ClostPath 14 will begin on Monday, September 1^st  by an afternoon dedicated to young investigators but open to all.

The Young Scientist Session will be designed to provide a dynamic and open platform for early-career researchers to connect, share experiences, and benefit from the experience of their peers in a supportive environment. In that aim, all congress participants and sponsors are welcome to participate in this integrative event.

Session Goals

The primary aim of this session is to foster meaningful exchanges between young scientists and their senior colleagues. The journey of early-stage researchers is marked by exciting results and experiences but is also paved with challenging interrogations, either scientific, technical or professional and personal. This session will thus offer opportunities to discuss subjects, brainstorm solutions to technical issues faced in ongoing experiments, and discuss career paths, while building lasting networks within the Clostridia community.

For whom?

This session is open to all congress participants, especially those in the early stages of their scientific careers. Whether you're a graduate student, postdoc, or early-stage researcher, you are encouraged to join us! Mentors, senior researchers, and industry experts are also invited to attend, as your presence and experience will enrich the discussion and provide invaluable insights.

Format to be refined

The schedule is still to come but here are a few glimpses of what will happen:

• Mix and mingle activities to favor exchanges between peers in different stage of their career
• Round Tables on scientific career in academia and outside i.e. scientific communication, edition and publication, industry, scientific supplies, scientific facilities etc.
• Presentations and discussion about technical experimental issues “Find the right tool” session cf. below.

“find the right tool” session

Objectives:

The “find the right tool” session is designed for participants, especially early career researchers, to share expertise, protocols, tips, with fellow scientists and discuss them with represented companies in order to look for technical improvements, solutions, time savers etc.

It will give both, young scientists and companies, the opportunity to discuss their work and increase their visibility in the community.

Organization:

Registration will include the possibility for all ClostPath 2025 participants to register to this special session.

In the same manner as for classical abstract selection, young scientists willing to enter actively the session will be asked for a very short presentation of their research subject (50 words) followed by the presentation of the issue(s) to tackle (100 words max).

Partners entering this session will access the list of the issues to tackle along with the contact details of the young scientists.

The idea is for the industrial partners to help a trainee find an adapted solution to the issue(s) faced.

If a solution is found, both parties will be selected for a joint short presentation. First, the young scientist will present in 5-7 minutes the subject and the issue(s) and then the company will expose in 5-7 minutes the proposed solution. The joint presentation will be followed by 5-7 minutes questions for follow up discussion. If no questions, the industrial partner will be invited to present his company in up to 7 minutes.

The session will be ended by a convivial event happening in the middle of the sponsor booths to encourage further discussions.

Remarks:

The participation to this session will be independent to the conventional scientific sessions.

Abstracts related to a technical question will be submitted to the “find the right tool” session. Abstracts for the selection of posters and oral presentations of research results will be submitted in the corresponding sessions.

A young scientist could be as such selected both for the “find the right tool” session and another scientific session.

The event will only happen if enough participants register and actively participate in the construction of this session.