The COVID-19 pandemic has been highly disruptive to scientific research, with a range of impacts on early career researchers and their career prospects. Various YAE members have voiced their frustration around the particular challenges they are facing – from conducting research to securing funding or building a curriculum vitae for instance – and saw value in having a forum for discussing these challenges, sharing experiences, and assembling coping strategies.

On 5 May at 13:00-14:30 CET YAE will host an online workshop to discuss the challenges of the pandemic for early career researchers and share coping strategies. The workshop will be hosted as a virtual event for YAE members on Gathertown. All participants will create avatars that can move around a virtual world and interact. The event will begin with a short plenary talk about the findings of the YAE survey on working during the pandemic, before moving into group discussions.

The workshop will cover following four themes:

  • Research groups at distance
  • Work-life balance during the pandemic
  • Research delays and career progression
  • The challenges of online conferences/webinars and networking