Strasbourg: 24 January 2022
Member States should take action to support young researchers
ISE supports Jean-Pierre Bourguignon’s appeal to the French Presidency of the European Union to organise a conference about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young researchers.
In an Opinion initially published in November by the French news agency AEF info (LINK), the former president of the European Research Council called for a major initiative by the European Union to “prevent wrecking the next generation of researchers”.
In a general context where young researchers, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows have been increasingly affected by job precarity, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a severe blow to many, slowing or stopping altogether their research for months and hindering their access to the positions they deserve.
Hence, it is very urgent to organize a conference and find solutions to deal with the consequences of the pandemic on the careers of young researchers based on a proper and thorough impact assessment.
The future of our most brilliant young minds, and therefore of European research, is at stake. We ask the Competitiveness Ministers (research) of Member States, who are meeting in Paris on January 24 and 25 2022 under the presidency of the French Research Minister Frédérique Vidal, to discuss this issue and take immediate action to support young researchers whose careers have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor Martin Andler
President of the Initiative for Science in Europe
martin.andler@initiative-se.eu
About ISE
ISE represents major European Learned Societies and Research Organisations in Europe operating within different disciplines and across sectors. Active in the policy debate at the European level, ISE has been instrumental in promoting disruptive excellence-based funding programmes for scientific research such as the ERC.
Website: https://initiative-se.eu; Twitter: @ISE_news