Language Generation, Machine Translation, Paraphrasing or other Natural Language Processing systems. In this article, we explore OpenLogos capabilities in an industry case scenario. We provide historical background on the proven importance of the Logos commercial system in shaping the documentation process of a multinational. Understanding the historical significance of Machine Translation is crucial for grasping our present position in Generative Language Models and our role in the domain of Generative Artificial Intelligence. We explore how novel Custom Generative Language Models, drawing inspiration from the Logos Model, can prove beneficial across various industries worldwide.

Navigating the science policy interface: a co-created mind-map to support early career research contributions to policy-relevant evidence

The interface between science and policy is a complex space, in theory and practice, that sees the interaction of various actors and perspectives coming together to enable policy-relevant evidence to support decision-making. Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are increasingly interested in working at the science-policy interface to support evidence-informed policy, with the number of opportunities to do so increasing at national and international levels. However, there are still many challenges limiting ECRs participation, not least how such a complex space can be accessed and navigated. While recommendations for engaging at the science-policy interface already exist, a practical ‘map’ of the science-policy interface landscape which would allow for ECR participation in evidence co-production and synthesis in science-policy is missing. With the purpose of facilitating the engagement of ECRs producing biodiversity and ecosystem services policy-relevant evidence at the interface between science and policy, the authors have co-created a ‘mind-map’—a tool to review the landscape of and leverage access to the science-policy interface. This tool was developed through reviewing published literature, collating personal experiences of the ECR authors, and validating against wider peer perspectives in an ECR workshop during the 7th Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This co-created tool sees ECR engagement in (co-)producing evidence at the science-policy interface as an interaction of three main factors: the environment of the ECR, which mediates their acts of engagement at the science-policy interface leading to outcomes that will ultimately have a reciprocal impact on the ECR’s environment.

Deploying fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis to identify and prioritize the barriers faced by early‐career social science researchers during research collaborations

AbstractResearch is about an individual's intellectual acumen and rationality, and inter‐researcher collaboration capability magnifies the outcomes. Despite common belief, there exist fundamental asymmetries in the goals, orientations and expectations among the research collaborators. Seldom studied in‐depth and empirically validated, the challenges and barriers faced by early‐career researchers (ECRs) in social sciences are crucial to understand. In this study, we aim to identify, categorize and rank the order of priority of the research collaboration barriers and their sub‐barriers. This analysis highlights which barrier is likely to impact the research collaboration outcome more as compared to other barriers, as seen through the pairwise comparison. We contribute to the literature on research collaborations by providing a much‐needed assessment of the barriers faced by ECRs in social sciences to develop a nuanced understanding of the dynamics within collaboration research. Key barriers identified and explored in this research relate to research design, interpersonal and interprofessional relationships, team‐level dynamics, spatial and temporal factors, cultural differences and institutional variables. The fuzzy AHP tool was used to prioritize and rank the barriers, check the consistency ratio and then perform the sensitivity analysis. Research design barriers emerged as the most challenging barrier to research collaborations, implying researchers place huge emphasis on the compatibility of research goals, objectives, paradigms and perspectives. The study provides insights for individuals/institutions leading and managing research collaborations into improving the collaborative dynamics in social sciences.

Five Key Strategies for Organizing Interdisciplinary Scientific Events to Strengthen Careers, Collaborations, and Creativity.

Science is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary; the widespread emergence of dedicated interdisciplinary journals, conferences, and graduate programs reflects this trend. Interdisciplinary scientific events are extremely valuable in that they offer opportunities for career advancement, especially among early career researchers, for collaboration beyond traditional disciplinary echo chambers, and for the creative generation of innovative solutions to longstanding scientific problems. However, organizing such events can pose unique challenges due to the intentionality required to meaningfully break down the barriers that separate long-independent disciplines. In this paper, we propose five key strategies for organizing and hosting interdisciplinary scientific events. The recommendations offered here apply both to small symposia aiming to contribute an interdisciplinary component to a larger event and to broad interdisciplinary conferences hosting hundreds or thousands of attendees.

Hands-On Neuroinformatics Education at the Crossroads of Online and In-Person: Lessons Learned from NeuroHackademy.

NeuroHackademy ( https://neurohackademy.org ) is a two-week event designed to train early-career neuroscience researchers in data science methods and their application to neuroimaging. The event seeks to bridge the big data skills gap by introducing participants to data science methods and skills that are often ignored in traditional curricula. Such skills are needed for the analysis and interpretation of the kinds of large and complex datasets that have become increasingly important to neuroimaging research due to concerted data collection efforts. In 2020, the event rapidly pivoted from an in-person event to an online event that included hundreds of participants from all over the world. This experience and those of the participants substantially changed our valuation of large online-accessible events. In subsequent events held in 2022 and 2023, we have developed a "hybrid" format that includes both online and in-person participants. We discuss the technical and sociotechnical elements of hybrid events and discuss some of the lessons we have learned while organizing them. We emphasize in particular the role that these events can play in creating a global and inclusive community of practice in the intersection of neuroimaging and data science.

Identity transitions, experiences, and agency: a collaborative autoethnography of Asian international TESOL doctoral students

ABSTRACT This research explored the identities and agency of Asian international TESOL doctoral students at a large Australian university, employing a sociocultural perspective and collaborative autoethnography with qualitative content analysis. The study revealed that these doctoral students navigated complex, co-evolving identities – including learner, early-career researcher, and academic – shaped by their prior professional and research experiences. It highlighted significant identity tensions influenced by the temporal dimensions of their experiences, where past and current identities, as well as imagined future selves, informed their academic decisions and coping strategies. This temporal interplay was conceptualised through Vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie, reflecting how personal and situational factors coalesced to impact their academic trajectories. A conceptual model, informed by these findings, illustrated how identity and agency were mediated by personal experiences and situationally catalysed tensions. This study highlighted identities as significant and formative episodes in the doctoral learning experience, offering insights into the challenges and developmental trajectories of international doctoral students. It further substantiates the value of a sociocultural perspective for understanding and supporting the academic and professional growth of this cohort.

Future of durum wheat research and breeding: Insights from early career researchers.

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) is globally cultivated for pasta, couscous, and bulgur production. With the changing climate and growing world population, the need to significantly increase durum production to meet the anticipated demand is paramount. This review summarizes recent advancements in durum research, encompassing the exploitation of existing and novel genetic diversity, exploration of potential new diversity sources, breeding for climate-resilient varieties, enhancements in production and management practices, and the utilization of modern technologies in breeding and cultivar development. In comparison to bread wheat (T. aestivum), the durum wheat community and production area are considerably smaller, often comprising many small-family farmers, notably in African and Asian countries. Public breeding programs such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) play a pivotal role in providing new and adapted cultivars for these small-scale growers. We spotlight the contributions of these and others in this review. Additionally, we offer our recommendations on key areas for the durum research community to explore in addressing the challenges posed by climate change while striving to enhance durum production and sustainability. As part of the Wheat Initiative, the Expert Working Group on Durum Wheat Genomics and Breeding recognizes the significance of collaborative efforts in advancing toward a shared objective. We hope the insights presented in this review stimulate future research and deliberations on the trajectory for durum wheat genomics and breeding.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in paleolimnology: insights from the 2022 IAL-IPA symposium

This report provides insights into ways that paleolimnology is becoming, and can continue to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive. Ideas presented here came during the organization, and in part, out of a special session held during the Joint Meeting of the International Association of Limnogeology (IAL) and the International Paleolimnology Association (IPA), conducted virtually (27–29 April 2022) and in-person, in Bariloche, Argentina (27 November to 1 December 2022). It was the first time in 55 years that the combined IAL-IPA meeting (held separately prior to 2018) hosted a special session to address issues beyond the value of scientific information in lake sediments. That session, “Beyond just research data: the value of outreach, education, equality, and inclusion around lakes,” included topics such as Third Mission activities, i.e., the economic and social missions of universities and how they contribute to the broader community. It also addressed challenges to diversifying our Earth Science community, which is still characterized by underrepresentation of women, especially at the highest academic levels, suffers from the “parenthood effect,” which affects both women and men, and often fails to adequately support dual-career couples, especially in Europe. Efforts to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) included: (1) a virtual IAL-IPA meeting for Early Career Researchers (ECRs), conducted months before the in-person conference in Argentina, (2) a special session on DEI challenges and values, (3) financial support for ECRs and attendees from low-income countries, (4) equitable ECR awards, (5) consideration of gender equity during plenary and oral presentations, (6) remote presentations, including both live and pre-recorded talks, (7) utilization of multiple communication platforms to disseminate information to conference participants, and organization of science-communication activities, and (8) pre- and post-conference courses and workshops. These efforts were supported by the local organizing committee and by the establishment of the first DEI Working Group. ECRs dominated the in-person Joint Meeting (200 of 300 attendees), which we view as an opportunity to promote changes in our discipline. We encourage members of our community to work collaboratively to shape diverse research groups and identify leaders who will promote more equitable and inclusive workplaces.