ECCO – A new initiative to support early-career researchers in the complement field

Lisätietoja

Funding Information:
The complement field has always been perceptive to the needs and challenges of ECRs. This is demonstrated by the different arrangements by the ECN and ICS to support ECRs, such as the teaching day during the European Meeting on Complement in Health and Disease as well as the International Complement Workshop. Other initiatives include the travel grants for ECRs and the Training Award as well as the Early Career Award. So then why is there a need for an ECRs task force? Because such an initiative will give ECRs a chance to share their perspective with policymakers, which can be used as a guideline to create better support networks and research systems that cultivate and retain talent. Moreover, a task force would encourage ECRs to analyze the obstacles in their career path and to actively participate in order to find support and solutions. Furthermore, ECRs represent a significant portion of the complement field. In accordance, during the last five International Complement Workshops, between 27 % and 35 % of attendees were ECRs ( Fig. 1 ).

Funding Information:
The authors thank Diana Pauly for her contribution to the start of an early-career complementologists network, and Martin P. Reichhardt as well as Nikolaj Kirketerp-M?ller for their contributions to the establishment of ECCO. Furthermore, the authors thank the ECN and ICS for their support.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021