Early Career Research Network
Who can join the network?
The network is open to anyone who considers themselves to be early in their academic career. We recognise that this is a subjective category that varies by individual and context. The group includes ECRs directly involved in the THRIVING Food Futures project, but we are also keen to extend the invitation to ECRs based at participating institutions and beyond to promote wider engagement and foster new connections.
THRIVING Food Futures Early Career Network
The THRIVING Food Futures Early Career Researcher (ECR) network, established in May 2025, offers a space for all ECRs interested in healthy, sustainable, and equitable diets and food systems to connect, share expertise, develop new skills, and collaborate across projects. The network aligns with the broader goals of the THRIVING Food Futures project and its interdisciplinary nature.
What is the focus of the network?
The ECR network will focus on three core areas:
1.Skills sharing and development
We aim to organise bi-monthly online skill-sharing sessions to help ECRs build methodological, substantive, and practical expertise, while also developing transferable skills for future roles and funding/fellowship applications.
2. Project-specific collaboration
The network will support collaboration opportunities aligned with the aims of THRIVING Food Futures and career development, sharing these with members as they arise. Researchers at host institutions are encouraged to advertise relevant activities.
3. Visibility and dissemination
We want to raise the profiles of ECRs and the THRIVING Food Futures project by supporting dissemination. This may include contributing blog posts to the THRIVING Food Futures website, or other opportunities.
Upcoming events
Systems Thinking for Public Health and Food Systems
14 October 2025, 3:00 pm BST | Online
Join us for the second webinar of the THRIVING Food Futures Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network, in which Professor Jean Adams (Professor of Dietary Public Health at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cambridge University) will speak about Systems Thinking for Public Health and Food Systems. In this talk, she will introduce systems thinking as she understands it, and discuss its similarities to, and differences from, more conventional approaches to understanding public health problems, identifying solutions, and evaluating interventions.
This session will be online only, please register here: https://city-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tvU37bXCTc6JmAJggerxmw to receive the joining details directly from Zoom.
Terms of Reference
The full Terms of Reference document provides further details on the network's aims, structure, activities, and participation.
Join the Thriving Food Futures Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network