December the 10th 2013, saw the launch of the first ECR2STAR conference, held at Senate House, UCL, London. What a great day! After planning for the past 6 months it was great to see the 60 delegates attending the event. The morning presentations by the seven invited workshop speakers, a mix of industry and academia, were very insightful. The speakers gave ‘hands-on’ advice to ECRs and discussed what they need to know to succeed in the challenging but exciting research environment. The speakers answered many questions that ERCs have never dared ask before. They were honest, direct, and importantly, fun; giving advice and honest feedback.

In the afternoon, 11 ECRs showcased their research via a series of 6 min + 3 min question rapid-fire talks. From Molecular modelling to biofuels, the talks were well presented and highly engaging.

The organizing committee finished the day with a well-deserved dinner where plans for the next ERC2STAR workshop were discussed. The team aim to summarise the workshop via a series of posts on our ecr2star.org website. Watch this space for updates!

For more information regarding ECR2STAR please visit www.ecr2star.org. Also, you can find out more about this recent event via our twitter-feed, news@ecr2star, Facebook page, www.facebook/ecr2star and LinkedIn group pages.