EPEC: A New Generation
Jessie Hogan (The Open University, UK) and Nimisha Verma (DLR, Germany), Co-Chairs of the Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Network, give a status update and describe future plans to expand EPEC’s community and activities.
Read article in the fully formatted PDF of the Europlanet Magazine.
The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) network is the early career branch of Europlanet. Founded officially during the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) back in 2017, our original objective was to forge a strong platform for early career planetary scientists to connect and grow. Now, approaching our 8th year as an organisation, we have grown from strength to strength.
What is EPEC?
Primarily, EPEC has ensured that there has been a growing early-career focused programme at EPSC for the international students and space professionals attending the meeting to engage with. We have also established EPEC Annual Week, a conference catered to early careers and organised by early careers, that offers networking and development opportunities within our cohort. Today, we make up a significant portion of the Europlanet community, with over half of individual members and attendees at EPSC comprising early careers.
Covid was a challenging time for everyone, but early careers were particularly affected. EPEC has also needed time to recover, and we have spent the last year or so re-evaluating our aims, updating our operations and rebuilding our community.
Aiming for the Stars
Our objective today encompasses the true essence of EPEC, which is to forge a real community for early career planetary scientists. We want to sustain a virtual and physical space where we can find connections with peers, develop soft leadership and communication skills, and build confidence to navigate through the starting stages of our careers.
Our updated aims are to:
- Highlight opportunities for early careers to advance in their career, e.g. through showcasing funding, fieldwork or employment opportunities, as well as through our events (e.g. Annual Week) and activities (e.g. Future Research).
- Enable early career scientists to develop their international connections with other members of the community at all career stages (e.g. through the EPSC Mentorship programme).
- Allow early careers to utilise EPEC as a launchpad by creating resources or investing in activities to facilitate early career development (e.g. diversity seminar series, podcasts, or amateur astronomy).
- Explore collaborations with other early career networks to foster networking and increase visibility.
- Create a strong network of volunteers within EPEC to develop new activities and enable smooth transitions between different communities.
One Year in Words
Over the next 12 months, we are hoping to continue on our upward trajectory to grow the number of EPEC members who subscribe to our outlets and actively engage with our channels, activities or events. In response to our community’s feedback at our events, we have shifted our main social media to Discord, and have increased the number of our social media outlets to expand our reach.
We are also in the process of expanding our EPEC Committee, so more voices can influence the direction of EPEC in the coming months and can help us achieve our aims. We want to be more visible and engaging for all early careers, thus we always welcome more committee members and volunteers to shape the future of planetary sciences and engineering.
Annual Week 2025
The 7th edition of EPEC Annual Week was hosted at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin, Germany between 19 and 23 May 2025. This year’s event was designed as an immersive experience for earlycareer researchers, offering a rare opportunity to engage with some of the leading minds and institutions in planetary science and Earth observation.
Participants had the opportunity to explore world-class laboratories at DLR, spend a day at one of the oldest planetariums and visit the Natural History Museum in Berlin – home to some of Europe’s most fascinating scientific exhibits. A special highlight of the week was a joint event with the Geo.X network, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across Earth and space sciences.
Beyond these enriching site visits, attendees gained insights from talks and workshops featuring experts from a number of leading research institutes from around the world. The programme was designed to bridge the gap between Europe and the global scientific community, creating opportunities for knowledge exchange, networking and future collaborations.
Annual Week has always been more than just a conference – it is an experience that connects early careers with the wider scientific landscape. With the latest edition, we hope we have moved a step closer to creating an inclusive and diverse environment that all early careers can prosper within.
Final Words
A huge thank you to the founders of EPEC, anyone who has ever contributed to making an event or activity happen and our members for making it such an open and welcoming community. Keep your eyes peeled for more exciting things to come from EPEC!
Find out more about how to get involved in EPEC.
