Shared Challenges, Collective Action
Voices of early-career scientists across IUGG
Across the Earth and space sciences, early-career scientists work in very different environments. Yet when they describe what helps or hinders their careers, the same concerns return: security, opportunities, mentorship, belonging, and the freedom to imagine a future in science.
Listening Across the IUGG Community
What does it mean to build a scientific career today? There is no single answer. Each experience is shaped by where the researcher lives and works, the resources available within their institutions, the demands of their discipline, and their personal circumstances.
To bring these different perspectives into conversation, the IUGG Early-Career Scientists Network (ECSNet) invited early-career scientists from across IUGG’s eight Associations to share the challenges they face, the opportunities available to them, and the forms of support that can make a meaningful difference.
The series currently includes an overview of early-career participation and opportunities within each IUGG Association, alongside 23 individual ECS profiles (August 2026), with further contributions planned. Together, these contributions offer a window into the diverse realities of building a career in the geosciences. By sharing these experiences across the IUGG community, the series aims to help early-career scientists recognise common challenges and learn from one another, as well as to identify practical ways in which scientific organisations can support them more effectively.
A career built on temporary ground
The most persistent concern is job insecurity. Short postdoctoral contracts, scarce permanent positions and highly competitive fellowships make long-term planning difficult. Researchers need to apply continuously for the next position while still delivering the work for which they are currently employed. The consequences extend far beyond a CV: uncertainty affects housing, finances, mental health, partnerships, caring responsibilities and decisions about family.
Hannah Rogers (IAGA) reflects on the uncertainty of research funding: even an outstanding researcher with an excellent proposal may narrowly miss out on funding. Rebekka Steffen (IAG) draws attention to the challenges faced by academic couples: when both partners work in the same field, securing permanent positions in the same discipline and location can feel like winning the lottery. Birte Gülk (IAPSO) highlights the personal questions that resurface whenever a contract comes to an end: “Do I want to stay here? Am I ready to move on and start over again?”
“Time-limited contracts may weaken scientific progress itself. People spend time and energy worrying about the next step, or leave academia entirely, representing a drain of knowledge and skill across the community.”
— Ashley Smith (IAGA)
Leaving academia should not be seen as a failure, as many researchers go on to use their skills within industry, government, and other sectors where scientific thinking is needed. The real issue is choice. For those who want to build a long-term academic career, repeated uncertainty and limited career pathways can make it difficult to plan a future and may lead to leaving academia involuntarily. Over time, this can impact not only individual researchers but also the continuity of research and the future strength of scientific communities.
Opportunity is unevenly distributed
International mobility is often presented as a necessity to achieve career goals within academia. However, for many early-career scientists, moving abroad means navigating visa renewals, language barriers, relocation costs, unfamiliar administrative systems, and separation from established support networks. Bo Su (IACS) emphasises the difficulty of rebuilding professional connections in a new country, while Shivangi Sharan (IAGA) highlights the cumulative strain of repeatedly relocating and navigating immigration procedures. Gino González (IAVCEI) argues that scientific organisations could do much more to assist researchers facing these bureaucratic and migratory challenges, ensuring that international mobility becomes a genuine opportunity rather than an additional source of insecurity.
Opportunities to conduct research, attend international meetings, and build professional networks are not equally accessible across regions. María Eugenia Cozatl (IAVCEI) describes how limited funding for field campaigns, international travel costs, and administrative delays (e.g., visas) can prevent Latin American researchers from presenting their work, developing collaborations, and fully participating in the global scientific community. Franck Ghomsi (IAG) draws attention to the structural inequalities affecting early-career scientists in parts of Africa and across the wider Global South, including limited access to funding, scientific instruments, in situ data, sustained mentorship, and stable career pathways.
“In Ethiopia, the scientific potential and motivation are clearly present, but researchers often face major obstacles such as limited laboratory access, inconsistent funding, and insufficient structured training opportunities. ”
— Gemechu Teferi, IAVCEI
Scientific institutions can promote social mobility by expanding access to education, funding, and professional opportunities, but they can also reinforce existing inequalities. Ensuring equitable access to research funding, infrastructure, professional networks, and international visibility remains an important challenge.
Mentorship and professional development
Many essential academic skills are learned informally. Early-career scientists are expected to review manuscripts, write grants, lead projects, manage conflict, supervise others, communicate beyond their peers and navigate complex professional structures, sometimes without dedicated training.
Melissa Cholette (IAMAS) highlights how mentorship helped her build international collaborations and a publication record, while noting that many early-career scientists lack such support. She also emphasises that reviewing scientific manuscripts requires specific skills that are rarely taught and calls for formal peer-review training. Magali Ponds (IACS) advocates for a broader, more structured feedback culture that values project management, leadership, active participation, and effective collaboration alongside technical expertise. Saini Samim (IAVCEI) emphasises the importance of science communication and public engagement in demonstrating how Earth science helps societies understand natural hazards, respond to environmental change, and explore the processes that shape our planet. Julia Azumi Koch (IAG) shows how even joining the community can be difficult: conferences and organisational structures may feel opaque to someone who does not already know whom to approach or how to become involved.
“Having people around me who believe in me and encourage me to grow makes a huge difference.”
— Magali Ponds, IACS
Effective mentorship can make a decisive difference in the career of an early-career scientist. Structured mentoring, formal training for key skills, near-peer support, introductions at conferences, and transparent routes into working groups can make the unwritten rules of scientific life more visible and access to opportunities more equitable.
When scientific work does not fit neatly into a working day
Work-life balance appears throughout the interviews in different forms. For some, the challenge is switching off from an absorbing research problem. For others, it is combining publications with teaching, administration, outreach or community service. Princess Cosalan (IAVCEI), for example, describes the challenge of continuous volcano-observatory responsibilities and the time required for research and publication, especially during prolonged volcanic unrest.
Research success should be assessed through a broader range of contributions than publications and citation metrics alone. Teaching, education and outreach, professional service, leadership, and contributions to the wider research community are also essential to science. Some institutions are beginning to incorporate these activities more explicitly into hiring and promotion decisions, but how they are recognised and rewarded still varies considerably between institutions.
Representation turns participation into influence
The series also highlights encouraging progress. Across IUGG, early-career scientists are gaining greater representation in executive committees, commissions, and dedicated networks.
IAPSO’s ECS network connects members with job, fieldwork, and conference opportunities, supporting professional development and greater engagement within the international ocean-science community. IAVCEI’s ECR-Net similarly combines mentoring, professional development, networking, and community building to support early-career researchers in volcanology and related fields. Initiated at the 2023 IUGG General Assembly, the IASPEI ECS group connects early-career researchers worldwide and strengthens their visibility and participation within the Association. Since 2023, the IAG ECS Representative Group has given early-career scientists a voice across the Association’s commissions, committees, projects, and executive leadership, while building links with other geodesy networks. IAGA engages early-career scientists through ICEO (Interdivisional Commission on Education and Outreach) and its Communication and Networking Working Group, involving them in scientific schools, international collaboration, education, outreach, and digital communication. Since 2013, IAMAS has recognised early-career researchers through a biennial award and, since 2025, has included the Early Career Committee leader in its Bureau’s decision-making. IACS supports early-career scientists through working groups, workshops, symposia, international summer schools, awards, and travel grants that promote scientific recognition and international engagement. IAHS combines representation and recognition with targeted travel and mobility support, helping lower financial barriers for researchers from countries with limited financial resources, including through intra-African research visits.
Such initiatives show that inclusion requires more than inviting ECS into the room: it requires the resources, opportunities, and authority that enable them to contribute meaningfully.
From listening to action
No single programme can resolve challenges that extend beyond individual institutions and are shaped by national policies, funding systems, and leadership decisions. Scientific organisations can, however, transform the environments they directly shape – from meetings, committees, and awards to funding schemes, professional networks, and standards of recognition.
By listening to early-career scientists, increasing their representation, and giving them the resources and authority to contribute, IUGG is demonstrating how the scientific community can turn shared challenges into meaningful action. ECS should not be regarded only as the future of science but recognised as colleagues already shaping its present.
For ECSNet, listening is the first step. The next is to connect these voices, define shared priorities, and sustain action across disciplinary, institutional, and geographic boundaries. The 2026 ECS meeting in Potsdam will provide an important opportunity to advance this dialogue and build momentum towards the 2027 IUGG General Assembly.
Explore the series
Read the full ECS Challenges collection and learn how early-career scientists participate across the eight IUGG Associations: iugg-ecs.org/.
2026 ECS meeting in Potsdam: https://iugg-ecs.org/events/potsdam-2026/
Acknowledgement
The author gratefully acknowledges Hannah Rogers (IAGA) for her thoughtful comments and constructive feedback on an earlier version of this article.