Posts of Ben Dickson RSSSat, 05 Mar 2022 23:09:16 GMTThe Te Ara Paerangi Future Pathways green paper lays open for consultation ideas intended to drive system-level transformation in our research, science and innovation system. Consultation has been opened to a broad swath of participants from both within and outside the current system, with specific encouragement to engage for early-career researchers and those who are underrepresented at the current time. We understand that system-level change is an overwhelming process that requires significant time to implement well-thought out, achievable changes, and that these changes will also require time to become real. During an early consultation session, it was stated by facilitators that this process has a realistic timeline for change of seven or more years. Still, it is important to consider those who are in the system now. Many hundreds of early-career staff, including those bearing the extra burden for the underrepresented, cannot wait seven years. A key aspect missing in the current thinking is urgency. While it is important to aim for long-term and lasting change, we must implement short-term bridges for our early-career workforce so that they will be part of the research system they are working to help improve.In 2021 MBIE funded a one-off cohort of thirty Whitinga Fellowships, a programme designed to bridge early-career researchers through the impact of COVID-19. While praiseworthy for its progressive selection process and the opportunity it provided, this fellowship scheme was small in scope. Due to the restrictions on eligibility, and funding distribution many who would otherwise be considered early-career researchers were excluded from application. When considering how many early-career researchers are in precarious positions, thirty fellowships is almost a rounding error. The funding period is only two-years which is simply shifting a burden down the road.In order for early-career research workforce, who are spending countless unpaid hours contributing to Te ... Read more

]]>Sat, 05 Mar 2022 23:09:16 GMTThe concept of early-career researchers is bandied about a lot, especially in the Te Ara Paerangi Future Pathways process, but what is an ECR? Definitions are a dime a dozen, it seems like every grant, fellowship and award provides their own equally problematic version of ECR in order to establish an appropriate sized cohort.Are PhD students ECRs? Are all research students ECRs? Is time as a student part of a career? Should it only be once you're paid a wage/salary that your early-career starts? How long are you an ECR for? Is it a set number of years (excluding career breaks), is there an age cut-off? Or should ECR be defined by that central C? Surely progression within a 'career' should determine career stage, but how can that be judged when we all know different fields and sub-fields do things in different ways? Perhaps the key problem is that we don't have well-defined career paths, so assessing career stage is impossible. Or is an ECR as undefinable as a 'state of mind'? Still... how can you define a state of mind as an eligibility requirement?So you see, I would argue that noone really knows what an ECR is and hence there is a massive disparity in definition. Unfortunately without a good definition, ECR is used against us. We can fall out of boxes without falling into new ones, we're too-early, too-late(-early) or early, but missing something else...So comment below, what's your favourite definition of an ECR?

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