Mission and values

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Our Mission

We promote grassroots advocacy among junior researchers according to our mission, to enable us to speak as a voice of junior researchers. We also seek to empower junior researchers by collecting data about academia and scientific training and making the data available to help them make rational decisions when figuring out how best to use their passion for science to benefit society.

our values

PEOPLE FOCUSED

We value the next generation of researchers, and believe investing in people ultimately yields better, more sustainable, and more responsible science.

CAPACITY BUILDING

Our projects provide ECR directors and volunteers with the opportunity to develop leadership skills required both within and outside of academic research environments

COMMUNTY

We continuously engage in dialogue with the early career researcher community to prioritize advocating for that community’s needs.

Evidence based

We collect and use data to highlight and challenge aspects of the academic training enterprise in need of change.

Equity & INclusion

We work to actively include and respect every member of the research community and aim to create safe spaces for people to engage and challenge academic science training to become fully inclusive.

Responsibility

While we strive to empower early career researchers who wish to engage in advocacy for better training, we likewise challenge those in power to be responsible for their share of the emotional and intellectual labor required to bring about needed change.

Wellbeing

We lead by example, engaging and creating structures within our own organization that prioritize the mental health and well-being of our volunteers, board members, and constituents

Sustainability

We believe the academic training system is in need of restructuring, optimizing, and updating to pedagogic, social justice, and sustainable standards of best practice to ensure sustainable funding of a diverse workforce.

Experience centered

Our data collection and advocacy is grounded in the stories and experiences of the early career researcher community. 

Grassroots

We believe that large cultural and systemic change is possible when driven by grassroots advocacy and engagement.

Our history

We started as a group of early career researchers in the Boston area, invested in improving the scientific endeavor. We held a postdoc-organized two day event in the Fall of 2014 in Boston University, consisting of talks and panel discussions on issues affecting the future of science, as well as breakout sessions to allow attendees to participate in workshops. The goal of each workshop was to elucidate a majority opinion on which challenges were most important to address, and to develop recommendations for moving toward an equitable, sustainable research enterprise.

The outcomes of the interactive workshops were presented in an F1000Research paper and numerous editorials and commentaries as well as a poster. A guide to how we organized the symposium, and how future groups could do so, was also published. From these early beginnings we are now contributing many products, please find them here.

Groups around the country, in New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chicago organized their own symposia throughout 2015 as well as a second meeting in Boston. As the conversation grew, representatives from the various groups came together to form a national non-profit organization to continue our work and foster the interactions of junior scientists with the larger community to advocate for change. Most recently, we awarded a grant by the Open Philanthropy Project to begin full-time operations.

What we’ve Accomplished