Early Career Investigator Conference Activities

OARSI Mentorship Session

The OARSI Early Career Investigator Subcommittee organizes a "Meet the Mentor" session each year during World Congress. This session has been very successful as it creates a friendly environment for Early Career Investigators to talk to experts in the field. We have been very fortunate to have enthusiastic mentors that volunteer every year sharing their passion for science and insight into career management.
This session is an informal, roundtable discussion in different areas of expertise. Discussions may be research specific and may cover career decisions in general. Early Career Investigators are requested to select a specific research area topic they would like to be seated in so they can be paired up with experts within their own field.

Research areas include in the past include Cartilage / Chondrocyte Biology, Clinical Trials and Therapy, Clinical Aspects/ Outcomes and Epidemiology / Health Services research, Imaging, Animal Models, Biomarkers, Biomechanics and Gait, Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering and Repair, Bone Biology, Genetics, Genomics and Epigenetics. Questions for the mentors can range from career aspects to research methodologies, and discussions during these sessions have been in the past beneficial to both Young Investigators and mentors alike.

To strengthen further the links you may have formed during these sessions and to allow for further discussion, a social event follows at a local venue.
 
Early Career Investigator “How to” workshop

Each year, the Early Career Investigator Committee organizes a workshop focused on issues that are relevant for researchers in the early phases of their career. However, we have noticed that also more advanced researchers have benefited from them. A different topic is chosen for every meeting and an experts in the area propose their views on the subject. Past topics include:
-    Presenting a talk and engaging the audience  
-    How to get your paper published
-    How to write a review of a research paper
-    Challenges in studying risk factors for OA progression