University of Helsinki
The Early Career Champions is a mentorship programme which brings together doctoral researchers and mentors from the universities of Helsinki and Nairobi.
As part of the strategic partnership between the University of Helsinki and the University of Nairobi, the One Health Early Career Champions program promotes career advancement and international networking of early career researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds, focusing on One Health.
The program will create long-term partnerships, support international activities of students and researchers, and enable multidisciplinary research. In this context, the cooperation with the University of Nairobi focuses especially on health and food security as well as on the development of teacher education.
The term of the first Early Career Champions program was 2021–2022 and the second is 2023–24. The program includes four workshops with different themes, mentoring sessions, monthly seminars, a yearly challenge and a Grande finale at the end of the program.
The vision of the Early Career Champions programme is shaped by the complexity and scale of the challenges that we are facing in the world today. Developing entrepreneurial skills, collaborating across borders and working together with multiple stakeholders to solve these global issues can provide exciting, new career opportunities for doctoral researchers of both universities.
The programme is open for doctoral researchers at the University of Helsinki and the University of Nairobi who are focusing on One Health.