‘The geography of New Working Spaces and impact on the periphery’ and young talented researchers
Blogs are written by COST Actions
‘The geography of New Working Spaces and the impact on the periphery‘ is a COST Action bringing together 160 research partners from 35 Countries. It’s objectives are to i) share the scientific outcomes on New Working Spaces; ii) compare best practices and direct and indirect impacts with a particular focus on the periphery, and iii) share policy tools across countries.
COST Action CA18214 pays special attention to the COST Excellence and Inclusiveness Policy and gender balance. The principles behind the CA18214 are in line with the general objectives of the COST Action which aims to ensure “the inclusion of publications with authors from COST Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITCs), from the underrepresented gender in the Action and from Early Career Investigators/Young researchers” (see COST Excellence and Inclusiveness Policy).
COST Action CA18214 recognizes the key-role of Early Career Investigators (ECI) and young researchers from every latitude of the globe and within its wider network. Our young researchers contribute to explore a large spectrum of scientific and societal features of the New Working Spaces and related impacts on varied peripheries. The different disciplinary background of the early career researchers and numerous on-going collaborations between early career investigators themselves, and among them and senior academics, are adding a significant value to our Action.
Additionally, the gender balance has been one of the main priorities of our COST Action, this has happened since the beginning of the CA18214 (October 2019 when we formed the leading groups). Gender balance is fundamental in the decision-making processes and more operative tasks of the research network. Senior and young researchers and women and men colleagues are considered equal contributors to our Action. Thus, misconducting versus young women and men researchers (e.g., nepotism and other unfair behaviors) are not acceptable. The workload and contribution of each COST partner should be clearly identifiable and rewarded.
Involvement of young researchers
The effective involvement of the young researchers occurs in the CA18214 in different ways:
Firstly, early career investigators are asked to cover leading positions in the core group and other activities (e.g., Mina Akhavan WG2 leader (IT); Anastasia Sinitsyna, sub WG1-Leader (ES); Lukáš Danko, ITC Leader (CZ), Therese Bajada, Sub- ITC leader (MT); Chiara Tagliaro, WG4 Leader (IT); Lenka Smékalová , Sub WG3 Leader (CZ); Mariachiara Barzotto, Sub-Leader WG3 (UK); Eva Belvončíková, STSM Leader, (SK). Most of them were at the 2nd MC Meeting in Milan, February 12-14 2020, right before the Pandemic outbreak.
Young talented researchers are members of the COST Action CA18214, both women and men from all countries involved in the Action including inclusive COST partners. Post-doctoral researchers, PhD students, Assistant Professors and Lecturers are among the leaders of the CA18214 (see the WG1 taxonomy, WG2, WG3 and WG4) and Activities of the Action (e.g., Inclusive Target Countries and STSMs), as well as very relevant Dissemination Activities. Their work and contribution are very appreciated by the most senior and other colleagues, considering the important tasks for which they are responsible.
It is very relevant for us to understand on one hand their perspectives as researchers, and on the other hand, how the CA18214 is supporting their personal growth. Thus we collected several opinions of our young colleagues and we were very happy to hear about their enthusiasm and motivations.
Our young colleagues have highlighted benefits and values of being part of the CA18214 that can be summarized as follows:
- the values of networking within an international and multi-cultural community which has common research interests;
- the possibility of covering leading position – this is hard in several national contexts and other European research projects;
- going beyond the borders and disciplinary silos;
- collaborating with young and senior researchers.
Here are some statements from two of our colleagues:
“Thanks to this COST Action I had the unique chance to exercise a leading position within a European Project and I expanded my international network.”
Dr Mina Akhavan, WG2 leader and Post doc at DAStU-Politecnico di Milano, Italy
“As an ECI, COST helped me to join a transdisciplinary team that deals with cutting-edge research on new working spaces that helped me to grow both professionally and personally. Taking part in a COST action helped me to extend a network for me and my peers with similar career paths that were seeking international leadership.”
Dr Lukas Danko, ITC leader, Assistant Professor, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Czech Republic
Secondly, there are ITC grants which have supported early career investigators in disseminating scientific outcomes and receiving feedback from a large international audience of academics. In 2021, ITC grants supported the participation to international conferences such as ERSA 60th Congress Territorial Futures, Royal Geographic Society Annual Conference, and RSAI World Congress Smart Regions.
Thirdly, in 2021 Virtual Mobility Grants supported virtual collaborations across our research community. Our colleagues Lenka, Ana, Mina Akhavan and Chiara were very happy to foster collaboration, exchange knowledge and disseminate the results of the CA18214.
Fourthly, 8 young researchers of our COST Action (5 male and 3 female colleagues) participated in Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) in 2021, while 2 female investigators exchanged in 2020. Read more about this here.
In addition, several early career researchers are WG members and contribute to the collection and data analysis (construction of database, conducting interviews/surveys) as well as writing several scientific articles and book chapters. The 28 joint publications (published in 2021 and/or forthcoming in 2022) are co-authored by 92 authors, and among them there are 35 Early Career Investigators.
Among the above publications, in ‘The COVID-19 pandemic and the Future of Working Spaces in Routledge-RSA Regions & Cities Book Series, Regions, Cities and Covid-19 (Eds. by I- Mariotti, M. Di Marino and P. Bednar, forthcoming in spring 2022), 25 co-authors (out of 55) are young researchers.
This comprehensive overview shows that the CA18214 is very inclusive, gender balance and open to experts at the different stage of the academic career. We are proud of taking part of this vital and inspiring research environment and network!
Author
Mina Di Marino, Science Communication Manager of the CA18214.
Contact and further information:
View the Action website
View the network website
Pictures taken by Petr Dubovský at the 2nd MC Meeting in Milan, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, February 12-14 2020. Cover image by Pixabay from Pexels.