In the MUST Early Career Researcher meetings, people studying multispecies transition share academic experiences and offer inspiration and ideas for others. These discussions help us to carry out a multispecies transition together.

Collaboration, peer review, and peer support are essential dimensions of academia. However, sometimes these things are pushed aside while building academic careers with more publications and competing for scarce academic positions and grants. The career-building pressures in addition to mixed feelings stemming from ongoing ecosocial crises can result in negative feelings and difficulties for early career researchers.

Luckily, we can try to make the circumstances more bearable in academia. Recent studies have shown that online coffees for early career researchers can create a sense of community and belonging including beneficial outcomes in terms of professional growth and well-being (Holubek & Juusola, 2024). Further, co-learning and co-authorship are key features in impactful, rigorous, and sustainable research practices. We at the MUST project want to provide these possibilities for early career researchers and to do our share of building community and supporting them at the beginning of the demanding academic journey.

In early September 2024, we arranged the first open-for-all online meeting for MUST Early Career Researchers (ECR). In the MUST ECR meetings, participants share their experiences, uncertainties, and challenges. They also offer inspiration and ideas for other multispecies transition researchers.

We meet online with the network bi-monthly on the second Tuesday of the month. If you would like to join the growing MUST ECR network and our meetings, contact Postdoctoral Researcher Valtteri Aaltonen: valtteri.aaltonen@helsinki.fi.

Upcoming MUST ECR meetings:

  • 12th Nov 2024
  • 14th Jan 2025
  • 11th March 2025
  • 13th May 2025

Welcome to join the movement for a multispecies transition!

Text: Valtteri Aaltonen, University of Helsinki

Picture: Pauliina Rautio

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