GuardIAS, among other Horizon Europe (HE) projects include Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and often recognises their contributions to large-scale initiatives in marine science and management alongside supporting their career development. This article provides a reflection the ECR group within the GuardIAS project, beside a wider cross-project network of ECRs.
What is an ECR?
ECRs are usually defined as a postgraduate student, postdoctoral researcher, or professional within five years of completing their doctoral studies, navigating the transitional phase toward independent researcher status (someone who can attract funding, or lead research). However, within the networks discussed here, we encourage self-identification as an ECR to ensure everyone who can benefit, does benefit.
What is the ECR network?
In broad terms, supporting early career professions has become recognised as an important mechanism for upskilling the next generation of project applicants and leaders. Yet, translating this broad commitment into tangible progress required dedicated channels. The initial HE ECR network was created four years ago between projects such as GES4SEAS, MarineSABRES, MarinePlan, and MARBEFES. From this, the group has evolved into a community that prioritises knowledge exchange and collaboration, and as such our activities were designed to be as practical as possible. Among the total 83 ECRs, the network included 23 ECR researchers from the GuardIAS and OneStop projects. Specifically, the ECR network within GuardIAS was created to build a network, provide support, and enhance career development for ECRs involved in the project.
What do we do?
As a starting point, we hold regular meetings that are a space for sharing ongoing research and providing a platform for peer feedback when members are available to join. This includes sessions where ECR members showcase their work and highlight research undertaken in other projects too. In past sessions, we were fortunate to have senior scientists join us and share their expertise, among the many sessions, some examples include Professor Mike Elliott’s workshop on publishing and reviewing, David Goldsbourgh’s insights on COST Actions, Professor Herman Hummell and Professor Mike Elliott’s session on grant and proposal writing, and discussion sessions in collaboration with ECRs from the MARBEFES project, where we spoke about career paths beyond academia and the realities of securing employment and navigating the transition after projects conclude.
Within GuardIAS, our internal ECR group meets bi-monthly to discuss project deliverables and explore opportunities, such as upcoming conferences, events, and training. To ensure that these sessions remain tailored to what serves ECRs, during the last consortium meeting we held a MentiMeter poll to check what initiatives would be useful as the project evolved. Key topics, such as academic collaborations, interdisciplinary synergies, paper writing tips, and specific topics such as social-ecological systems and invasive species management, were highlighted to explore in future sessions.
What can help ECRS?
In a recent collaboration, recognising that several HE projects are coming to an end in 2026/2027, the network created a cross-project policy brief to disseminate at the ECSA61 conference science-policy day on the 27th of August 2026 in Brussels. In this document, we aimed to present a collective perspective on what helps ECRs thrive within large-scale European initiatives. We highlighted the success stories from our experience in HE projects, as well as sharing recommendations to ensure that ECRs are upskilled through participation in HE projects.
The HE ECR Policy Brief
This brief underscored that ECRs add value to HE projects that complement the practical experience of more senior colleagues. However, ECRs still face some barriers, such as limited awareness of opportunities inside and outside academia, the precariousness of short-term, project-based contracts and the impact on publishing opportunities and project impact.
One lesson the brief highlighted is that the most impactful support does not necessarily require large budgets; for instance, dedicating time for ECRs at consortium meetings or ensuring we are actively involved in project outputs can make a difference in their professional growth. We also included this cross-project group as a success story as we thought it was well placed to coordinate capacity building sessions, reducing per-project cost and broadening participation. Our take home messages were:
- Reframe ECRs as a source of expertise and skills, not solely a junior contribution.
- Collaborative ECR networks provide essential peer-to-peer support and opportunities.
- Include, and assess the quality of, ECR capacity building in project grant proposals.
- Continuous support for ECRs throughout entire project lifespans can establish pathways to researcher independence and upskill the next generation of HE grant applicants.
The complete ECR recommendations can be found here: Supporting ECRs in Horizon Europe
What does the future of the ECR network look like?
The GuardIAS network and the wider HE ECR community plan to evolve alongside the changing needs of their members as the project(s) progresses. Specifically, within GuardIAS, we are planning more capacity-building initiatives, such as a mentoring forum, a ‘journal club’, and training that covers topics such as transdisciplinary and transferrable skills, advanced technical tools, data management and open science, grant writing, and science communication.
Written by Gemma Smith, International Estuarine and Coastal Specialists Ltd.
