Early Career Researchers Workshop

After a successful workshop last year, Informatics Europe organised once again the "Professional Development Workshop for Early Career Researchers" which was held on Monday, 24 October, from 11:15 to 18:00 The goal of the workshop, organised by Dick Bultermann, CWI / Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Sanaz Mostaghim, Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, was to support early career researchers (PhD students and Postdocs) in the development of their soft skills related to presentation abilities, networking, developing a research plan, and connections to industry.

The workshop consisted of the following components:

A series of invited talks from industry and academic research leaders, who discussed career alternatives for early career researchers. Speakers included
- Patricia Lago, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Jean-Marc Jézéquel, IRISA, France
- Sebastian Gerling, CDO University of Hamburg, Germany
- Gabriel Orsini, Otto GmbH & Co KG, Germany
- Ante Vilenica, Justice department of Hamburg, Germany

The talks helped participants better understand some typical career paths for informatics researchers in various academic/public research/commercial sectors. It also included a panel-based Q&A session. After the talks, we interactively defined a number of break-out group topics for discussion in smaller groups.

A breakout session on the future of informatics researchers’ development and employment, wherein topics from the morning were discussed. Potential topics could be:
- Career development opportunities across Europe;
- Match between researchers’ career ambitions and those opportunities;
- A SWOT analysis of opportunities in academia and industry (large and small).

Each group shared its findings at the end of the session. This provided a unique chance to help define the expectations of how talents can be attracted and deployed along the career path.

An employer feedback panel, wherein the morning’s academic and industry leaders got a chance to comment and reacted to the results of the breakout groups.
A poster session, as part of the ECSS welcome reception, wherein early career researchers were able to talk about their work with other attendees of ECSS.

Travel Grants

A limited number of travel grants, with a value of up to 150 EUR each, were available for Early Career Researchers willing to participate at the ECSS 2022, in its totality (24-26 October) or just at the Early Career Researchers Workshop (24 October). Persons who submitted their statements for the poster session had priority in receiving funding support. Learn more about the travel grants here.

Workshop Highlights

Here are the highlights of the five keynote speakers from academia and industry, who shared with us some typical career paths for informatics researchers in various sectors:

Patricia Lago (VU Amsterdam, NL) gave a comprehensive overview talk on the stages of professional development within the traditional academic career path. She spoke on the various global areas that needed attention (teaching, research, management), and shared her insights on where the focus of a person’s attention should be as they progress through the academic system. The bottom line was: yes, papers count heavily, but they are only part of the picture. [Slides]
Sebastian Gerling (University of Hamburg, DE) discussed the challenges of working in infrastructure-related academic positions, The focus here was less on short-term research projects and more on enabling the long-term research objective of the organization. There were a wide range of career opportunities available – either full- or part-time – that could help make systems-related research more aware of the needs of the marketplace. By combining theory with practice, junior researchers could grow in their understanding of where technology fails, where it needs to be enhanced, and how organizations can stay ahead of the infrastructure curve for their researchers. [Slides]
Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IRISA-Rennes, FR) gave a more personal overview of the career choices he had made as a researcher in the telecom sector. With a career in commercial, military and academic organizations, he discussed the feelings that a young researcher had in larger organizations. Being an expert in a sub-discipline does not always provide the stimulation desired in a career if you have no peers around you. He also discussed the career paths within research institutes and the relative advantages/disadvantages over work at a university. Institutes often provide broad research freedom and the ability to focus completely on scientific problems, but this comes at the cost of being fully responsible for project funding and attracting colleagues. Here the bottom line was that the freedom of work in a research institute is exceptionally attractive, but sometimes having students who can work along on projects (at all levels) is pretty useful as well.
Ante Vilenica (Justice Department Hamburg, DE) provided the audience with an insight into career opportunities in the public sector, where societal problems (and societal constraints) provide a wealth of opportunities for personal and professional development. His focus was on supporting the Justice system, where the pace of integration of technical change can be slow, although the impact can be equally high. He discussed the challenges of rolling out projects at scale, with high impact and little room for error. He also discussed the needs that society has for attracting highly talented researchers to help in the transition to a more digital society. [Slides]
Gabriel Orsini (Otto, DE) outlined the challenges and opportunities of applied research within the commercial sector. He outlined how large organizations work and how scientists can help complex organizations navigate through an even more complex commercial world. He explained the pros and cons of working in hybrid teams, where interesting research challenges needed to be weighed against concrete commercial goals. [Slides]

Facilitated by Dick Bultermann (CWI/VU Amsterdam, NL), the workshop continued with a presentation of several participants answering the question “what are today’s researchers expecting to find when they enter the employment world?”. Room for personal development, access to people and a diverse working environment, the opportunity to visit peers elsewhere, and the ability to combine personal and professional growth are all important topics highlighted by participants. The workshop concluded with the keynote speakers’ reactions to these expectations.

Later that evening, several workshop participants were able to present posters on their research work at the ECSS opening reception.