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While people around the globe were facing restrictions on many aspects in their personal and professional lives due to COVID-19 measures, the HBP Student Representatives & Ambassadors, supported by the HBP Education Programme, quickly reacted to the new situation and launched the Webinar series HBP Tea & Slides. During times of physical distancing and working from home, HBP Tea & Slides offers a way to strengthen the community of early career researches and to expand their networks.

HBP Tea & Slides is a virtual coffee break format featuring talks by early career researchers from the HBP where they present their work and make themselves visible to others within as well as outside the Project. To embrace the diverse nature of the HBP, in each session, the organisers strive to invite speakers from two distinct areas covering the broad spectrum of research disciplines contained in the Project. Participants can watch and learn about fellow students’ projects and meet potential future collaborators. HBP Tea & Slides is free and open for everyone to attend.

Five HBP Tea & Slides sessions took place between April to July 2020. Each session was hosted by one of the HBP’s Student Representatives or Ambassadors and featured two 10-minute short talks by HBP young researchers followed by an interactive Q&A session with participants. The majority of the talks were recorded and can be found together with presentation slides on the Education Programme’s website.

The five sessions were attended by a total of 231 participants from 30 different countries, from within as well as outside the European Union. Approximately half of the participants are working in the HBP, while the other half are not affiliated to the Project.

The majority of HBP Work packages were represented by the speakers who are based in 7 different countries and who contributed to this virtual event format’s success.

The participant feedback surveys conducted after each session (with an overall response rate of approximately 25%) revealed that a majority of respondents’ overall impression of the HBP Tea & Slides sessions was rated as “excellent”*.  Similar, the quality of student talks during the sessions were also rated as “excellent” by a large majority of respondents**. Broadening the overview, acquisition of new information and contact with other young scientists were mentioned as the most frequently perceived benefits by respondents from attending an HBP Tea & Slides session.

*The weighted average score is 4.5 on a scale from 0=failed to 5=excellent.

**Weighted average score is 4.6 on a scale from 0=failed to 5=excellent.

What did feedback survey respondents like best about HBP Tea & Slides?

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HBP Tea & Slides has now entered the summer break but applications to present at a next session in autumn 2020 can be submitted also during the summer. Presentations can be about finalised or ongoing projects, research questions or -plans, as well as introducing others to HBP tools. As it is an important skill for researchers to present their work, this is a great opportunity to get more experience and to receive feedback from others and an HBP Tea & Slides speaker certificate can be requested from the HBP Education Programme.

To apply as a speaker, an email with the following information should be sent to education@humanbrainproject.eu:

• Name of speaker
• Affiliation
• Field of study
• Involvement in HBP (Work package?)
• Title of talk + short description of the content (2-3 sentences)
• Agree or disagree for the online presentation to be recorded and published

For further information, please visit the HBP Tea and Slides page.