AAIC 2022 PIA Day - Getting to the root of career challenges

Earlier this year the ISTAART PIA to Elevate Early Career Researchers (PEERS) and University College London surveyed early career researchers (ECRs) from across the world, working in all areas of discovery, to seek their views on what life was life was like as a dementia researcher, and to ask what career challenges they face and what support they need.

To follow-up on the survey results PEERS led a small workshop at this year’s Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), titled “Getting to the heart of career challenges”. Working in small groups, attendees explored a career challenge that resonated to them, and used root cause analysis to try and understand why the problems existed, and go on to consider how they could be resolved and who might be involved.

In the film we see attendees from the workshop provide feedback:

• Dr Isabel Castanho from Harvard Medical School discussing career progression for postdocs.
• Audrey Keleman, Washington University School of Medicine & Veerle van Gils, Maastricht University explored challenges with work-life balance.
• Dr Michael J Kleiman, University of Miami shared their groups exploration of lack of resources for underrepresented populations.
• Lena Sannemann, University of Cologne discussed challenges with short-term contracts.
• Dr Bijayani Sahu, University of North Dakota provided feedback for their group who discussed arduous grant application processes.

As ever we would welcome any feedback on these or other career challenges and would like to thank everyone who attended and contributed to our workshop. We will use the results in planning our support for the coming year. Find the survey results at:

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Learn more about the new drugs coming to treat Alzheimer's Disea with this video podcast - "A Closer Look at Lecanemab, Donanemab and Amyloid"
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-