Mindful Connections: Academia, Communication, and AI in Mental Health

About This Episode

What does it really take to stay mentally well in academia? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Gábor Kismihók — a researcher at the intersection of learning analytics, career development, and wellbeing — for an honest, grounded conversation about mental health in the research community. From the early warning signs supervisors should watch for, to the role of institutional culture, personal career decisions, and the rise of AI, this episode covers the full landscape of what it means to be a whole human being inside a research career.

Guest

Dr. Gábor Kismihók Internationally recognized researcher working at the intersection of research careers, learning analytics, and wellbeing. His work focuses on understanding and improving mental health, skills development, and sustainable career pathways in academia and beyond.

Key Topics Covered

• Early warning signs of mental health struggles in researchers
• The power of communication and open lab culture
• Institutional responsibilities toward researcher wellbeing
• The deeply personal nature of a research career identity
• Onboarding and first impressions for joining a research group
• Dr. Kismihók's personal PhD journey between Budapest and Amsterdam
• How AI is reshaping research culture — and the risks it brings
• Whether AI chatbots can play a role in mental health support
• What it means to preserve human value in an AI-driven world
• Final advice for early career researchers struggling silently

Question Timestamps

 | Timestamp | Question / Topic 
| 00:01:28 | What are the early warning signs that a researcher is struggling with their mental health?
| 00:03:10 | What strategies do you suggest to help researchers handle mental health challenges?
| 00:05:32 | As a PhD yourself — how do you personally stay mentally healthy during high-pressure periods like deadlines, grants, or mobility phases?
| 00:07:58 | Do you have opinions on what institutional procedures or resources can help researchers struggling with mental health?
| 00:11:19 | As a young researcher, what was your own onboarding experience? Was there a structured process with your supervisor?
| 00:13:47 | What changes in culture, structure, or policy do you see as most important for research in the next few decades?
| 00:16:53 | Do you see artificial intelligence as a possible solution for mental health support in academia?
| 00:20:24 | To conclude — what message would you give to early-career researchers who are struggling silently?

Key Takeaways

• Withdrawal is a signal. When a researcher goes quiet — stops participating in lab discussions, disappears from shared routines — that is often the first visible sign something is wrong.
• Talk. Always. Dr. Kismihók's core strategy as a non-psychologist is deceptively simple: open a conversation. Whether it's a colleague, a friend, or a family member — sharing the burden matters more than who you share it with.
• Research is creative work, not factory output. Institutions that treat researchers purely as productivity units miss the deeply personal relationship people have with their work. Culture matters as much as policy.
• AI brings both opportunity and risk. While AI tools can support literature reviews and data analysis, the speed of AI-generated content is already overwhelming human-led quality assurance systems — and increasing isolation risks.
• AI chatbots have a role — but a limited one. For researchers with no access to professional support, talking to an AI chatbot may help. But it is not a substitute for human connection or quality wellbeing services.
• You are allowed to leave. For PhD researchers in harmful environments: you are talented enough to find a fulfilling path elsewhere. Leaving is a valid, courageous option.

Resources & Links

• EURAXESS Portal: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu
• Follow EURAXESS on social media for more episodes

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, and welcome to Eureks of Smart Talks.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

The Smart Talks Project Series is an EU funded Euroxicks Project to provide information and assistance to researchers and careers age.

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Eurex must support the EU research area in its embryo to create a single mortgage market for research, innovation, and technology in the EU.

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We support researchers in mobility, careers within and outside academia, innovation and entrepreneurship.

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We strive to increase scientific collaboration between Europe and the world. Hi, I'm Daria, a senior expert at Euro Access National Contact Point in Litvia.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

And I'm Joan, a teaching and research assistant from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in East Serbia.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

And you are listening to the Euroxus Smart Talks podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Today's guest is Dr. Gabor Kashmichok, an internationally recognized researcher working in the intersection of research careers, leading analytics, and well-being. His work focuses on understanding and improving mental health, skills development, and sustainable career pathways in academia and beyond, making him a perfect voice for this conversation on mental health and well-being in the research community. Thank you for joining us today. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. From your experience, I wanted to ask you: do you uh have some early signs uh for researchers that they can look if they're struggling with their mental health? Do you have any suggestions for me personally? What should I look out for as a young PhD researcher to avoid mental health risks?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Yeah, so this is a very trivial difficult question because we are all different types of personalities, we are all different types of persons. In general, what I have seen in my practice is that um if someone suddenly disappears, or not even suddenly, but who is not taking part of the discussions, not taking part of the daily routines of a research lab, could be online or digital or face-to-face physical interactions. If someone is not there somehow, I think this is at least for me as a supervisor, it's a strong indicator that I should take a closer look what's happening there. Because, you know, if someone disappears, if someone starts being isolated from what's happening within the group and within the research environment, I think that uh signals for me that some problem may have happened. It can easily be that this person is working this way, and that's totally fine. But still, if I realize that um this lonely behavior happens, then I try to look at it and try to investigate uh what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

And what are the next steps? Uh, what strategies uh do you suggest to your researchers on uh how they should handle this? Uh what what can help them in these uh situations?

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Yeah, so this is again a tricky question because I'm not a psychologist myself. And yeah, in the research environment, only a handful of researchers have psychology background, so they can handle mental health or mental well-being uh-related deficits. My strategy as a non-psychologist is actually quite simple. Uh talk. Let's start, let's try to talk to each other. I I I really I haven't found any better solution yet. So if if the person who is suffering is not willing to talk to me, then I can ask a colleague or I can advise to that person who is uh taking distance from the others to try to seek to someone he or she can talk to. Because during these discussions, you know, the problems can be far better defined, issues can be uh made explicit. Oftentimes the problem is not in the work or in the scientific process. Oftentimes these things are very personal. So this person doesn't have to talk to a colleague, talk to your mother, your best friend, just talk to someone, get some feedback. Um otherwise, it's going to be extremely difficult to um find out what's going on. I think one person himself or herself, unless this person is extremely talented, there are always exceptions. So for a single person, it's very difficult to find out uh what is happening, what is going on, what the what the problem is.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

I fully agree, and uh it's great advice to share some of the burden with your loved ones, with your friends and family, because you usually have more trust in them. Uh uh taking into account that you're also a PhD, uh, and uh that you have experience with all the aspects of research, uh, what are your uh strategies, tactics uh when uh you have a paper that you need to focus on for a deadline that's uh quickly approaching, or a grant, or um are in some mobility phase and have to go between countries. Uh, how do you stay healthy uh concerning your mental health?

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Yeah, I try to talk. So I think uh at least in my lab, I I do my best to maintain a healthy relationship among um ourselves. That means there are no taboo topics. So when we go out and have lunch, or occasionally we go out and we are in the pub, I think the quality and the depth of discussion is no different than when we discuss research. What I usually say, and what I also think, that being a researcher is really like a special, very creative profession which cannot really regulate it by really strong legal or whatever regulations. Um imagine you try to regulate how a painter paints a picture. You need to create the right environment where very open, very honest discussions about a research problem or research project can take place. Because without these discussions, you cannot deliver the right quality when it comes to research work. But when it comes to ourselves, our own mental well-being, I believe we need the same type of discussions. If I'm with my colleague as a lab leader, I'm also there as Gabor. There are no two personalities, it's the same, it's the very same person who is struggling and who is uh doing research, or who is feeling well and doing research? Both are equally possible.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Uh, I understand, but uh going a bit uh further from that personal aspect, which is very critical, do you have any opinions on institutional procedures, researcher resources, or something else that can help uh researchers who are struggling with mental health issues?

SPEAKER_02 8:16

It's actually a quite nice connection to what I just said before, because again, it goes back to understanding what a researcher is actually doing, how a researcher type of job looks like, what are the key ingredients? And oftentimes, institutions and institutional leadership is taking a very administrative, resource-oriented view on what researchers are doing. We we need this and this amount of research funding, we need to produce this and this amount of papers, of course. Yeah, we need some sort of uh performance indicators and we need to be aware of our resources, but when you do the job, it's again a very creative, it's a very flexible way of working. And this is something what maybe institutions have to understand a bit better. It's also what they have to understand a bit better, but that many people who are researchers they identify themselves with their occupation, with their job, with what they do, and this is a very strong identification. Think about how happy people are when they finally uh get their thesis done and defended.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

It's like giving that's something I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

I hope you will, but it's really like uh something like giving birth in many countries, in Germany as well. Uh the supervisors are doctor fathers or doctor mothers, uh doctor parents. Uh so it's it's really a very personal, you have a very personal relationship to your work, and I think institutions should be aware of this relationship and help researchers to uh to co-create. I mean, we are sitting in the same boat, uh, but we need to co-create a research environment locally, which uh you know where we all flourish, where we all um find our meaning and we create value at the same time. So I think this is this is critical, and there are a lot of ingredients to this, like paying more attention on onboarding, how you join an organization, what are the first impressions? It's a bit like dating. When you start dating someone, you're also looking for the first impressions. If it's a very personal relationship between you and your work, these impressions are extremely uh important. And if an organization puts an effort on this first meeting point, that that shows quality in my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

So uh as a young researcher, what was your experience? Uh, was there uh a detailed onboarding process? Uh were you close with your supervisor? Uh how did the path go for you?

SPEAKER_02 11:33

So that's interesting because I don't know if I was lucky or unlucky, but I did my PhD between uh Budapest and Amsterdam. And before I started uh being a PhD, I was already intellect for many years. First as a student assistant, then I was around as a research associate, very early career researchers, and then I joined a PhD program, a joint program between Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam and the Corvinus University of Budapest. And there was no point in my career where, at least at that stage, where there was a very clear distinction between my pre-academic and academic career. So it was like a normal process. I had enough time to understand what's happening in the lab. Um, I had enough time to understand how people are interacting with each other, what my supervisor wants and how does he think. So for me it was really a very natural process, if you like, to get involved in my PhD. But funny enough, funny enough, and this is an anecdote, that my final decision was not a professional decision. So when I was applying for my PhD position uh to Amsterdam, I knew already that my girlfriend back at the time, who is my wife now, got a position in Amsterdam too. And this sort of personal uh relation, an important personal circumstance, really pushed me more into the world of research.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Okay, that that's a good reason to move, to be perfectly honest. And uh going a bit further more, um what changes in uh culture, uh structure or policy related uh do you see as most important for research in the next few decades? What are your um best predictions based on the experience you had up to this point?

SPEAKER_02 14:04

So I'm uh I'm an AI researcher. Um research is in the AI, uh in the intersection of AI and educational technology. And at least what I see in my bubble is a high risk of isolation. So I think AI will definitely uh impact our research work massively. Already you see that um you know uh literature reviews or even uh data analysis can be supported by AI very well. And we are talking about an open technology, what is out there in the public, uh of course, in the research areas. Uh this AI movement is really um an old, relatively old um area of uh research, but for the public and for the for an everyday person. This is a three year old uh technology. So ChatGPT, I think, was announced 2022, I think, uh if I'm not mistaken. So the speed of change is really, really high. It's very difficult to adopt. And it's unclear how this uh will impact our world. But you can already see a lot of positive and negative implications. If I think of uh research funding acquisition, or uh how quickly we can write a paper, how well AI overloads our quality assurance systems in research. You see the rising number of funding applications, the rising number of papers. Um people are having less and less time because the quality assurance is still we researchers, we have to um quality assure all these processes, and we have less time for that. So it could easily be the case that um the quality of research will suffer. So there are many, many challenges come with AI and including how we organize research, how we do research, how we create cultures, uh research culture or organizational culture in which researchers embedded in, which is under yeah, disruption at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Okay, fair enough. And in terms of uh mental health, do you see artificial intelligence as a possible solution? I mean, I know you spoke a lot about talking, but uh something that I've noticed. I don't know that's not talking, but people have started to have more and more um uh trust in uh AI chatbots, uh, maybe even for those kinds of purposes. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yeah, that's a good one. Uh so first of all, I think we are humans and we need to be aware of what our needs are, and one risk what I see in our work, and this is also a bit part of the previous section, that oftentimes we work like robots as well. We are always available, um, we uh work uh far more than eight hours, we really try to improve ourselves very often. But this is what machines are doing. If you compare this to an AI chatbot or a humanoid robot, you can't beat you can't beat the in terms of being a robot. Um but then what are the human skills? What are what are the human added values uh to this uh story? I think this is this is the this is a very interesting research um question, but also a very interesting question for technology development or service development or research culture development. Like, what is the human in the picture? Where is the human in the picture? What are those tasks, uh abilities, skills, and what still humans should do? When it comes to AI advice or when it comes to chatbots, uh I think these chatbots are quite good when it comes to giving advice on a very generic level. What shall I cook today? What uh how do I get to point A to point B? But even when it comes to uh psychological problems, and there again I have to stress that I'm not a psychologist, but my let's say educated guess that if you have no access to any psychologists, talking to ChatGPT or to whatever chatbot will help you. So it could help people who have uh access to who doesn't who don't have access to psychologists or to any uh services um uh this kind. But if you have access to a good psychologist or you have access to good quality uh well-being services, you will not need these chatbots because the service you get from a human is probably far better than any chatbot uh uh you can get.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

I fully agree. And um to conclude, is there some message that you would like to give to early uh career researchers who are struggling uh silently? Uh what would you tell them? How can they they solve this?

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Seek for alliance, yeah. Get someone what what I said in the very beginning, talk to someone. This is step number one. It but I know it sounds very simple, and it is not simple at the end, because you probably want to talk to someone who understands you, and uh maybe you have fears. I know it it can be super complicated, but um I think it's important not to face this trouble on your own, and whatever you can do to avoid being alone in this situation, please do so, unless you are really an introvert and this is how you want to live your life. Um and the academic in the academic environment oftentimes you know uh you you find those people if you cannot actually if you cannot find people around you in your academic environment who can talk to you, who can be your close colleagues or even friends, uh and consider run. So you don't have to you don't have to stay in that environment which harms you. If you are accepted in a PhD program, you are probably a very smart person. I'm quite sure that you will be able to find um a challenging, but also a job what satisfies you in another environment. So also don't hesitate to stand up and leave if um if this is this is an option for you.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Thank you. I think that's really honest and really good advice. And think thank you for joining us today, Gabri.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Thank you for listening to this episode of the relaxes my talks podcast.

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