Taking care of both your physical and mental health are two important elements to succeed in your career as an early-stage researcher.

Depending on how long you are planning to stay in another country, different rules apply. Usually, for short assignments (less than 2 years) you can stay insured in your home country, but it is always preferable to check the country-specific obligations to select health insurance when staying abroad. For non-EU/EEA countries, health insurance is closely linked to your nationality and visa application.

You should also be aware of your well-being as many PhD candidates are likely to feel depressed and isolated in their work environment. The topic of mental health is nowadays more preeminent within academia and universities are trying to offer healthy working conditions and targeted training.

If you feel your university could do more, you can read the recommendations from the Eurodoc Network linked below and join the PhD peer-to-peer support platform.

Learn more:

• Your Health Insurance Cover – European Union
• Eurodoc – Mental Health WG 
• PhD Success – platform for peer-to-peer support

Finding the right place to study/research as an early-stage researcher is not an easy task and may imply that you find accommodation in your home/host country.

Whether it is for a long or short stay, you can turn on the public or private market to find suitable accommodation. In the first place, we recommend you contact your home/host university and ask about the accommodation options they offer to their (international) students.

If you cannot find suitable options, we have listed below several websites, tailored to the needs of students and short-term renters, that can help you find your gem. Get in touch with your fellow researchers or look on social media platforms such as Facebook that have usually specific housing groups in most European cities.

Learn more:

Housing platforms for students & young professionals

• Housing Anywhere
• Uniplaces
• Nestpicks
• 4Stay

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Open Science are two critical topics to consider when conducting research in both academic and industrial contexts.

As an early-stage researcher, understanding and complying with the intellectual property policies can help you register and protect your work. Don’t hesitate to ask about IPRs to your supervisor(s) and mentors in the early stages of your research work.

If you believe Science should be made more accessible, then you understand the principle of Open science – aiming at creating and disseminating knowledge in a more transparent, open, digital and collaborative way. Open Science can also help to give more visibility and improve the transferability of your research outputs.

Learn more:

• European Intellectual Property Helpdesk
• European Union Intellectual Property Office
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
• About Open Science – European Commission
• Eurodoc – Open Science Working Group
• News, publications and events – Open Science

Are you wondering what are the available funding opportunities in Europe for you to conduct research abroad? The DocMob project consortium and Eurodoc have collected data from across Europe and we summarised it for you. You can access the database down below!

Aside from those, you can consider, as an early-stage researcher, different EU-funded programmes and opportunities to conduct research. For example, you can apply for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship and regularly check the European Commission Horizon 2020 funding and tender opportunities.

Learn more:

• DocMob database doctoral funding opportunities
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships
• European Commission Horizon 2020 portal