Message from the new Co-Chairs of ECHR

The important missions of ECHR, and the supportive collegiate nature of our group are the reason for our interest and enthusiasm in accepting this new co-chair position. Indeed, the core mission of the ECHR is to provide a place for truly interdisciplinary research in the field of hallucination and related phenomena. Science on hallucinations bridges application and theory from multiple domains. Tremendous work has been done by Cassie and Ben in the last few years in creating and expanding the ECHR. We also think more can be done to fully realise the ECHR mission. As the new co-chairs of the ECHR, we want to further develop its multidisciplinary and collaborative nature. We intend to accomplish this by taking further steps to develop our community. 

First, we want to increase inclusivity and progress towards equity, by reaching out to people from minoritised identities (such as, but not limited to gender and ethnicity). Our main aim is to include early career researchers from Asia, Africa and South America. Indeed, commitment to diversity and representativeness are core values of ECHR. Specifically, in assembling the ECHR committee we will try to incorporate diversity across many domains, including demographic, geographic, cultural, and intellectual diversity.

Second, to further increase collaboration and mutual aid among ECHR members, we want to set quarterly workshops to help ECR to develop new skills and also share their skills with other members. We are in particular sensible to the Open Science Practices. We want to highlight the need to balance multiple viewpoints (e.g., those in favour and those unaware of these practices and even opposed). Overall, we believe that much can be taught and learned in terms of Open Science practices and, therefore, in terms of best practices regarding scientific openness and transparency. We want to continue to help the ECHR to become the forefront of change in terms of Open Science in the field of hallucinations. 

Third, we want members to be actively engaged in the processes of further developing and expanding the ECHR. We acknowledge that ERCs are very busy, which makes time even more precious. We also acknowledge that a lot has been accomplished in this direction since the ECHR was created. We want to further include members to be active in the ECHR (e.g. roles in the committee and organisation or participation in workshops). 

Last but not least, our main goal is still to support ECR in different ways and, most importantly, in creating their own network and further developing their careers. For that reason, our main goal as co-chair will be to support ECR to create collaborations with researchers across disciplines.

Thanks so much, and we can’t wait to work with you all!

– Cathy Bortolon and Emma Palmer-Cooper