About the network

What is the ECR Developmental Network?

The Network was set up in 2020 in response to the sudden loss of opportunities that Early Career Researchers (ECRs) within Developmental Psychology faced - whether that be presenting their work, networking, or skills training. Although the pandemic may have been the trigger for this, there were already barriers to accessing these opportunities for ECRs, and we hope that the Network will support ECRs along their academic journey into the future. Importantly, the Network is created by ECRs for ECRs, and is a freely available, dedicated space and community in which we can all learn from each other. Please read on for more information about the vision for the Network, as well as how you can get involved!

Mission Statement

The Network was created for anyone identifying as an ECR, whether they are a PhD student, postdoc, or lecturer, within the field of Developmental Psychology. We hope that the Network will be a community in which ECRs feel comfortable and supported by their peers.

The aims of the ECR Developmental Network are to:

• Provide a platform where ECRs can present their work/ideas and receive feedback and discussion from other ECRs

• Provide a space where ECRs can network and connect with other ECRs within developmental psychology

• Support ECRs to develop important skills and experience (through both the delivering and/or attending toolkit sessions, run by ECRs for ECRs)

Existing and future plans

Following our first online event in December 2020, members of the ECR community helped us to generate lots of ideas for ways that the Network could begin to facilitate opportunities for ECRs. As a starting point whilst we grow the Network, we have plans for the following:

Seminar Series

We plan to launch a seminar series, giving ECRs the opportunity to present their work to their peers. This will be a great opportunity to develop presentation skills in a comfortable and respectful environment. Each seminar session will be an hour long, featuring two talks. ECRs can request an opportunity to present at a seminar session via our website. We are keen to give everyone a chance to present but will ask for the ECR to submit a rough abstract so that we can schedule them in. Please sign up to give a talk!

Toolkit Series

The aim of the toolkit series is to provide free training opportunities in key academic areas, such as publishing papers, peer-reviewing, programming, statistics training, or anything else ECRs suggest! We are keen for these toolkit sessions to be run by ECRs to also give them experience in delivering training (a great addition to your CV!). If you are interested in delivering a toolkit session, please complete the expression of interest form.

Peer Mentoring

Mentoring is a great way to connect with others in the field and learn from one another. We aim to launch a peer mentoring scheme whereby ECRs will be matched with one another based on their goals and experience. The idea is to recognise that we all have skills that someone else can learn from - you don’t need to be a senior academic to be a mentor! We are still developing the logistics of the scheme, but we encourage you to complete the expression of interest form - we would love to hear from you and find out what you are looking for from a mentor partner.