Episode notes
This episode presents how conference participation has built up network since three decades. Poster sessions are more effective than oral sessions for building connections, since they involve one-to-one or small-group discussion. Early project funding from 2010 in Nordic call led to organizing workshops, which became valuable for network growth since external researchers with relevant expertise were invited in addition to project partners. The workshops have smaller format and offers more discussion. They rotated across partner countries and further built a network. Symposiums at larger conferences, such as European MRS, also were useful for network-building function. Over time, this led to further project applications, with a current EIC Pathfinder project built on relationships from the original Nordic consortium. This frames this long-term relationship-building as a strategic advantage: by growing a topic and collaboration network. That present how to be positioning before calls are announced. A core consortium can be ready and add complementary partners once a suitable call appears. These complementary partners are often found through active participation in forums and events, meaning that by the time a relevant call opens, the right partners may already be known.