A journey of career awareness: parallel careers to enable researchers’ development growth

Dr. Elisa Garcia graduated with a PhD in Molecular Biology at the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa. During the years of PhD and early postdoc, she enrolled in a young researcher association to advocate for improvement in science policy regarding human resources in academic research institutions. Seeking an academic career, she moved to Columbia University in New York to work as a postdoctoral researcher. There she experienced the first steps in the implementation of career development programmes for researchers. Then she moved to Germany, facing a difficult future in academia, she changed gears and worked as a Postdoc Coordinator Programmes at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. There, she applied her international and career experiences to develop programmes and actions that empower postdoctoral researchers and foster their careers. While in Germany, she facilitated workshops on career exploration, give talks on inclusion and diversity, and organized conferences on impactful topics for researchers as mental health. She was the president of the Society of Spanish Researchers in Germany (CERFA) and a member of the Commission for Equal Opportunities of the Max Planck Society.

She is currently a Project officer at the Spanish Foundation of Science and Technology (FECYT). There, she belongs to the Team that coordinates the Spanish network of EURAXESS, a European initiative backed by the EU commission that promotes and supports international mobility and the professional development of researchers. Within FECYT, among other activities, she is part of the team in charge of the mentoring programme REsearchers Beyond aCAdemia (REBECA) and the Spanish Career Path.

The presentation will be followed by an interactive Q&A-session.