UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) reposted this
Director & Deputy CEO at CRAC-Vitae - research culture - researcher careers - equity in research
📢 How can we better track researcher career pathways to capture their contribution to the UK R&D ecosystem and society? We are inviting everyone with an interest—from HE institutions, to funders, employers, researchers, PhD graduates—to come together, discuss, and collaborate on how to develop a sustainable approach to systematically tracking researcher careers in the UK. 🔎 Why does this matter? We know that PhD graduates are highly employable. Vitae’s research shows that 90% of those who graduated in 2018/19 were either employed or engaged in further study within 15 months (Vitae, 2022). Of those: 📌 Around 50% worked in higher education 📌 10% conducted research outside higher education 📌 Almost one-third worked in common doctoral-level occupations outside higher education 📌 One in ten were in other roles beyond higher education Yet, beyond 18 months (i.e., the point at which the Graduate Outcomes Survey takes place), we lose sight of researchers’ career outcomes and contributions. A clearer picture of researcher careers will help shape better policies, strengthen career development, and identify the full impact and economic contribution of doctoral graduates across sectors. 🔗 Join the conversation and help shape the future of researcher career tracking: https://lnkd.in/e_wQhHHY
It would be interesting to know if these higher education careers are exclusively academic, or if they include professional services/third space roles.
Brilliant to see this. I just signed up. I'm launching a survey on alt-ac careers next month as I'm a bit fed-up with there not being enough data!
Very interesting initiative! I would be more than happy to contribute. I was involved in the DocEnhance PHD career tracking survey (from design to data analysis) across several EU countries (https://zenodo.org/records/7188085#.Y7hG1hXMJPZ). Using the same datasets we are working on two different projects. One around the determinants of the career pathways of doctoral holders and another one on skills and career paths. More than happy to share thoughts if you find them of interest. The key message we want to pass is the importance to recognise the different career paths available (academia, non-academia, research, non-research) and derive policy recommendations in its recognition.
Dan King
15h
Having better visibility of post-doctoral careers to help career development is an excellent aim. The cited report sets out some useful examples, but also raises a number of questions around efficiency and sustainability. Why will a "collect more data" approach work when the Research and Innovation Workforce Survey has fallen so flat beyond academia? (see https://vitae.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Toward-Systematic-Tracking-of-Researcher-Careers.-A-Scoping-Review-and-Development-Plan.pdf). The use of LinkedIn data, such as the NCUB approach also described in the report, seems to offer better sustainablity and reach beyond academia. But I'm curious, the report is largely silent on institutional alunmi functions (except as vehicles to send out surveys to collect more data): don't these functions already hold much relevant data? So is the problem sharing permissions and not collection?
Joanna Young
3d
Great idea Yolanda! I just signed up and would be very interested to see more on this subject. Students and ECRs in our Careers workshops are always keen to hear about various career pathways.
Director at Code-Switch Consultants
4dSuch important work for all the reasons above but also for researchers' own career confidence. Researchers are much more highly employable in diverse roles inside and outside academia than most have even dared to imagine.