The first CURE-ND workshop for early career researchers (ECRs) took place in London on 25-27 May 2022. This was the first event of its kind organized by the joint ECR committee of the alliance institute members: German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE; Germany), Paris Brain Institute (ICM; France), Mission Lucidity (ML; Belgium), and UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI; United Kingdom) with help from UK DRI HQ.

The aim of the meeting was to give ERCs an opportunity to share their work as talks or poster sessions in the context of an international conference. In total, the meeting featured 15 ECR talks and 44 poster presentations. The CURE-ND ECR committee also awarded two prizes, one for the best talk (awarded to Marijne Vandebergh, Mission Lucidity) and one for the best poster (awarded to Gerard Crowley, UK DRI). The keynote was delivered by Sir John Hardy (UK DRI at UCL).

For Mission Lucidity alone, 15 PhD students and postdocs joined, representing our flagship projects and four founding partners (imec, KU Leuven, UZ Leuven and VIB).

The ECR workshop also included non-scientific talks focusing on career development and mental health for scientists, which were positively received. In a hands-on group activity, ECRs from the different Institutes got together to discuss ideas related to cellular mechanisms, diagnosis, prevention, or treatment.

In a feedback survey after the event, all respondents rated the overall workshop as ‘satisfactory’ or ‘very satisfactory’. They praised the informal and relaxed atmosphere, the valuable opportunity for international networking and the useful feedback they received on their research. Nearly all respondents indicated that they would attend another CURE-ND ECR event in the future, so we are considering to make this a yearly CURE-ND tradition. To be continued!