ECRS accelerating innovation and collaboration at CURE-ND 2024 in Bonn
After two very successful events in London (2022) and Leuven (2023), the third annual CURE-ND workshop for early career researchers (ECRs) took place in Bonn from the 18th to the 20th of March 2024. This workshop is an exciting networking platform organized by young graduate volunteers of the top European research institutes – DZNE (Germany), Paris Brain Institute (France), Mission Lucidity (Belgium), and the UK DRI.
Organizing this event was an unparalleled journey that provided us with invaluable insights into the intricacies of university bureaucracy, science policy, project coordination and the nuances of intercultural communication.
With over 110 participants, ECRs from across the four institutions came together to discuss and share ideas, as an excellent opportunity to network and engage, in the joint effort to accelerate the pace of scientific advancement of the field of neurodegenerative diseases. Prof. Dr. Monique Breteler from DZNE Bonn opened the event with a fantastic keynote speech on the topic of “Population research into healthy and unhealthy brain ageing”.
One of the key points of the workshop was that all participants get the chance to present their work, in the form of a scientific poster, a rapid 2-minute flash talk or a scientific presentation. The event featured a poster session with more than 80 posters, 12 flash talks and 23 scientific presentations organized into 6 different panels, showcasing the diverse research topics of the four participating institutes. During the sessions, participants were able to network and share their innovative research projects with each other, exchanging ideas on their topics as well as methodological questions, opening opportunities for new collaborations.
Beyond scientific exchange, career orientation was also part of the program, providing a unique opportunity for young scientists to get a glimpse into different career paths in academia as well as in industry through the professional journey of 7 invited speakers. Additionally, the conference offered mental health workshops, which provided a great opportunity to learn more about mindfulness, resilience and stress-coping techniques to strengthen mental health as useful tools for all careers. The workshop was concluded in a guided tour of the fascinating infrastructure and architecture of the DZNE headquarter building in Bonn, which left all participants astonished.
The prize for the best poster was awarded to Arabella Bouzigues (ICM) and Helena Balabin (ML) won the award for the best ECR talk. Congratulations!
When asked about their personal highlight of the conference both stated without hesitation the poster session because of the opportunity to freely interact with everyone on a one-to-one basis, to learn about new topics even without prior background knowledge, to find peers working on similar projects as well as to get to know about all ongoing research in the other institutes.
The CURE-ND workshop is the perfect playground to present your research in front of kind and understanding peers (…) which is an ideal step stone to prepare you for future conferences.
My personal highlight was the poster session, though I might be a bit biased :)
We hope to maintain and further strengthen this great collaborative effort by reconvening in spring 2025 in Paris!
(Text: Marlene Aßfalg and Virág Kocsis-Jutka; photos: DZNE-Benjamin Westhoff)