The participants in EfD’s Early Career Fellowship Program started with sessions on academic writing and research ethics three days prior to the Annual Meeting. They had also one extra day of training after the meeting, on policy engagement and science communication. In between that, they participated in parallel sessions and collaborative meetings.
EfD’s Early Career Fellowship Program is aimed at improving the capacity of researchers in conducting high-quality and policy-relevant research at their respective EfD centers. The training of the first cohort stretches over two years: January 2022 to December 2023.
The group includes 20 researchers in all. Most of them participated in the Annual Meeting and took part in a Ph.D. course on academic writing and research ethics on September 19-21. The course was conducted by Yonas Alem, Director of Academic Programs. The topics covered include writing strategies (identifying a suitable research topic, writing the different sections of a high-standard empirical paper), publication strategies (types and categories of journals, preparation for submission, dealing with rejection, and revision).
The course also included research ethics which has become increasingly important in all types of human and animal research. This included ethics review and other permit reviews in research on human subjects, the handling of research materials, good research conduct, research misconduct, awareness, prevention, and sanctions against misconduct.
Their training sessions continued on September 26th with the second part of a course in science communication led by Petra Hansson and Daniel Slunge. (The first had been an online training in June which included among other things communication challenges, adjusting your communication to your target group, writing a press release, and preparing a 3-minute oral presentation of your research). This session included doing the oral presentation, writing policy briefs, and using social media to disseminate research.
In addition, two senior researchers, Wisdom Akpalu, Center Director at EfD Ghana, and Marcela Jaime Torres, Center Director at EfD Chile, shared their experiences on policy engagement. Both of them have used creative ways to achieve an impact on policies and practices in their countries.
And finally, the researchers learned about how to prepare for an interview, something that many researchers are not so happy about, and they also got to practice their skills by interviewing each other.
“I found the training on policy engagement and communication, and academic writing very helpful. These will contribute a lot to my journey of being a good scientific writer and producing impactful research works,” said Mengesha Yayo, Assistant Professor at Addis Ababa University and one of the Early Career Fellows.