Exploring the diversity of research careers with EU-LIFE scientists
The EU-LIFE Career Track Webinar series was launched at the beginning of the year with the aim to help early-career researchers make informed decisions about the different career pathways that are available to them. With over 500 participants in the 7 webinars held this year, the initiative has proved to address a real need for detailed information and open discussions about the large variety of job opportunities offered to scientists and the significant contributions they can make in those fields.
These sessions are organised by the EU-LIFE Recruitment & Training Working Group (R&T WG) and are the result of a joint effort to give researchers in the EU-LIFE community access to experts from all over Europe who are willing to talk about their experiences and to offer advice. The webinars have already covered career paths in industry, entrepreneurship, science policy, publishing, tech transfer and consulting.
“I think these seminars show very well that even though career paths and titles are very similar across Europe, there are often regional and local differences in many aspects of the same job – from flexibility and working from home to the general workload. In my opinion, this is one of the major advantages of opening these talks to members of EU-LIFE institutes, since these differences are first becoming visible through their questions. The seminars bring value to early-career researchers not only by exposing them to diverse career paths, but also by providing them with first-hand knowledge on working in a specific country. Many of our early-career researchers will move on after completing their PhD or postdoc, and this is a good way to prepare them for next step in their (likely international) career,” said Irina Reichert, member of the R&T WG and PhD Programme Coordinator at BRIC.
One of the keys for the success of the series is the variety and quality of the invited speakers, which so far have included:
- Esther Kur, Pattern Attorney at Zwicker Schnappauf & Partner Patentanwälte PartG mbB (MDC Alumna)
- David Pina, Head of Sector - Administration & Finance at the European Research Executive Agency (Institut Curie Alumnus)
- Jessica Thompson, Associate Editor at Springer Nature Group (IGC Alumna)
- Kornelia Mikuła, Head of the Technology Transfer Office at IIMCB
- Lea Duwe, Management Consultant at Implement Consulting Group (BRIC Alumna)
- Krzysztof Piotrowski, Management Consultant at Devote Consulting Group (BRIC Alumnus)
- Estefania Mancini, Bioinformatic consultant (CRG Alumna)
- Aleksandra Brajic, Manager - Oncology Discovery at Johnson & Jonhson Innovative Medicine
- Melvin Rincon, Preclinical Gene Therapy Lead at UCB (VIB Alumnus)
The R&T WG plans to continue the webinars in the future, giving room to topics like science communication, public outreach or project management. The EU-LIFE Career Track Webinars are open to all members of staff of EU-LIFE institutes.
