What is an ECR?
The 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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All good questions Ben, and I think you're right, no one knows, so every org has their own definition. I know for the NZAS ECR Slack that I founded I was very conscious of not wanting to be exclusionary around the definition. So I ended up making it as wide a definition as possible, including students and not putting a time limit on post-PhD. My thinking was that PhD (and actually even Honours and Masters students) are creating knowledge/researching and are impacted by precarity too. And if they continue in research they will be affected by the policies that we are trying to change today. And at the other end, sometimes those classed as no longer ECRs by the funders are still existing in a precarious state without a permanent job. So I wanted to include all of those people who have a stake in advocating for change to our current system.
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Hi both, I've been overwhelmed by to do's recently, but I also think I should acknowledge that this post is the reason why I joined! I've been thinking a lot about the definition of ECR for the past six months or so. I was in an interesting discussion about an award being given to an ECR within the past year. I thought some of the comments made by older members of the discussion were really interesting. I was the only ECR present, representing a group of ECRs. Our general understanding was that awards like the one we were giving could help precarious people find permanent employment. Some of the older committee members felt that the award should be given to someone who either was just about to be or had already been given continuation. Due to average increasing amounts of time being precarious, this seemed to me to be one way of heaping advantages on to those who already had advantages. It's had me thinking a lot about the overlap (and when there isn't overlap) between ECRs and the precarious positions. I agree, Ben, I think a more standardised definition would be really helpful. It's something I've quietly, slowly been having conversations about for a little while and am interested in exploring more. Other than organisations (for membership fees, for awards, etc), where do you tend to see the term ECR used?
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Self-identification is my favourite definition.
A person stating that they believe themselves to be an ECR, and explaining why they believe that, helps others to do the same.
Over time some common elements may be identified, but I don't think it's necessary to exclude people because they don't fit into the hole formed by the most common concepts.
