What Can Senior and Early-Career Researchers Learn From Each Other?
Early-career scientists can be valuable disruptors, bringing new techniques, insights, and questions to a given field.
Early-career researchers find themselves at a critical juncture in their professional careers. Entering into their first years of postdoctoral work, these scientists will be carving out a distinct niche for themselves in their chosen field, while rapidly having to develop their communication, project design, and research skills.
One study of prominent scientists across eight academic fields found that early-career factors significantly influenced career trajectories over the next two decades. Having a more experienced mentor and/or co-authoring with already prominent scientists is one way for early-career researchers to gain this valuable experience. But what lessons can senior scientists learn from their early-career colleagues?
Technology Networks recently spoke to early-career and established academics, as well as scientists working in industry, and asked: “What skills or knowledge could early-career and advanced researchers learn from each other? And how could scientific training better support this exchange?”
Dr. Vivian Li. Senior group leader and assistant research director, The Francis Crick Institute
"Early-career and advanced researchers have complementary strengths that can benefit each other. Early-career researchers often bring up-to-date technical skills (e.g., new computational methods, multiomics analysis) and fresh perspectives, while more senior researchers contribute deep conceptual understanding, experience in experimental design, leadership, and navigating funding and research strategy.
"Scientific training could better support this by encouraging bidirectional mentorship rather than a purely top-down model."
"This could include structured opportunities for junior researchers to teach emerging methods, alongside mentorship in critical thinking and career development. Encouraging collaborative, interdisciplinary environments and promoting open discussion across career stages would help create a more balanced and effective learning culture."
Dr. Xiang Ding. Research associate and core technology translator, University of Bath
"I think the exchange should go both ways. Early-career researchers often bring fresh ideas, technical adaptability, and a willingness to cross boundaries between disciplines and methods. More advanced researchers bring perspective, judgment, deeper field knowledge, and a better sense of how to shape a strong long-term research direction.
"Scientific training would benefit from creating more structured opportunities for that exchange. That could include better mentoring, more open discussion of failed experiments, more interdisciplinary training, and more support for skills that are essential but often under-taught, such as scientific writing, project design, communication, and collaboration across fields. In my experience, some of the most valuable learning happens when technical knowledge and broader research judgment are shared together."
Prof. Ludmil Alexandrov. Professor of biomedicine, cellular and molecular medicine, University of California, San Diego. Deputy director, Sanford Stem Cell Fitness and Space Medicine Center.
"A colleague of mine likes to say, ‘The reason the experiment works is because the cells in our body didn't read the textbook about how they're supposed to behave.’ I've always liked that quote because, in many ways, it captures the essence of science. Nature has no obligation to follow our theories. Our job is to understand nature, not to force it into the framework we've already built.
"I sometimes worry that scientific training unintentionally teaches us the framework a little too well. Of course, we need to understand what is already known, learn rigorous experimental design, and appreciate the literature. But there is also a danger that we start treating today's models as if they were immutable truths rather than our current best approximation of reality.
"One of the things I enjoy most about working with students is that they often ask questions that more experienced scientists would never think to ask."
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"They haven't yet learned all the reasons why something ‘shouldn't’ work. Sometimes those ideas don't pan out, but occasionally they expose a blind spot that everyone else has accepted without questioning. More experienced researchers bring something equally important. Experience gives you perspective. You develop intuition for which questions are fundamental, how to design experiments that truly test a hypothesis, and perhaps most importantly, how to recognize when the biology is trying to tell you that your assumptions are wrong.
"If I could change one thing about scientific training, it would be to encourage people to follow ideas rather than disciplines. Biology doesn't care whether an insight comes from chemistry, engineering, computer science, physics, or medicine. Nature certainly doesn't organize itself into university departments or scientific disciplines—we do. The best discoveries often happen when someone ignores those boundaries. Ultimately, I don't think our goal should simply be to train experts in increasingly narrow areas. It should be to train scientists who are curious enough to question accepted wisdom, courageous enough to pursue unconventional ideas, and humble enough to let biology tell them when they're wrong."
Dr. Yerem Yeghiazarians. Co-founder and chief executive officer, Soley Therapeutics
"Early-career researchers often bring fluency with new methods, computational tools, and a willingness to question assumptions. More advanced researchers bring pattern recognition, biological judgment, and a clearer sense of which questions are worth pursuing over the long term.
"Scientific training should do more to create structured exchange between those strengths. That means more cross-generational mentorship, more interdisciplinary project work, and more emphasis on experimental design, interpretation, and scientific judgment—not just technical execution. The best environments are the ones where new tools and deep experience are constantly informing each other."
Prof. Mark Lewis. Chief executive officer, MyoMaker Bio. Professor of musculoskeletal biology, Loughborough University
"A lot of it comes down to incentives. If the incentive system were different, you would likely see different behaviors. At the moment, the way researchers are evaluated can sometimes discourage collaboration.
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"But science is fundamentally a team sport. No single person knows everything. My team and I might know a great deal about one very specific area, but we rely on others who have expertise in completely different fields. Progress happens when those different perspectives come together.
"Early-career researchers and more experienced scientists can learn a great deal from one another, but collaboration and teamwork have to be actively encouraged. The difficulty is that researchers often receive mixed messages. They’re told to collaborate, but they’re also evaluated in ways that reward individual outputs. Navigating that can be very challenging, particularly early in a career."
Annika Wittich. Scientific researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology
"I think early-career and advanced researchers have a lot to learn from each other. One important lesson is that making mistakes is not inherently bad—what really matters is whether you learn from them. Strong communication skills are also essential, especially when it comes to clearly explaining your research, the challenges you face, and how you are working to address them. In this sense, more emphasis on communication training could improve clarity and, ultimately, the quality of scientific discussions.
"Overall, we should encourage more open exchanges between researchers at different stages, focusing not only on achievements but also on challenges, specific situations, and how they were solved."
"This kind of dialogue fosters a more transparent and supportive research environment."
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Dr. Barry Ryan. Postdoctoral researcher, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
"I think the optimal scientific training between advanced and early-career researchers involves complementary exchanges of expertise. As an early-career researcher, I see how fast current research progresses, and as careers in academia advance, it can be hard to keep up with all these changes. I hope to be able to provide an avenue to exchange skills and new knowledge for the experience and expertise that I have yet to learn with my advanced academic supervisor."
Dr. Khaled Abdelrahman. Assistant professor, University of British Columbia
"Early-career researchers often bring new ideas and emerging technologies and methodologies, while established researchers contribute the experience needed to refine research design, frame meaningful questions, and navigate academic challenges. They also play an important role in supporting the transition to independence, including guidance on grants, promotions, and effective teaching approaches.
"Scientific training could better support this exchange by fostering structured mentorship and collaborative environments where both groups can learn from and support each other."
Prof. Joseph C. Wu. Director, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Professor of medicine and radiology, Stanford University
"Early-career and advanced researchers bring complementary strengths that are essential for modern biomedical science. Early-career scientists are often highly fluent in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, data science, and advanced bioengineering, whereas senior researchers contribute deep domain expertise, translational perspectives, and experience in navigating regulatory and clinical pathways. Bridging these perspectives can accelerate innovation while ensuring scientific rigor and real-world relevance.
"To support this exchange, scientific training should move toward more integrated and collaborative models. Structured mentorship, cross-disciplinary team science, and public-private partnership-based training environments can create opportunities for bidirectional learning. Embedding trainees in settings that combine computational, experimental, and regulatory expertise, supported by digital platforms, shared resources, and open science practices, will be critical to fostering a more connected, adaptable, and translational workforce."
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Dr. Robert Schickel. Chief executive officer and co-founder, NUAgo Therapeutics
"Early-career researchers bring curiosity, technical fluency, and a willingness to challenge established assumptions. More experienced scientists contribute perspective, strategic thinking, and a deeper understanding of how discoveries move from basic science to practical application.
"The strongest scientific environments encourage learning in both directions."
"Innovation frequently emerges when fresh ideas are combined with experience and discipline. Science advances most effectively when different generations of researchers work together rather than operating in isolation."
Anja Mrhar. Research assistant and PhD candidate, University of Ljubljana
"Early-career and senior researchers can learn a lot from each other. Senior researchers bring experience in study design, interpretation, scientific judgment, leadership, and understanding how a field has developed over time. Early-career researchers often bring new methodological skills, familiarity with emerging tools, openness to interdisciplinary approaches, and fresh perspectives on scientific questions.
"Scientific training could better support this exchange by creating more structured opportunities for collaboration across career stages. This includes joint writing, methods workshops, peer mentoring, open discussions about research practices, and more transparent conversations about career development.
"Good mentorship should be a two-way process. Early-career researchers need guidance and support, but they also bring valuable expertise and ideas that can strengthen research groups and scientific fields."
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