Are you one of the brave souls leading a double life? Caring for a tiny human by day; writing publications by night? Not only do you run experiments and change your manuscripts, but you also run after children and change diapers.
Combining early stage academic career while having children may seem daunting, but you are not alone!
The Parent Network for Doctoral Candidates and Postdocs aims to bring together individuals just like you to exchange information, experience and advice and to serve as a support network for the times when it feels too challenging.
Through regular meetings, you can share your parental triumphs and hardships, discuss policies at EPFL, and maybe even set up play dates for your kids!
We plan to organise four to six discussions per year over lunch on a topic defined with the participants, in some cases initiated by a short presentation from invited speakers.
Feel free to bring your lunch.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 12:15, in room CO 123.
- Share and discuss parenting challenges in an informal setting
with Seniz (EPDA), Cassandre (Polydoc), Quentin & Kristin (Equal Opportunity Office)
The fifth meeting was held on Thursday November 14 at 12:15, in room CO 216.
- Share and discuss parenting challenges in an informal setting
with Seniz (EPDA), Cassandre (Polydoc), Quentin & Kristin (Equal Opportunity Office)
The fourth meeting was held on Thursday June 13 at 12:15 in room CO 216.
- Parenting in Academia: Roundtable DiscussionÂ
(Kristin, Cassandre and Seniz)
The third meeting was held on Tuesday March 19 at 12:15, in room CO 216.
- Funding opportunities for researchers with family (Kristen Irwin, Head of International Funding Team, Research Office)
- Balance research and childcare: Funding and opportunities (Helene Fueger, EPFL Equal Opportunities Delegate; Simona Isler, SNSF Head of Equal Opportunities Funding Division; Micol Nantiat, Euresearch National Contact Point for Legal & Financial aspects)
The second meeting was held February 1st at 12:15, in room CO 216.
- How to manage early-stage childhood in Switzerland and at EPFL (Patricia Plaza Gruber, director FAPE)
The first meeting was held November 9th at 12:15, in room CO 216.
- Short introduction (Chantal and Kristin, VPT-EGA)
- Experience as a mother of a 6-year-old child (Seniz, EPDA)
- Discussion about how to continue: format, topics to be discussed, speakers to be invited.
Wish to participate to the network or to suggest a topic for further meetings? Connect to our Slack channel!
Organization :
VPT-EGA (Kristin Becker, Quentin Delval & Delphine Wenger), in collaboration with Polydoc (Cassandre ContrĂ©) and EPDA (Seniz KĂŒcĂŒk).