Mitigating losses: How science diplomacy can address the impact of COVID-19 on early career researchers Sandra Lopez-Verges 1 , Bernardo Urbani 2 , David Fernandez Rivas 3 , Sandeep Kaur- Ghumaan 4 , Anna Coussens 5 , Felix Moronta-Barrios 6 , Suraj Bhattarai 7 , Leila Niamir 8 , Velia Siciliano 9 , Andreea Molnar 10 , Amanda Weltman 11 , Meghnath Dhimal 12 , Shalini S. Arya 13 , Karen J. Cloete 14 , Almas Taj Awan 15 , Chandra Shekhar Sharma 16 , Clarissa Rios Rojas 17 , Yoko Shimpuku 18 , John Ganle 19 , Maryam M. Matin 20 , Nzweundji Justine Germo 21 , Abdeslam Badre 22 , Paulina Carmona-Mora 23 ‡ 1 Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies, Sistema Nacional de Investigación SNI del SENACYT, Panama City, Panama 2 Center for Anthropology, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, Caracas, Venezuela 3 University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands 4 University of Delhi, New Delhi, India 5 Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Victoria, Australia 6 International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, Italy 7 Global Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, Kathmandu, Nepal 8 Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Berlin, Germany 9 Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Naples, Italy 10 Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia 11 University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 12 Nepal Health Research Council, Kathmandu, Nepal 13 Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India 14 University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa 15 Federal University of São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil 16 Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India 17 Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom 18 Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan 19 University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana 20 Department of Biology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran 21 Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies, Yaounde, Cameroon 22 Mohammed 5 University in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco 23 Department of Neurology and MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento, California, USA. ‡ Corresponding author: Paulina Carmona-Mora, PhD pcarmona@ucdavis.edu * The authors are members or alumni of the Global Young Academy (GYA).