U21 Early Career Researcher (ECR) Workshop
The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is pleased to announce this limited opportunity which arises as part of our membership in Universitas 21 (U21), a leading international group of research-intensive universities (see: https://universitas21.com). Limited participation workshops allow only a select number of nominated researchers from each institution. In order to determine which researchers will be nominated as the official participants from UConn/UConn Health, an OVPR internal competition may be necessary (full process is described at our website).
All researchers who wish to be considered for this opportunity must submit a notification of interest (NOI) through the UConn Quest Portal (https://quest.uconn.edu/prog/U21) by December 1. Researchers must be selected and approved by the OVPR to be nominated for participation in this Workshop. If the number of interested and eligible ECRs exceeds the number of places available (5), then those who submit an NOI will be contacted and asked to provide a statement of interest and eligibility together with a full current resume by December 10 (guidelines for documents TBA). These materials would then be used to select the 5 nominees for participation in the Workshop.
Please contact Dr. Matt Mroz (matthew.mroz@uconn.edu) with questions about the submission process. Please contact Dr. Mark Aindow (m.aindow@uconn.edu) with any questions about this workshop, the selection criteria, or Universitas 21.
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U21 Early Career Researcher Workshop on Planetary Health
February 21-25, 2022
Online, in partnership with University of Edinburgh
What is this workshop about?
The aim of this online workshop is to strengthen participants’ understanding of, and ability to act upon these challenges through research collaboration across disciplinary and international boundaries.
As universities we can work together to develop transformative strategies to deliver to the Sustainable Development Goals. The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis underpin the importance of health (SDG 3) and climate (SDG 13), and how the drivers and the impacts of these are shaping many of the other goals including education, life on land, food security, education and economy. One system that draws together this interconnectedness of human health with the health of the biosphere, and the economy is Planetary Health. Planetary Health examines how the impact of human behaviour has disrupted the earth's natural systems and created the crises that we are now experiencing. It challenges us to urgently act in new interdisciplinary collaborative ways to bring about change.
Who can attend?
This workshop will bring together an interdisciplinary and international ECR community spanning the full range of Planetary Health topics.
Early career academics from all disciplines are welcome to join. They should have been awarded their PhD within the last 8 years; this definition is flexible with each university having the discretion to nominate ECRs who fall outside this definition, due to an atypical career path, including those who have:
- started the research-intensive component of their career later
- had career breaks
- spent time in industry
Each U21 member university may nominate up to 5 researchers to attend the workshop (plus 2 additional reserves). The cost of attending the workshop is covered by U21.
What will they gain by attending?
Participants will gain:
- A network of peer researchers across the Universitas 21 global network of leading universities.
- The opportunity to hone a variety of multidisciplinary and collaborative research skills.
- An understanding of how to map the contribution that their research makes towards planetary health related SDGs – and the potential pathways to impact that connect research with change in policy and practice.
- A chance to have fun through a series of online social events!
What will happen at the workshop?
Due to uncertainties surrounding global travel and the C-19 pandemic, the 2022 ECR Workshop will take place online. We aim to deliver live, asynchronous and recorded activities across a range of time zones that will allow participants to select activities that work for them including:
- Research skills workshops
- Workshops on teaching on the planetary health research agenda
- Thematic seminars for participants to present their research
- Co-creative activities for participants to grapple with planetary health challenges together
- ‘Meet the expert’ sessions with people from industry, policy makers and communities who use evidence to improve and protect planetary health
- Keynote talks with leading scholars
Can you tell me more about planetary health?
There is no doubt that our global environment is changing – from the hottest years on record, to the worldwide decline in pollinator numbers, to the global collapse of fisheries, and to our use of around half of the planet's habitable surface to feed ourselves.
We are faced not only with climate change, but also with declining biodiversity, shortages of arable land and freshwater, pollution, and changing biogeochemical flows. We are dramatically affecting our global food production system, the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink, our exposure to infectious diseases, and even the habitability of the places where we live. Changes to natural life support systems are already impacting our health and are projected to drive the majority of the global burden of disease over the coming century, hitting today’s most vulnerable and future generations the hardest.
Understanding and acting upon these challenges calls for massive collaboration across disciplinary and national boundaries to safeguard our health.
Learn more at the Planetary Health Alliance website.
For more information, contact: Matthew Mroz at research@uconn.edu