Description of pledge activities

The Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) will leverage its network to spread the word about physical activity and mental health to improve awareness among people.

The Association is made up of over 20 000 members spanning over more than 150 countries and it will

• dedicate the December 2022 newsletter of the Association to mental health in the academia. This is expected to address young researchers’ notorious unhealthy lifestyle. This entails low levels of wellbeing with long working hours and job precarity leading to reduced free time, e.g. for exercising, along with increased stress
• urge its members to join REFERENT, the MCAA peer-to-peer mental health support initiative, and attend ReMO workshops, in which speakers talk about the importance of mental health so to help people facing these issues and attempting to pacify them
• organise a dedicated session aimed towards the importance of mental health and leading a healthy lifestyle in the 2023 MCAA Annual Conference, that will be made publicly available online
• encourage the inclusion of light exercises/breathing exercises in all workshops MCAA will host in the near future

Expected measurable outcome

1. Number of distributed issues and website views of the December 2022 issue of the MCAA newsletter, dedicated to mental health in the academia
2. Number of REFERENT participants
3. Number of MCAA posts disseminating ReMO initiatives and number of views
4. Number of onsite attendees and online views of the session(s) dedicated to mental health and healthy lifestyle in the 2023 MCAA Annual Conference