The ECR Network is led by Dr Rianne Haartsen and a committee of members working hard to meet the needs of our members.
Meet the ECR Committee.
Our Early Career Researcher Network spans Research Assistants, PhD students and postdocs from different disciplines and Universities, to train the next generation of researchers in multi-disciplinary aspects of Neurotechnology. The Early Career Researchers committee aims to support early career researchers in their career and skill development by listening to their needs and organising events to meet those needs. With a growing membership of over 100 members and with an international reach these are exciting times.
The ECR Network organises:
- Training workshops (virtual and in-person)
- Peer-to-peer and on 1-2-1 cross-discipline and cross-sector mentorship programmes
- Cross-sector secondments and study visits
- One autumn retreat that meet the expressed interest of it’s members (due in Autumn 2024)
A survey sent out at the beginning of the network revealed that early career researchers are eager to engage in mentorships. The committee have successfully set up the two rounds of 1-2-1 mentorships and small peer mentorship groups. Setting up these mentorships is done on a periodical basis where members are invited to sign up. For more information follow this link
Seeking Mentors:
We are currently setting up our third round of 1-2-1 mentorship matches. These are yearly contracts and have been very popular. Due to the high demand of 1-2-1 mentorships and to ensure the best mentorship matches are found which are mutually beneficial we are always seeking new mentors to join the potential pool of people.
If you would like to offer to be a MENTOR and join this list please follow this link.
Lab Visits:
The ECR network have had two very successful lab visits to date, one at Birkbeck at the Toddler Lab, University College London and another at King’s College London. See Rianne’s article on the recent KCL lab visit here
Public Engagement Workshop:
On the 25th April 2024 Dr Nick Puts lead an insightful and engaging interactive workshop online to help ECR’s improve their confidence wit presentation and public speaking. Lots and lots of insightful tips were shared. See here for Eirini’s review of the day.
Grant Writing Webinar
On the 26th November 2024 were we honoured to have Sir Professor Jan Buitelaar run a fantastic online webinar on the process of writing personal and consortium grants. No stone was unturned as he covered all aspects to consider to help write a strong grant proposal. For a summary and overview of the event read Dr Ottavia Ollari’s blog. Recordings of this session are available on the membership login page.
Up and Coming Events for the ECR Network:
A new set of events have been organised for March 2025. Please check our news section of this website.
We are open to any suggestions and ideas on how we can support early career researchers. Please email the ECR Committee directly ecr.r4n@kcl.ac.uk
To join the the Network and become an ECR member click here to join & choose your preferences.
If you are already a R4N member and would like to join the ECR Network please email the network directly r4n@kcl.ac.uk and copy in ecr.r4n@kcl.ac.uk