Thinking the Future - Young/Early Career Researchers for ME Research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Prior to the conference Invest in ME Research organised the inaugural meeting of a new international network to encourage young and early career researchers to this field. Despite the seriousness of this disease still very little biomedical research is funded or performed on ME. An international family of researchers working together has been facilitated by the Invest in ME Research Biomedical Research into ME Colloquiums. However, the charity felt that we needed to do more to attract and encourage new, younger researchers or those at the early stages of their careers. To ensure that a foundation of biomedical research into ME can be sustained and to encourage new ideas from new areas then we cannot rely just on the family of researchers that has been built up from all parts of the world. We need to draw in knowledge and expertise from other areas – as we have been doing for many years with our Colloquiums and international conferences. Importantly, we also need to encourage new researchers – and young researchers. Now in its eighth year we wish to introduce another level to the Biomedical Research into ME Colloquium to address these points. As part of the European ME Research Group (EMERG) concept - which is building a network of close European biomedical research collaboration to make rapid advances in research and funding for ME - we introduced a new idea. Thinking the Future. An Early Careers Researcher is defined an individual who is within a few years of the award of their PhD or equivalent professional training, or their first academic appointment. IiMER has created this additional event to encapsulate the need to bring in new faces and new ideas to the field of ME research - and initiate a network for new research talent. The charity made this event free for young/ecr researchers in order to facilitate the establishment of these links and it is open to postgraduate students and postdocs involved in biomedical research, and also medical students with an interest in biomedical research into ME. Page 20 of 56 www.investinme.org We will establish this international forum where research into ME can be discussed, ideas can be generated and a network built to allow opportunities for those young or early career researchers who are already involved in research into ME, or involved in another research area which may be of relevance to understanding ME. Importantly, it will provide more awareness of the exciting possibilities of researching this disease – for the betterment of patients and carers. To make this an international group with events being held elsewhere, and in other countries, we have contacted research groups and our friends in other likeminded charities and organisations who have the same objectives as us. We welcome all support for this and hope that more early career researchers and research departments will begin to appreciate the interesting and challenging opportunities that exist for biomedical research in this field. Help us Think the Future - for ME Invest in ME research (Charity Nr. 1153730)
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