“We should not consider it a disaster that someone trained to a high level doesn’t remain in academia,” Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, president of the European Research Council, told a panel discussion about science’s “lost generation” last month. Read more
You are coming towards the end of your PhD – so what next? There are many options open to you; one obvious one is to apply for a postdoc position. You should think carefully about what you want to do and not just pursue this through inertia. I have supervised many engineering PhDs and some postdocs in my 32 years as an academic. As Head of University College London’s Doctoral School, I oversee the environment and policy for 6000 doctoral candidates and 3200 postdocs. Read more
I keep my business cards in the top drawer of my desk at work. They are in two bulky boxes and take up a lot of space, but I like them there because I can see them every time I pull out a pen. They are a memento of how very often you can’t foresee where an opportunity lies – and therefore to seize each and every one of them. Read more
This piece was originally published on the BioMed Central blog network, part of Springer Nature. Read more
But questions remain about the plan’s actual intent and its potential impact on US universities’ current and future policies around existing faculty members. Read more
Although faculty members transition from industry to academia (and vice-versa), it’s rare to go back and forth. How does each setting help a researcher grow, and what skills are critical in both environments? Sam King offers his insight. Read more
The idea of solving scientific questions that have never been answered before has always excited me — especially if that knowledge might go on to help someone medically. Despite this, I have come very close to giving up on a career as a clinician scientist. Read more
The proposal from the advisory body in Washington DC calls for more career counselling at the graduate and postdoctoral levels, better data on career outcomes at those levels, three-year caps on postdocs under principal investigators and new non-tenure track academic research positions, among other changes. To implement all the proposals would require a US$2 billion increase to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s budget, as well as subsequent budget raises to prevent future funding bottlenecks. Read more
A recent Universities UK report found that 37% of UK-authored articles are freely available immediately, compared with 25% globally, and most UK articles can be accessed 12 months after publication through open access green and gold schemes. Around half of research articles searched for online are open access, and many funders now require research to be published in an open access journal. Read more
When I was looking for a PhD lab I had a pretty clear idea of the techniques I wanted to learn and master, and, essentially, I thought that was everything I needed to worry about. But the right PhD training is crucial to establish a good foundation for what comes next – either a job in industry, a postdoc in academia, or something away from the bench. Choosing the right lab is important, and there are considerations beyond gaining specific technical skills that need to be mulled over before making a decision. If I were to start another PhD, this is what I would look for: … Read more
