At the encouragement of the Government, the new National Junior Faculty organization will contribute suggestions for the upcoming Research Bill. The organization is also proposing concepts for an updated grant model to the Swedish Research Council.
The National Junior Faculty represents the future of Swedish research. The organization emerged in February from a loosely knit network of Future Faculty and similar groups at six Swedish universities. In addition to Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, associations at Linköping, Lund, Umea and Uppsala University, as well as Karolinska Institute, are participating on behalf of more than 1,000 young scientists. The idea behind National Junior Faculty is to speak in a unified voice that will have a greater impact on policymakers and sponsors.
“Young scientists have difficulty climbing the career ladder these days and cannot even count on uniformity among the various universities,” says Helga Lidö, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology and one of the chairs of Future Faculty. “Young scientists who find themselves on the rung between doctoral student and senior lecturer are at risk of falling off the ladder. Sweden wastes valuable resources every time a scientist chooses another career.”
The new umbrella organization is not sitting around twiddling its thumbs. Its representatives have already met with Helene Hellmark Knutsson, the Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research, about the draft of the new Research Bill. Ms. Knutsson asked the National Junior Faculty to summarize its views concerning the problems and challenges that young scientists face when pursuing a career path. The organization argued that the Government should shift some of its priorities away from strategic research in favor of more open-ended projects, which generate a striking number of new findings.
After discussions with Mats Ulfendahl, Secretary General for Medicine and Health, the National Junior Council also wrote a letter to the National Research Council. The letter identified a number of measures that would facilitate and improve career opportunities for young scientists.
“The fact that almost all funding comes from external sources makes it difficult for those who have just finished their postdoc studies to compete with established scientists,” Dr. Lidö says. “We are advocating for a change to the financing system such that a middle rung of scientists between the junior and senior levels are eligible for grants from the National Research Council.”
Young scientists are those who have obtained a PhD within the past ten years. Under the current system, scientists can extend the period by disregarding times when they were ill, on parental leave or doing their internships. In order for young scientists to experience what it is like to work outside the walls of academia, the National Junior Faculty is proposing that jobs in the private sector be bracketed off on their resumes as well. A second proposal is to offer more support for postdocs from abroad.
Read the entire letter to the National Research Council:
https://internwebben.ki.se/sites/default/files/njf_letter_to_vr-mh.pdf
The National Junior Faculty is planning its next meeting in Lund this coming October and has invited Ms. Knutsson to participate.
FUTURE FACULTY AT SAHLGRENSKA ACADEMY
Future Faculty actively supports scientists who have received a PhD but not yet obtained a permanent academic appointment. The network is run by a group of volunteers at Sahlgrenska Academy who promote clearer career paths for junior scientists. Anyone who meets the criteria may join free of charge. Write to futurefaculty@sahlgrenska.gu.se if you would like to be a member.
Additional information: http://sahlgrenska.gu.se/english/research/future_faculty
