About the Women+ in Early Career Research Group

Who Are We?

We are a cross-institutional network dedicated to supporting researchers at the beginning of their academic research careers. Our diverse membership spans multiple disciplines—from Computer Science and Immunology to Sociology and Information Science. We represent institutions across the broader Dublin area, including TU Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, UCD, DCU, and DKIT. Our community is open to all early career researchers, specifically PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and lecturers in the first 1–3 years of their appointment.

Our Mission

Research can often be a solitary pursuit and women+ researchers face unique challenges, including the leaky pipeline where the number of women seen in higher positions decreases (WREN and Science Policy Review). We aim to break down silos and systemic challenges by building a vibrant, effective research community in Dublin and the surrounding areas. By being women+ centred, we aim to address the structural and cultural barriers that disproportionately affect women and gender-diverse researchers at the start of their careers. By fostering an interdisciplinary environment, we move beyond subject-specific bubbles to focus on academic skills: rigorous research practices, effective writing, presentation skills, and career navigation.

We support our community with these skills as well as with building strong interdisciplinary networks and robust peer-mentorships that can reduce the effect of the leaky pipeline.

What Do We Do?

Our goal is to collaborate and support one another through our early careers in research in a variety of different activities. We hope to achieve this via a curated schedule of events including:

  • International Women’s Day Research Symposium focusing on the research being conducted by our members with abstracts published on ARROW@TU Dublin.

  • Workshops ranging from academic writing and poster design and development to half day focused writing sessions.

  • Community support via active WhatsApp group and monthly in-person coffee socials in Dublin.

How to Join the Group

If you would like to join the group please fill out this form.Join Women+ in ECR