Parents and caregivers Networking Lunch sessions

Family caregiving is part of the fabric of life. Many scientists (m/f) have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building a career. Juggling teaching, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist. So, how do colleagues combine this with parenting? What challenges do parents face in the different job levels? Where do they find support? And what can the organisation do to create a more inclusive working environment where parents can grow and flourish in their careers?

DEWIS is talking with scientists (m/f) with caregiving responsibilities, and we aim to start a dialogue to support the working lives of colleagues who also have off-campus parenting and/or caring responsibilities. 

On 22 May, we organized our first Parenting Networking Lunch session. We discussed the challenges (future and current) parents experience when pursuing an academic career, shared positive experiences and formulated suggestions for different internal stakeholders. The most important suggestion was to create a support structure, including guidelines for supervisors and event organizers. Because of the overwhelming interest for the session, we have decided to organize more sessions and continue to do so. This also contributes to the need for a networking community for academic parents. The second session will on 23 June. However, this session is already fully booked. The third session will be organized after the summer, so your eye open for the invitation. 

Valuable links from the HR-presentation can be found on the intranet.