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New Survey Finds Broad Dissatisfaction Among Postdoctoral Researchers

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A survey released today by the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA), 2023 Postdoctoral Barriers to Success, shows warning signs from a critical component of the nation's science and research workforce. Today, more than 70,000 postdoctoral researchers ("postdocs") who have completed their Ph.D. or other terminal degree work in senior positions in academia, government, and industry.

The new study indicates widespread stressors across all fundamental components of the postdoc position detract from a satisfactory professional and life experience. The negative effects could be contributing to decreased interest among graduate students in entering the postdoc position and difficulty in institutions in attracting and retaining such researchers.

Salary shortcomings are key, with approximately 19 out of 20 postdocs surveyed indicating that their salaries have a negative impact on their professional and/or personal lives. Salaries for first-year postdocs funded at a widely-used benchmark by the National Institutes of Health are less than $55,000 for our most highly-educated workforce, a figure lower than frequently-cited salaries for those entering private sector work with only an undergraduate degree.

"Salaries are only the beginning of the issue," commented Thomas P. Kimbis, executive director and chief executive officer of the NPA. "We need to dig deeper across all factors influencing this population to ensure that postdoctoral researchers and their institutions succeed, while our nation's scientific enterprise remains robust."

The NPA survey asked about twenty-four factors with possible implications for postdocs and found that, in every case, at least half of respondents were negatively impacted in some manner. Other than salary, top concerns included the lack of clarity of pathway to next position, unclear definition of their time as a postdoc, and job security and position guarantees.

International postdocs working in the U.S. face additional setbacks. Nearly three-quarters of international postdocs indicated that additional vulnerabilities associated with their foreign status have a high-level, negative impact on their professional and/or personal lives. Today, international researchers comprise more than half of the postdoc workforce in the U.S.

Despite these challenges, postdocs across all fields continue to accomplish a significant amount of critical research to the benefit of their disciplines, to science, and to the nation. Postdocs are not alone in seeking change: academic institutions, foundations and government entities are also interested in solutions. Addressing needs identified in this survey may multiply the positive impact of postdocs, expand the interest and retention in the postdoc position, and create a more personally and professionally satisfied research workforce.

"The NPA encourages institutions hosting postdocs as well as funding agencies to review these findings and to work with the NPA to implement appropriate actions to address them," said Kimbis.

Learn more (PDF): https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.nationalpostdoc.org/resource/resmgr/docs/2023_postdoctoral_barriers_t.pdf

About National Postdoctoral Association:

The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational association headquartered in Rockville, MD. Founded in 2003, the NPA envisions an inclusive community where all postdocs are empowered, valued, recognized, and supported in their current and future endeavors. The NPA serves the entire postdoctoral community, including its more than 21,000 individual and 230 organizational members.

Find out more at https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/.

Related link: https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/

This news story was published by the Neotrope® News Network - all rights reserved. ID:NEO2022

Business, Education and Schools, Free News Articles, Reports and Studies

New Study Shows Positive Trends and Continued Challenges for University Postdocs

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) today announced the release of Growing Progress in Supporting Postdocs: 2021 National Postdoctoral Association Institutional Policy Report.

Developed in collaboration with Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, and with support from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the report provides data and analysis of current postdoc office structures as well as insights into postdoc policies and programs at their institutions. The report is the third in a series of triennial reports on this topic.

The report analyzes the impact of how certain important and measurable factors, such as the number of postdocs at an institution, affect postdoc policies, benefits, and training programs. The latest data show positive trends when compared to the last edition, such as the continued creation of new postdoc offices at research facilities, a small increase in postdoc office budgets, and a few more institutions offering family friendly benefits to postdocs, to name a few.

"We are headed in the right direction in many areas of the postdoctoral experience," noted Tom Kimbis, executive director and chief executive officer of the NPA. "However, there are clear areas demanding improvement illustrated in this report that should be considered by all institutions supporting postdocs."

The report's key recommendations to institutions that hire postdocs are to increase the staff and budget for postdoc offices, provide higher compensation and equality in postdoc benefits, implement a uniform postdoc onboarding process, offer an intentional training program, build a diverse postdoc population, and implement better career tracking of postdocs after they leave their training institutions.

The report is part of an ongoing data collection project that began in 2012. This is the first look at longitudinal data covering a span of six years and originating with the last three NPA Institutional Policy Reports, and includes identification of areas of strength and weakness in institutional progress over that time. The institutions covered in this year's iteration represent 36,000 of the country's approximately 70,000 postdocs. Work is underway to begin the next round of data collection starting in 2022.

Growing Progress in Supporting Postdocs is being released as a supplement to the May-June 2021 issue of Sigma Xi's publication, American Scientist, and is also available online at the Sigma Xi and NPA websites. Fuller data from the expansive report is also available to NPA members only on the NPA website.

Learn mote: https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/page/policy_report_databa

About National Postdoctoral Association:

The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational association headquartered in Rockville, MD. Founded in 2003, the NPA envisions an inclusive community where all postdocs are empowered, valued, recognized, and supported in their current and future endeavors. The NPA serves the entire postdoctoral community, including its 18,000 individual and 215 organizational members.

Related link: https://www.nationalpostdoc.org/

This news story was published by the Neotrope® News Network - all rights reserved.