Eurodoc is a European federation of national organizations that represent young researchers in their respective countries. It aims to give a voice to PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows and other junior researchers in European policy-making processes and to improve their working conditions. To achieve these goals, Eurodoc set up several workgroups that operate open mailing lists and a discussion forum.

So far, postdoc and graduate-student associations from 13 countries are members of Eurodoc, with more expressing interest in joining. Eurodoc is also encouraging young scientists in other countries to establish their own national organizations.

Both board and working-group members regularly attend conferences and deliver talks, poster presentations or position papers to policy-makers in their field of research in Europe. In addition, Eurodoc organizes an annual conference, gathering the national delegates with guest speakers from policy, academia and industry, for discussions at plenary sessions and thematic workshops.

The next annual conference will be held in Athens on 18–21 March. The major topics to be addressed are the profession of the researcher in the European Research Area, with a keynote speech by Achilleas Mitsos, director-general of the European Commission's research directorate, and the doctoral level as the third tier of higher education, with Eric Froment, president of the European University Association.

As well as this event, Eurodoc is currently co-organizing a conference on early-stage researcher's mobility, to take place in Lisbon on 25–27 February. The results are expected to significantly raise awareness of this issue and help to remove the national and European obstacles to mobility within and beyond the European Research Area. Eurodoc will also be a member of the steering committee of the research project called 'Doctoral programmes for the European knowledge society', which will collect information about the current situation of doctorates in Europe.

The need for an organized voice of European researchers in the initial stages of their professional career will become increasingly evident in the future, and Eurodoc's growth aims to help meet this challenge.

→ http://www.eurodoc.net