Marisol Osman1, Shipra Jain2, Yuhan Rao3, Jorge Saturno4
The spread of COVID-19 during the past few weeks has a strong impact on our lives and the research community is no exception. We are facing challenges that have forced us to think about the way we do and communicate science. The Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) community, which is a fully online community, has been working for years to provide a voice and platform to the early career researchers (ECRs) in Earth sciences worldwide. To empower ECRs in this situation, we have developed a series of online activities to encourage scientific interaction and make their science visible. We are also keen to hear about the challenges our ECRs are facing during these difficult times and find a solution to those problems together. From virtual coffee breaks to a Twitter Poster event, the full list of the events can be found son the YESS website.
YESS aims to continue to provide early career researchers a collective voice in the international community and foster scientific excellence for the benefit of society. Following the success of the joint ECR networks workshop endorsed by WCRP, we are now partnering with other ECR networks to develop new workshops and sessions led by ECRs.
YESS is currently finishing up the development of the Strategic Action Plan for 2020-2023 and beyond. The plan outlines the vision and mission of our community and elaborates on the actions and activities necessary to reach our identified goals for the coming years. The first draft of the Strategic Action Plan has been developed in liaison with the members of the YESS Council, the YESS Executive Committee, and former YESS community members. The Strategic Action Plan is currently undergoing consultation with our partners and will be released before July 2020. YESS also recently held its annual election and voted in the new Executive Committee and Regional Representatives. The new team will work towards developing a more sustainable network and will pave the way for future collaborations with our partners.
During the past years, YESS and WCRP have been working jointly to integrate early career researchers in WCRP activities. YESS is looking forward to strengthening this collaboration, foresting career developments and international exchange.
