The low quality of career paths for researchers in Europe undermines the Union’s capacity to compete with its main competitors in research: too many European researchers embrace academic careers outside the EU or give up such careers to embrace non-academic careers. The Council of the EU has adopted a recommendation on researchers’ careers in December of 2023.
It is urgent to go one step further. In this paper, we argue for the establishment of an ambitious programme by the European Commission, in cooperation with national funders and universities/research institutions to foster job security for Early Career Researchers (ECR) in Europe. We focus here on researchers who have completed their doctorate, who are employed in Academia (universities and research performing or funding organisations), typically “R2” researchers (see below the discussion on terminology); it does not discuss the status and working conditions of doctoral candidates, nor the transition to non-academic
careers, or to research support functions’ careers.
Tenure track positions are very scarce in Europe, they are very competitive and the hiring processes remain relatively obscure. As a result, Europe is losing some of the very best of its researchers to countries where more positions exist, such as the US. Many exceptional young researchers would prefer to remain and conduct research in Europe, but end up leaving because of the lack of job security. ECRs who chose to stay in Europe have to switch from one short temporary position to another for several years. This puts strain on their mental health and family well-being and can have a negative impact on their research work. This job instability disproportionately affects historically underrepresented groups, resulting in the lack of diversity in European academia.
Currently, a number of programmes exist in Europe, but as outlined below, there are significant differences between countries in this regard. Most of these programmes are underfunded and have unreasonably low success rates, typically below five percent. The very high competition leaves a significant number of excellent candidates not funded. In addition, most of these programmes are not well advertised outside of the country in question, and too often recruitment procedures are not transparent or do not exist. This situation is highly regrettable as it limits the potential of future European research and innovation, and Europe’s competitiveness as a whole. It is also in conflict with the above mentioned Council Recommendation on a European framework to attract and retain research, innovation and entrepreneurial talents in Europe (see.
Our survey of existing programmes in Europe shows that, even the most successful ones, such as Ramon Y Cajal in Spain, FCT in Portugal, and Chancellor’s Fellowship in the UK, have a number of remaining problems. Most crucially:
(1) The funding is scarce, which limits their availability.
(2) The tenure decision requires the signature of the department heads. Many department members are influenced by the local research culture to oppose the appointment of these high-performing researchers, as their presence would threaten their own careers and those of the often less well-performing internal candidates.
(3) The selection procedures are not always transparent.
Main Recommendations. There is an urgent need for a Europe-wide starting career programme that comes with an inbuilt follow-on tenure option. The ideal programme would, we believe, have the following qualities for the support of excellent European ECRs:
(1) The programme’s funding base would be a collaborative effort between the European Commission, national funders or ministries, and the host institutions. This collaboration is essential to secure greater buy-in, promotion and visibility.
(2) It would be built on the back of a competitive postdoctoral grant – inspired by the MSCA postdoctoral fellowships.
(3) It would come with a firm tenure commitment from the relevant host institution, providing satisfactory performance.
(4) The tenure evaluation would be conducted by a committee, incorporating input from both the research institution and the funder.
(5) Following the end of the contract, researchers would follow a standard career path toward promotion to full professorship.
(6) Host institutions and funding programmes would be directly incentivised (financially or otherwise) to attract as many of these excellent researchers as possible.
The programme we propose aims to enhance job security for ECRs in Europe, protect against brain drain, foster diversity in academia, and cultivate more inclusive cultures that value intellectual curiosity and freedom in European research. Below, we outline the results of our survey concerning Funding Schemes that promote job Security for ECRs. We believe there are important lessons to be learned from both the successes and shortcomings of the existing programmes. ISE, through its Working Group for Researchers Careers, would be very excited to work with and support the Commission to develop such a programme.
The authors of this paper are : Michelle M. ADAMS (EMBO), Gianna AVELLIS (ICoRSA& MCAA), Scott BREMER (YAE), Ana CVEJIC (EMBO), Simon CLARK (EGU), Nicola DENGO (Eurodoc), Alexandra DUBINI (MCAA, vice-chair), Gabor KISMIKOK (MCAA), Ellen NOLLEN (EMBO), Alexandra OANCA (EASA), Dureen SAMANDER EWEIS (MCAA), Mona SIMION (YAE, chair), Carolina VARELA (ICoRSA), Gerhard WINGENDER (EMBO), Marc YESTE OLIVERAS (YAE)
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