The postdoc series: The podcast

Posted on 26 Mar 2015 by Julie Gould

Postdocs are urged by peers and senior scientists to help change the postdoc research culture.

At the end of 2014, two papers were released reviewing the postdoctoral research space and suggesting ways to improve it. The first, Shaping the future of research, is a paper written by postdocs themselves and gives their point of view based the Future of Research symposium that they held in Boston in October 2014. The symposium brought together early career researchers to discuss (and maybe complain a little about) the postdoc part of the academic career track. We’ve mentioned it in part 3 of the postdoc series: The plight of the postdoc.

The second report, The postdoctoral experience revisited, was commissioned by the National Academies in the USA, and was chaired by Gregory Petsko, professor of neuroscience at Weill Cornell College of Medicine in New York City. This report revisits a similar report that was written in 2000, to see whether or not any of the suggested action points had been followed through and whether or not they had made any difference.

In this podcast I speak to Petsko, as well as Gary McDowell, a biology postdoc at Tufts University and to Kristin Krukenberg, a systems biology postdoc at Harvard Medical School, both of whom were authors of the Future of Research paper. The aim of the podcast is to get an overview of each of the reports, to see how similar they are, and whether or not the suggested action points made bby each paper are in any way feasible. This section starts at 6minutes into the podcast.

The main take away message from both reports, and the podcast, is that this grass-roots movement of postdocs starting conversations and looking for ways to change the current system is a good thing. Educating yourself about your ptoential future careers in a good thing. these messages reflect those from other podcasts that I’ve done this year: Take control of your own careers.

But before we get into that, the podcast also features Monya Baker, one of the Nature Careers editors, who shares some of her favourite Nature Careers and Naturejobs stories this month. She mentiones the postdoc series on the blog (yay!) but also a story about indecent advances in science.

If you haven’t come across the postdoc series before, you can catch up here:

Part 1: Insights, options, careers

Part 2: What is a postdoc?

Part 3: The plight of the postdoc

Part 4: Postdocs in industry

The postdoc series: The plight of the postdoc

Posted on 16 Mar 2015 by Julie Gould

Postdocs are looking for ways to change postdoctoral research and training.

In December 2014, Shaping the Future of Research: A perspective from junior scientists, by Gary McDowell et al was published in F1000Research. It’s a report based on the Future of Research meeting that was held in October that year. Its main message is that bioscience and biotechnology postdocs aren’t happy.

The report touches on many different problems that postdocs face, but the bigger problem is the culture within scientific academia itself, says Gregory Petsko, professor of neuroscience at the Weill Cornell Medical College and Chair of the National Academies’ report on the postdoctoral experience. “When I was a postdoc, it was the best time of my life. And many others my age could say the same,” says Petsko. “We had almost complete freedom, very few responsibilities and the particular career paths that we wanted to pursue were available to us (at least that was our perception). Now, the period of being a postdoc is enormously stressful.” Continue reading →

The postdoc series: What is a postdoc?

Posted on 09 Mar 2015 by Julie Gould

Postdocs are stepping-stones in a career, not a final destination.

The National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA both define a postdoc as:

“An individual who has received a doctoral degree (or equivalent) and is engaged in a temporary and defined period of mentored advanced training to enhance the professional skills and research independence needed to pursue his or her chosen career path.”

The defined period covers an approximately 3 year contract where scientists work in a laboratory helping a principle investigator (PI) to conduct their research. Ideally it is an opportunity to develop skills, work on interesting projects with interesting people in interesting places and train to become an independent scientist.

In the UK, the average starting salary for a first postdoc is approximately £27,000. This will increase incrementally throughout the duration of the postdoc. Normally, you would then start the second postdoc at the salary that you finished the first one on, and receive incremental increases again. In the USA, the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award (NRSA) had a baseline postdoctoral stipend for new postdocs of approximately $39,000 in 2012 (this was raised to $42,000 in 2014). This increases to approximately $54,000 for those with seven or more yearsof experience.

However, “being a postdoc is not a career in itself,” warns Karen Hinxman, consultant at the Postdoc Development Centre at Imperial College, London. “It’s a stepping stone to the next part of your career, whether this is inside or outside of academia.” You will not be able to become a perpetual postdoc in the current research sphere. There is an age (and experience) limit to many fellowships: if you have done too many postdocs (or are above a certain age), you will not be eligible for certain funding schemes. If that is the case, you will need to rely on your PI to provide funding. Unfortunately, perpetual postdocs become expensive and PIs often cannot afford them.

The number of scientists taking on a postdoc in the US has increased dramatically since the late 1970’s, according to data collected by the NSF for their Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS). (Note: data before 2007 was collected in a slightly different way compared to data collected from 2007 onwards).

The logical next step after completing a postdoc (or two) is to apply for your own funding so that you can become an independent scientist with your own lab in an academic institution. In the current climate this will most likely depend on your publication history (number and in what journal). If you’re reading this blog, you probably know that.

What some young postdocs don’t know is that there are limits attached to some of the grants you can apply for. The Future Leaders grant from the Biotechnology and Bio Science Research Council in the UK, for example, has an eligibility limit on it that states:

“Applicants should not exceed five years in active postdoctoral research employment prior to announcement of the awarded FLFs (30 November 2015)”

And this one from the Wellcome Trust is only for newly appointed postdocs in the biomedical sciences with less than two years experience. More postdoc funding opportunities and challenges will be covered in another post.

However, academia is not the only option post-postdoc. The skills learned during the three year contract are diverse and transferable. In part 3 of this series, we explore those other options, and other issues that trouble postdocs.

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