After an input from the Swiss Career Cohorts Study, SwissCore discussed the effects of COVID-19 on young researchers’ careers with the SNSF and the ERC.
In our Swiss Science Briefing titled ‘Research careers in the light of COVID-19 – how can science funders provide support’ on 7 July, we discussed the effects of the pandemic on researchers’ careers and potential mitigation measures with experts. Speakers included Matthias Egger, President of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President ad-interim of the European Research Council (ERC) and Stéphanie Gauttier, Assistant Professor at Grenoble École de Management and Chair of the Marie Curie Alumni Association’s Policy Working Group.
To base the discussion on data and evidence, Janine Lüthi, senior researcher at the University of Bern presented the first results of a special module of the Swiss Career Tracker Cohorts (CTC) Study. The project investigated the impact of the pandemic on young researchers, and looked at how the researchers assessed the consequences to their future career. The results show that researchers worked more from home and that those with children, especially the women among them, worked less and with different schedules than normal. Their productivity decreased, when researchers had to take on care responsibilities, and they suffered from cancelled conferences, closed labs or postponed visits. A majority of researchers in the study believed that the measures might have negative effects on their career. Stéphanie Gauttier confirmed the findings of the study from her own experience and the discussion with peers. Young researchers were still expected to deliver, but with no access to labs or data, they had to adapt their research topics and acquire new skills. They also fear that not being able to deliver in time can drive them out of academia.
It seems however, that the pandemic did not significantly inhibit researchers from writing grant applications. The number of applicants to the first ERC calls under Horizon Europe has even increased as compared to previous years and the percentage of women has grown. The ERC is planning though to allow applicants to their 2022 calls to self-declare delays or gaps in their productivity due to the pandemic. In Switzerland, the SNSF observed a drop of applications from women in spring 2020, but only in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities. In the meantime, however, application numbers have returned to normal. Differences between disciplines are also a topic at the ERC, Bourguignon observed that while mathematicians may even profit from working from home, it might be detrimental for researchers bound to labs.
The panel discussion showed that the pandemic has spiked a discussion on research careers and the evaluation of research in general. Online evaluations might be here to stay with ERC interviews remaining remote for the moment. While this is a challenge for some and requires extra efforts from experts and staff, it may lower the impact on climate and even offer a chance for some. Matthias Egger explained that prerecording project presentations for panels as videos can lift the stress of young principal investigators and allow the experts to judge the science rather than the ‘stage performance’ of the researcher. The panellists also criticised the increasing trend of short-term post-doc assignments, which make it more difficult for researchers to become independent and achieve a stable income. An improvement of the situation will require a close collaboration between funders and hosting institutions, which must learn to differentiate between career and research grants. For a change in culture, the entire community has to go along.
The panellists concluded that the pandemic has made inherent problems of the research system more visible and shown the system’s weaknesses. Basic science is a long-term endeavour and measures to support it should be applied in the long-term as well.