The CARL II cohort: what we did and what came out of it.

The Chiropractic Academy for Research Leadership (CARL) was formed in 2016 as a global mentorship program for early career researchers in chiropractic. CARL is a three-year program anchored around three week-long residentials, alternating between Denmark, Australia, and Canada, with ongoing online activities and project work between residentials. This paper reports on activities and outputs of the second cohort of CARL Fellows, CARL II, that ran from 2020 to 2024. Despite disruptions from the global COVID pandemic, the CARL II cohort was successful in forming a tightly knit group of fourteen early career researchers from seven countries in Australia, Europe, and North America. CARL Fellows co-produced a range of research and leadership outputs, including 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and hosted two online conferences (CARLoquium) to support global research engagement during the pandemic. With the completion of the second cohort and recruitment of the third cohort completed, all underwritten by global financial support from chiropractic organizations, CARL is established as a global program building research capacity and academic critical mass in chiropractic.