The EARA Student and Early Career Network (formerly Student Union) was formally established at the 8th Biennial Meeting of EARA, in Oxford (UK), in September 2002. In an informal meeting with all PhD students who were taking part in that conference, professor Hakan Stattin, president of EARA, proposed the idea of a students' association related to EARA and a student representative in the EARA Executive Council. In that meeting, several ideas were discussed related to the aims and functions of this student union. Two important priorities are: the creation of this website as a platform for exchange and interaction, and the organization of regular research or summer schools.
Further, a student steering committee was formed and a representative in the EARA Executive Council was appointed.

The most important aims of the Student and Early Career Network are:

• to provide support, useful links and information to European research students and postdoctoral researchers who are concerned with adolescents,
• to provide communication amongst new researchers and between new and senior researchers who are engaged in similar aspects of psychological research in adolescence, and to promote scientific collaboration between them,
• to bring together young European researchers in adolescence via summer schools and conferences and to promote the quality of research and scientific thinking in Europe

At each meeting, usually conducted within the biennial meetings of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, a new president is elected who represents the Student and Early Career network.
For the 2010-2012 election period, Jenny Symonds from Cambridge University, UK stands as our president. Previous presidents are listed here.