Bridging the gap - how to walk the talk on supporting early career researchers

Early career researchers (ECRs) play a crucial role in European and nationally funded research projects. They are at the forefront of planning, conducting, analysing, and reporting research. As part of the SOPs4RI project funded by the European Commission, we, as ECRs and members of this project's consortium, were given the opportunity to reflect on our role, obstacles, and possible opportunities that we experienced. Although several steps have been already taken to support early career researchers, more concrete actions have to be pursued. In our opinion, the EC should take the lead and serve as a global frontrunner (taken as exemplary also by national funding agencies) in implementing initiatives to support early career researchers during their research trajectory. We opine that the European Commission should explicitly (i) require the creation of a support system in which early career researchers will be able to build new skills and capacity, (ii) encourage and facilitate more involvement of early career researchers in decision-making roles of EC-funded projects, and (iii) provide resources to support career continuity between fixed-term contracts. The suggested actions can help early career researchers build competencies and expertise to establish stability and continuity within the research environment or to embrace and excel in careers outside academia.