Challenges and opportunities for ELSI early career researchers

Abstract

BackgroundOver the past 25 years, there has been growing recognition of the importance of studying the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) of genetic and genomic research. A large investment into ELSI research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Genomic Project budget in 1990 stimulated the growth of this emerging field; ELSI research has continued to develop and is starting to emerge as a field in its own right. The evolving subject matter of ELSI research continues to raise new research questions as well as prompt re-evaluation of earlier work and a growing number of scholars working in this area now identify themselves as ELSI scholars rather than with a particular discipline.Main textDue to the international and interdisciplinary nature of ELSI research, scholars can often find themselves isolated from disciplinary or regionally situated support structures. We conducted a workshop with Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in Oxford, UK, and this paper discusses some of the particular challenges that were highlighted. While ELSI ECRs may face many of the universal challenges faced by ECRs, we argue that a number of challenges are either unique or exacerbated in the case of ELSI ECRs and discuss some of the reasons as to why this may be the case. We identify some of the most pressing issues for ELSI ECRs as: interdisciplinary angst and expertise, isolation from traditional support structures, limited resources and funding opportunities, and uncertainty regarding how research contributions will be measured. We discuss the potential opportunity to use web 2.0 technologies to transform academic support structures and address some of the challenges faced by ELSI ECRs, by helping to facilitate mentoring and support, access to resources and new accreditation metrics.ConclusionAs our field develops it is crucial for the ELSI community to continue looking forward to identify how emerging digital solutions can be used to facilitate the international and interdisciplinary research we perform, and to offer support for those embarking on, progressing through, and transitioning into an ELSI research career.

Perceived Barriers to Career Progression Among Early-Career Epidemiologists: Report of a Workshop at the 22nd World Congress of Epidemiology

“…3 Considering this review, the perceived barriers among early-career epidemiologists appear to be very similar to those among general post-doctoral academics. In addition, similar barriers have been suggested among researchers in endocrinology, 8 genetics, 9 and psychology. 10 The present study showed that early-career epidemiologists share common barriers with early-career people in other fields, and that early-career epidemiologists around the world share common barriers to their career progression.…”

“…3 , 4 Identifying these barriers is important when considering beneficial support for career progression. 5 – 7 Past findings suggest area-specific barriers among early-career researchers in endocrinology, 8 genetics, 9 and psychology. 10 However, little is known about barriers faced by early-career epidemiologists.…”

Three decades of ethical, legal, and social implications research: Looking back to chart a path forward

“…For example, in 2004, NHGRI collaborated with the DOE and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to establish the first four CEERs. 61 , 63 In 2020, it continued the funding for three CEERs (see Table 4 ) using a limited competition request for proposals (renewal of current CEERs only) with the indication that “NHGRI plans to maintain the CEER program at approximately its current level of funding through FY 2023.” 64 In 2019, it funded the Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis (CERA) to build the community ELSI researchers and provide a web-based platform to enhance the production, sharing, and use of ELSI research (for CERA rationale, see Oliver and McGuire, 65 Kaye et al, 66 and Bell et al 67 ). Although a small portion of the budget, the program has also provided formal support for ELSI studies embedded in large genomics initiatives sponsored by other NHGRI divisions such as the CSER Consortium, eMERGE, the Human Microbiome Project, the Wellcome Trust/NIH H3Africa Initiative, and the NBSeq initiative, as well as supplements to other NIH grants with ELSI components.…”

Introduction to the article collection ‘Translation in healthcare: ethical, legal, and social implications’

“…Early-career researchers in the ELSI field face particular problems of isolation from disciplinary support structures, as the article by Bell et al reports [34], based on a workshop for ELSI researchers at the Translation in Medicine conference. This workshop discussed the potential opportunity to use web 2.0 technologies, such as the ELSI 2.0 workspace currently provided through the Global Health network [35], to transform academic support structures and address some of the challenges faced by ELSI ECRs, by helping to facilitate mentoring and support, access to resources and new accreditation metrics.…”