Benefits of participating in the Lung Science Conference for early career respiratory experts

Extract The 22nd European Respiratory Society (ERS) Lung Science Conference (LSC), entitled “Development of chronic lung diseases: from life-spanning mechanisms to preventive therapy”, was held in a hybrid format in March 2024 [1]. This conference offers a unique opportunity for early career researchers as it is particularly focused on career development. The LSC ensures that selected oral presentations are embedded in most sessions throughout the conference, with each presentation grouped according to its topic, and the presenters compete for the Geoffrey Laurent Award. The highest scoring abstracts are grouped into a special Young Investigator Session, where the speakers presenting the most promising studies compete for the William MacNee Award. The LSC 2024 also contained more poster sessions than before, starting from day one to encourage early interactions between early career scientists and established investigators. In addition, the LSC 2024 offered a mentoring lunch where selected early career participants were paired with established experts for mentoring.