Madam, – Dr John Walsh (March 3rd) does well to warn of the dangers of the new breed of temporary contracts which are becoming ever more prevalent in Irish universities and research centres. I have been a researcher in Italy since 2002 and was very fortunate to have had to wait “only” seven years before obtaining a permanent position, whereas many colleagues might have 10 or 15 years (or even more in some cases) of successive short-term contracts under their belt before obtaining permanency.
This has had a disastrous effect on Italian research and indeed, the brain drain here is massive and two-fold: good, established researchers leave because they’re tired of waiting, and many promising candidates turn away from a career in research.
The education sector has always been one of the main strengths of Ireland and if the country doesn’t want to follow Italy’s lead, it will need to institute a programme that provides a secure future, in a reasonable time, to deserving academics. Not least because I would welcome any realistic opportunity to return to the oul’ sod. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In my column (Science Today, February 25th) I specifically discussed the pressures endemic in the process of training and hiring university lecturers. I did not discuss the position of the very many PhD-qualified scientists who now work in our third-level institutions on contract research positions and whose work is essential to the whole scientific infrastructure that has been set up in Ireland over the past few decades.
Dr John Walsh is perfectly correct in stating (March 3rd), that this small army of PhD-qualified scientists working on research contracts face a very insecure future. Only a very small fraction of these researchers can be absorbed into secure permanent lecturing positions and no alternative career structures are in place for them. Many/most of these researchers are forced to emigrate to seek employment elsewhere after several years contract work here in Ireland.
There is an urgent need to develop alternative viable career paths in this vitally important sector of our national research infrastructure. – Yours, etc,