YAE survey: stress and long hours common among young researchers
18 June 2019
In an opinion piece for nature.com, Dr Shaul Shalvi (ASE, microeconomics), Toma Susi (University of Vienna) and Mangala Srinivas (Radboud University Nijmegen) share the results of a survey held among the researchers of the Young Academy of Europe. The findings - little time, much stress - inspire a call for European policy to better protect early-career researchers: “As the future of research, young scholars must be better supported.”
The survey was held among 100 members of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE) in order to gauge the challenges faced by early-career researchers across Europe.
The four main concerns that arose from the survey are lack of time, securing a permanent position, obtaining funding, and excessive administrative work. Many of the respondents reported working longer hours than their contracts require and experiencing a high level of stress.
In October, the YAE will discuss their findings at the annual conference of the Academy of Europe, in hopes of raising awareness and driving European policymakers to take early-career researchers’ needs into account.