Networking of Young Researchers in the European Area: Relevance, Requirements and Realization Possibilities

Networking is a key competence, especially for young researchers in the field of medical informatics. Therefore, it is encouraged in organizations like AMIA. Since, in Europe no such networking possibility is known, concepts and ideas for the implementation shall be established and assessed with regard to their appropriateness. Demands, suggestions and attitudes of the community were collected in an online survey. Based on this, a workshop with international participants was conducted at Medical Informatics Europe 2018 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Following topics were addressed: i) communication channels, ii) activities to be carried out, iii) organizational structures and iv) acquisition of participants. The results show the relevance of such a networking platform. Furthermore, numerous requirements and realization possibilities, but also challenges were identified and assessed during the workshop. Altogether, essential ideas for the implementation of an European Young Researcher Network (EYouRNet) were collected, which can serve as a basis for the realization.