Shaping tomorrow’s science: Empowering ECRs to make research projects flourish

Drawing on experiences from the EU Horizon 2020 project MYRIAD-EU and the EGU 2025 short course “Best Practices for Early Career Researcher (ECR) Engagement and Empowerment in Research Projects”, this work explores good practices, in addition to enabling factors and benefits, for ECR engagement in the scope of interdisciplinary research projects. Specifically, we focus on scalable, practical strategies that foster agency, growth, and inclusion, particularly through structural involvement in project management and other project-related work, organization of events for ECRs together with ECRs, and forming networks beyond their own work. These approaches contribute to the systemic empowerment of ECRs, which not only supports their development but also can generate benefits for projects, including enhanced innovation, fresh perspectives, and improved project reputation for inclusivity. Key engagement activities were found to be supported by direct influences and advisory support, agency of ECRs to enable action, and external factors in the project context. 

Despite a growing emphasis on career development from funding bodies, the systematic integration of ECRs into research project structures remains under-explored. While external programmes offer valuable support, meaningful engagement of ECRs should additionally be embedded directly into project structures and cultures. To implement the practices identified within our initiatives within a broader scope, we provide several recommendations. These range from easy-to-implement actions within the immediate influence of project teams to more ambitious, large-scale changes such as shifts in funding strategies. These strategies can be adapted to suit different environments, projects of varying sizes, and funding levels. We further advocate for research projects, funding agencies, and scientific communities to adopt and take lead on these approaches. Integrating ECR empowerment into the core of research projects does not only provide equitable platforms but is also a strategic pathway for innovation in inter- and transdisciplinary geosciences. Though we further advocate and call for more exploration of how it would best benefit projects, this work demonstrates that empowering ECRs is both a necessary and transformative step toward more inclusive, dynamic, and impactful research.