FoRLeads: Expanding Leadership roles for Early Career Researchers #FORLeads

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Get Early Career Researchers a Seat at the Table!

Background and symposium goals

Future of Research, a nationwide grassroots advocacy group comprised of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) including graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, industry scientists and junior faculty is hosting a 1-and-a-half day symposium focused on training ECRs to develop skills to self-advocate for their training and career development needs.  The goal of this symposium is to promote the inclusion of early career scientists in leadership positions to ensure their representation during decision-making conversations that affect the future of the scientific enterprise.

Conversations about getting ECR advocates a seat at the table are important for giving the early career population a voice in science, in particular as they are the most diverse population within academia in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. There are greater barriers faced by members of underrepresented groups in the struggle to be heard by those in positions of power. Recognizing this fact, we seek to include a diverse and inclusive representation of race, ethnicity, disability status, gender identity and sexual orientation in our invitation/selection of meeting speakers and participants. The efforts taken to make sure that our organization is diverse and inclusive, and can speak to as much of the community as possible, are central also to our efforts in preparing symposia.

      Participants at the 2016 “Advocating for Science” Symposium in Boston. Photo by Alina Chan

Symposium format

This symposium, hosted at Boston University on November 17-18 will bring together speakers from diverse academic and institutional backgrounds to mentor local researchers and to share lessons learned.

Keynote speaker: Nick Shockey, Director of Programs & Engagement at SPARC.

Panel discussion: The panel discussion features panelists who will speak about their experience in facilitating the creation of leadership roles for ECRs, as well as those who have successfully assumed a leadership position while an Early Career Researcher. These include Tracey DePellegrin, Executive Director of the Genetics Society of America; Moshe Pritsker, CEO, Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE); Keerthi Sheety, AAAS Hellman Fellow in Science and Technology Policy; Juan Pablo Ruiz, graduate student at the University of Oxford; and Sarah Dykstra, Boston Postdoctoral Association Organizer.

Registration

Location and Schedule