Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network
The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) network is organised by early-career researchers, for early-career researchers, and includes volunteers from across the Europlanet international community. The EPEC network is open to all students, doctoral candidates and early-career planetary scientists and space professionals whose last degree (e.g. MSc or PhD) was obtained a maximum of 7 years ago (excluding parental leave, serious illness and similar delays).
One of the main objectives of EPEC is to form a strong network between young professionals by organising early-career-relevant events and by engaging in different projects amongst different focus areas (outreach, diversity, early career support). Furthermore, the EPEC community aims to bring a young voice into Europlanet Society to shape the future of planetary and space sciences and engineering.
EPEC was officially launched during EPSC 2017 in Riga by former early careers who paved the way for this community of likeminded scientists.
EPEC Structure
Previously, EPEC was formed of working groups, whereas today we exist in a simplified structure after implementing feedback from our members. EPEC is led by chairs who oversee day-to-day operations as well as (co-)chairs who sit on the committee, jointly responsible for an event or activity. In order for our events and activities to run, we are grateful to the help and support of volunteers, who are led by helpful committee chairs to facilitate the running of one of our early career focused activities or events. Any EPEC venture is a focused effort to involve our members, to network, to learn and most importantly to enjoy themselves with our community of planetary scientists and related disciplines.
[Credit – Jessica Hogan]
Get involved with EPEC!
The EPEC Committee are constantly looking for interested early-career professionals who are willing to spend some of their academic time with the organising elements of various EPEC activities. By getting involved with the EPEC Committee, as a committee chair or volunteer, you not only get a chance to build a diverse professional network across Europe and abroad, but also build important soft-skills such as leadership qualities and management experience by working with a very friendly and energetic community.
You can also get involved in EPEC via the Early-Career Officers of your Europlanet Society Regional Hub.
For any questions and enquiries, and interest to join us in building a stronger early career network, please contact us on Discord (making sure to select the ‘early career’ role} or email epec.network@gmail.com.
If you would like to simply become a member of EPEC: to get attend our events, take part in our activities and benefit from our thriving community, please sign up to the newsletter (see below) and be sure to join us on social media (Discord, Instagram, X) for the latest updates.
Upcoming Events
Follow our newsletter (below) and join us on social media so you do not miss out!
EPEC Newsletter
If you would like to receive news (e.g., about the annual EPEC week or the next activities planned at EPSC), sign into your Europlanet account (the account is free) and toggle the Early Career (EPEC) option in the Subscriptions tab. We will not spam you with emails but send only relevant information regarding signups to major events and activities (co-)organized by EPEC.
EPEC History
Since it’s inception, EPEC formerly was composed of nine working groups, which focused on areas from Outreach, Diversity, Early Career Support, Communications and Annual Week. You will see that these have been reincorporated into EPEC today though our Events and Activities, keeping true to the original mission of EPEC. Find out more about our previous structure here and how EPEC has historically existed as the early career arm of Europlanet.
