Dear Drosophila community,

As we do our best to survive the global pandemic, the Drosophila board and below-signed members of the Drosophila community write to acknowledge the hardship being experienced by all, but especially the early-career scientists among us. In our profession, sustained productivity in terms of grants and publications is essential for continued competitiveness with funding and for successful job, promotion, and tenure applications. Yet, many recent studies show that the need to work remotely while fulfilling familial and other obligations is taking a toll on our productivity. We encourage all who can to act now to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic on all of our colleagues, which we believe will be substantial and long-term, and to pay particular attention to our junior colleagues as they struggle with its effects. Solving the pandemic problem is beyond our capabilities, but there are things each of us can do within our own sphere of influence, for example:

• Acknowledge the negative impact of the pandemic on the career development of your colleagues, especially early-career scientists and trainees. Keep your junior colleagues visible by inviting them to speak at conferences or to review grants. Please be aware that while the pandemic is expected to impact all, a disproportionate effect on female early career scientists is already being noted in several published studies.
• Participate in surveys being conducted by funding agencies and encourage others to do so. Your answer can influence policy changes that will help us all cope with the pandemic.
• Keep your junior colleagues visible by inviting them to speak at conferences or to review grants. Please be aware that while the pandemic is expected to impact all, a disproportionate effect on female early career scientists is already being noted in several published studies.
• Inform your colleagues about special grants and funding opportunities as you come across them.
• Act locally by pre-reviewing grant proposals and manuscripts for your junior colleagues and trainees.
• Consider starting a “helpline” for junior faculty and late-stage trainees at your institution.
• Make the administration at your own institutions aware of this problem. Many are aware already, but this awareness must translate into policy.
• Provide more teaching support than usual or relief from teaching for junior faculty.
• As much as possible, support child-care costs and identify child-care options, for example when you are organizing conferences even if they are online.
• Those of you with the power to do so, advocate adjusting the criteria used to assess and select candidates for research funding and tenured positions.
• Encourage editorial boards you are involved in to make their demands realistic, for example by reducing the number of additional experiments required, during review of manuscripts.

We are in this together. Let’s do what we can for our all our colleagues, and especially for our junior colleagues, so that we can survive the pandemic without sacrificing the future of the Drosophila and broader research communities!

The Drosophila Board:
Mariana Wolfner, President (2021)
Tin Tin Su, President Elect (2022)
Mark Peifer, Past President (2020)
Deborah Andrew, Past President (2018)
Jessica Treisman, Treasurer
Regional and international representatives: Helena Araujo, Erika Bach, Julie Brill, Justin DiAngelo, Erika R. Geisbrecht, , Leanne Jones, Laura Reed, Nic Tapon, Tina Tootle, Alexey Veraksa, Michael Welte
Ex officio members: Stephanie Mohr, Patrick O'Grady, Jim Thompson, Andrew Zelhof, Brian Calvi

Would you like to add your name to the signatories? You can sign using the form below.

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