The Global IR Juniors: Results from an International Intersocietal Collaborative for Enhancing IR among Trainees and Early Career IR's

To understand the impact of the Global IR Juniors (GIRJ) Summit, a global collaboration among early career IRs and trainees from international IR societies in a single forum to exchange ideas and local experiences, promote networking, enhance education and strengthen IR internationally, particularly in resource-limited settings.

Materials and Methods:

The inaugural GIRJ Summit first took place virtually in 2021 via Zoom until 2022. In 2023, the summit adopted a hybrid format. Data regarding the number of presenters, their countries of origin, and the attendance mode was collected. A survey was distributed to attendees to gather feedback on their overall experience and to assess the summit's value and utility of its sessions. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results:

The 1^st Summit hosted by PAIRS (Pan Arab IR Society), with 5 hours of virtual programming comprising speakers from 10+ countries and 600+ attendees from 60+ countries. The program introduced global junior IRs, discussed training pathways, and highlighted women in IR. The 2^nd Summit was hosted virtually by CIRSE (Cardiovascular & IR Society of Europe), with 4 hours programming and 240+ attendees. The session ratings from post summit survey (1 = least effective to 5 = most effective) were highest for “Day-in-the-Life: IRs Around the World” (4.48) followed by “Building a Global IR: Challenges & Opportunities” (4.38), “Rising Stars: IR Juniors World Tour” (4.15), “The Global Trainee: Meet & Greet Trainee Committees” (4.05) and “Women in IR” (3.93). On March 2023, a hybrid Summit format was hosted in conjunction with SIR Annual Scientific Meeting and included 4 hours programming with 27 speakers from 14 countries and 300+ registrants. The sessions and their mean ratings from the post-survey (1 = poor to 5 = excellent) were: “Public engagement in IR: Putting the patient first” (4.4), “Day-in-the-Life: IRs Around the World” (4.3), “Global IR Research” (4.3), and “IR Juniors World Tour” (4.3). Overall, 76.1% said the Summit had a greatly positive impact on their perception of global IR opportunities while 17.4% had a moderately positive impact. 73.9% rated the summit as excellent and 21.7% as very good.

Conclusion: The GIRJ demonstrated the unique perspective of global collaboration to promote IR worldwide and can strengthen IR by connecting local experiences and communicating across borders. Future ideas include website creation to collate global IR resources, such as free lectures, volunteer opportunities, and establishing international trainee and research registries that can enhance further collaborations.