Evidence and Ideas: Postdoc and ECR Precarity

Abstract

Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are often on short, fixed-term contracts. This means they often lack a foundational feeling of security in their careers and their contractional situation inhibits them from thriving both at work and at home. Our Policy Studio brought together 15 senior policy makers working in and with the UK academic sector. The studio was designed to share our research findings and utilise the participants’ lived experiences to identify ways to reduce precarity of employment and/or to alleviate its symptoms, ultimately working towards improving policies.