On Tuesday, 3rd of May 2022, SHOWCASE held its first mentor workshop for the project’s PhD students and post-doctoral researchers. The main goal of this workshop was to provide an informal forum for discussion between the project’s early career researchers and senior scientists. Such a discussion contributes to the knowledge exchange within SHOWCASE, as well as to providing early career researchers with useful expert advice and mentoring.

The mentor of SHOWCASE’s first workshop was Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Lena Luise Schaller from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). She is an agricultural economist, focusing on the provision of public goods and ecosystem services from agriculture and on the agricultural/environmental policies and mechanisms related to sustainable and multifunctional agricultural management. Lena is the leader of work package 2, which is responsible for identifying incentives to promote biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. 

The workshop started with a quick roundtable in which all the participants introduced themselves and gave a brief summary of their research interests, success stories and/or difficulties. Afterwards, Lena offered a concise overview of her path towards becoming a senior researcher and discussed her tasks in work package 2 and how they relate to the overall goal of the project. Her presentation was followed by an honest and open discussion on proposal writing, funding opportunities and career development in science. Finally, Lena also shared her experience of working on European-funded projects. She highlighted how much she appreciates the supportive community of such projects, which facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation.

All in all, we are happy to say the first mentor workshop seems to have been a success, and we are eagerly looking forward to the next one, which is to take place in the early autumn of 2022. Until then – happy fieldwork, everyone!