Connecting women in neurosciences (CWIN) – a networking project to sustain mutual empowerment in young, female, clinical neuroscientists

Simultaneously acquiring broad clinical knowledge and scientific expertise is a major challenge for young clinical scientists. Female researchers may face additional hurdles in their career e.g. due to unconscious bias. We aimed to address clinical, research and gender-related challenges among young female clinical neuroscientists. We implemented a peer-lead networking group dedicated to increase clinical and scientific knowledge, improve soft skills and encourage exchange between fellow residents. In monthly meetings, two participants hold short presentations on a clinical topic or scientific method, followed by a discussion and feedback to the presenter. Afterwards, participants network and discuss challenges they face in their daily experience. Nine neurology residents at a Swiss University Hospital with ≤ 3 years of training participated in the “Connecting Women in Neurosciences” (CWIN) project from 08/2020 to 06/2021. In a qualitative evaluation, participants reported they felt empowered by these meetings and profited from their new network. We identified several challenges in combining clinical and research activities, some of which participants perceived to be gender-related. In addition to women-only meetings, we will promote events addressing all interested researchers. Peer-to-peer networking is an easy and low-budget intervention to encourage female residents to engage in research activities, profit from each other's expertise and promote interdisciplinary teamwork. It can provide a protected environment to discuss and overcome in particular gender-related challenges. We encourage young colleagues to regularly engage in structured networking activities with their local peers.