Shaping the Future of Research: a perspective from junior scientists

Abstract

The landscape of scientific research and funding is in flux as a result of tight budgets, evolving models of both publishing and evaluation, and questions about training and workforce stability. As future leaders, junior scientists are uniquely poised to shape the culture and practice of science in response to these challenges. A group of postdocs in the Boston area who are invested in improving the scientific endeavor, planned a symposium held on October 2 and 3 , 2014, as a way to join the discussion about the future of US biomedical research. Here we present a report of the proceedings of participant-driven workshops and the organizers' synthesis of the outcomes.

Decoupling of the minority PhD talent pool and assistant professor hiring in medical school basic science departments in the US

“…In contrast, WR assistant professor hiring numbers were more closely related to the total number of WR PhD graduates. Therefore, broader changes in the biomedical academic labor market—i.e., more trainees than faculty positions, elongated pathways to independence, and declining research funding (Alberts et al, 2014; McDowell et al, 2014; Larson and Ghaffarzadegan, 2014)–are insufficient to explain differences in faculty attainment between postdoctoral scientists from URM and WR backgrounds.…”

“…Moreover, at PhD completion URM men and women report lower levels of interest in faculty positions at research-intensive universities than their WR counterparts, even when controlling for career interests at PhD entry, scholarly productivity, mentorship or research self-efficacy (Gibbs et al, 2014). Thus, part of the lack of representation could be due to disproportionately low application rates by URM PhD graduates and postdocs for these positions for reasons ranging from values misalignment (Gibbs et al, 2013), implicit and explicit biases (Colon Ramos and Quiñones-Hinojosa, 2016; Jarvis, 2015), or perceptions of hypercompetition within academic research that makes the positions particularly unattractive in the current funding climate (McDowell et al, 2014). …”

Monitoring the compliance of the academic enterprise with the Fair Labor Standards Act

“…Recommendations have been made across a wide swathe of academe, as summarized by Pickett et al ( Pickett et al , 2015). The American Academy of Arts and Sciences ( American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2014), the National Academies ( Committee to Review the State of Postdoctoral Experience in Scientists and Engineers et al , 2014), senior biomedical researchers ( Alberts et al , 2014), junior scientists ( McDowell et al , 2014), organizations representing postdocs ( National Postdoctoral Association, 2016) and advisory groups to the NIH ( Biomedical Research Workforce Working Group, 2012) have all recommended increases to postdoc salaries in the years prior to the FLSA update, often to the level of at least $50,000, which is higher than the current required level of $47,476 for overtime exemption.…”

Preparing future professionals by enhancing workforce readiness

“…Common reasons may include the growing competition for funding, pressures to obtain tenure and promotion, or the overall lack of available faculty positions at research-intensive institutions [3, 5–8]. Whether doctoral and postdoctoral trainees are simply interested in pursuing a professional career or are anticipating being unable to obtain a faculty position upon completion of their training, the fact is that more and more trainees are exploring careers outside of academia – taking their expertise into consulting, government, non-profit, and private sector work [2, 3, 5, 9]. …”