Last week the CIRFA Young Scientist Forum 2020 was held on February 27th and 28th in Tromsø under the theme “Communication – Cooperation – Career & Care.” This annual event offers seminars and workshops about relevant topics for our Ph.D. students, postdocs, and young scientists, which also represents a good platform to meet up, exchange about current activities, and to socialize among the group. 

Given the fact that our research group currently includes quite a few new members as well as people that are about to finish their work in CIRFA, the forum provided a fairly diverse program with different topics of interest. We had the pleasure of Theresa Mikalsen and Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia from the UiT joining the forum and giving presentations and advice about EU funding strategies. In a debate covering the topic “Academia vs. Industry,” we learned about major differences between those two potential carrier paths, thanks to the input of Edmond Hansen from Multiconsult and Alfred Hanssen from the UiT that were happy to share their experience. A workshop about “How to publish a scientific paper” by Anthony P. Doulgeris as GRSL Associate Editor gave us a good insight into the editor’s point of view of publishing and an excellent opportunity to exchange experience among the group. Last but not least, we learned how to avoid or reduce stress and how to organize our workplace healthier in a seminar given by Renathe Ovesen from HEMIS

On Thursday afternoon, all participants were sent out on an Arctic Treasure Hunt through Tromsø, which gave them the chance to strengthen their team working abilities as well as their competitiveness as two teams were competing with each other. During a nice dinner, we were able to round off the day and evaluate the accomplishments of the treasure hunt.

The organizing committee would like to acknowledge the valuable cooperation of Hålogaland Theatre, Ølhallen, Raketten Bar & Pølse, and Verdensteatret Kafe og Bar, in the success of the treasure hunt.