(she/her), Dharug Country
(they/them), Wurundjeri Country
Science Pathways is a premier professional development conference established and run by the EMCR Forum. It is organised by EMCRs, for EMCRs, with the goal of empowering the future workforce of the Australian STEMM sector. In 2021, we selected “Sustainable Careers” as our key theme, considering sustainability from a number of angles that especially impact the EMCR community. EMCRs face unique challenges – that were heightened over the past two years – in terms of job insecurity, the funding climate, changing ways of working, additional carer responsibilities and mental health challenges, and we aimed for Science Pathways 2021 (SP21) to address, explore and advocate for improvement to these challenges.
In planning SP21, we reflected on the fact that EMCRs do not always have the luxury to take career pauses or break without consequences, even in the context of a global pandemic. It is in that spirit that the EMCR Forum wanted to champion and share the resilience and dedication EMCRs bring to everything they do. With that in mind, we endeavoured to put together a substantial program that would equip and empower EMCRs to tackle the challenges we face as a sector, and we consequently designed the format to maximise the ability of EMCRs to be part of the conversation and minimise the impact of physical location where possible.
What did this mean in practice for the design of SP21 in comparison to previous Science Pathways? In light of outcomes from the Future of Meetings (TFOM) community, we adopted a mixed-mode model of attendance: SP21 would include a hybrid launch day, in-person workshops and online-only panels/workshops/events. We opted to keep an in-person component to SP21 based on the identified needs within the community to gain value from in-person interaction and networking, but recognising the potential exclusiveness of any in-person components, we ensured there were similar opportunities in online contexts. We also worked with the Academy to maximise accessibility, inclusivity and diversity in SP21, including making accessibility grants available to all attendees in order to support equitable attendance.
With the exception of in-person workshops, chosen with the remit of being better suited to the format, we treated everything in a digital-first way as much as possible – meaning that the true “venue” for SP21 was online rather than tied to a single physical location. We had our technical lead present in person at the hybrid launch but attending online in a separate room, to ensure there would be a quick reaction to any issues facing those attending remotely. Our online platform (Whova, in this case) served as a location-agnostic location to ask questions, discuss and connect with other attendees over the course of all SP21 events from 25th November to 10th December (and beyond).
When it came to designing the program content for SP21, this was a joint effort of the entire EMCR Forum executive to ensure we were addressing a wide range of issues and topics under the banner of “Sustainable Careers”, while also making sure to highlight diverse perspectives from across Australia and globally. Our program featured 38 speakers across the 5 days of events, and covered topics including non-academic career pathways, intersectionality, international research and collaborations, success in academia, the future of STEMM, science communication, volatility and adaptation in the university landscape and positive mental health.
As always, Science Pathways would not be possible without the contribution of leading institutions from across Australia who committed to supporting the EMCR community.
We would like to extend again our deep gratitude to our sponsors and partners: our Platinum partner, the University of Melbourne Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology; our Major partner Curtin University; our Diversity and Inclusion sponsor, the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre; our Collaborator sponsor, the Australian Government Department of Defence; our Online Connector sponsors for the three online days of SP21, ASTRO 3D, the University of Adelaide and Westpac Group; our Event Connector sponsor CSIRO and our Online Collaborator sponsor WEHI. Thank you to all of our sponsors for helping make SP21 possible and for your support of the EMCR community in Australia. As the leads on SP21, we would also like to extend our thanks to our fellow conference co-chairs Michelle and James; the rest of the EMCR Forum executive team; all of our speakers, workshop presenters and contributors; and the Australian Academy of Science team for their support, especially Laura Navarro whose contributions as EMCR Program Manager went above and beyond for SP21.
The path forward is an interesting one to consider in this time of unprecedented global change and disruption. We are optimistic that the future of academia will see the important lessons learned in terms of better inclusivity and accessibility in online or hybrid formats integrated as part of our general practice. Science Pathways 2021 provided an excellent opportunity to bring together our distributed EMCR community, and we hope that those who attended any part of SP21 took away something of value to them in continuing their STEM journey. We aim to build on the experiences and execution of SP21 alongside feedback from attendees in order to make the next Science Pathways in 2023 even better and more beneficial to the EMCR community, and we look forward to seeing everyone again in 2023!
© 2024 Australian Academy of Science
