I heard on the radio a couple of minutes ago that Australia faces a severe scientist drought.
Julie Bishop is saying that Australia will be short of about 15,000 science and engineering professionals in six years' time. Tellingly, she has implied that the current (University, I presume) courses and career paths are not good enough. This in itself is progress, I feel; but although the government has admitted there is a problem, we have to ask what are they going to do about it?
The pledge of an extra 50 positions at CSIRO is a small step in the right direction, but there has to be a major rethink in the way science is supported if a real difference is to be made.
For starters, you have to pay postdocs — who have undergone at least six or seven years of training — a salary commensurate with their position as professionals. If you want your scientists to be in academia (so that the knowledge and training is passed on to the next generation and you are actually contributing to the sum total of human knowledge rather than shareholders' pockets) then you have to pay them a salary equivalent to what they can earn in industry. The argument that you have more 'freedom' in academia so you don't have to pay academics as much is so much dingo poo.
You have to pay secondary teachers equally well, to entice experienced, enthusiastic scientists into teaching so that the next generation of schoolchildren is inspired by the thought of a career in science. But then you also have to provide real career paths for professional research scientists; people like me, who enjoy the day job but live their lives in 2 - 3 year chunks, and have to deal with the disruption that this lifestyle beings to their family. And our bosses who live on 5 year cycles are in a similar situation.
Which brings us to the main thing that has to be done. The whole granting system is broken. Yes there has to be something to keep us on our toes and producing good research, but in my opinion the current system is too cutthroat. It's so competitive that if you're fortunate enough to receive a research grant you spend half of your time applying for the next one (or writing progress reports). So you have brilliant scientists who are not doing science any more because they are tied up in paperwork!
More, longer term funding has got to be the way to go.
Comments
I couldnt agree more.
After a demanding PhD I was one of the lucky ones who got a good post doc position, but the thought of chasing 1-2 year contracts all over the world, and to be spat out by the system if I have a dry spell with no publications made me realise there are better alternatives.
Im down shifting to a rural highschool teaching path, which will give me time to garden and have a life outside of work, and to move anywhere I want to, when I want to.
And the grant system is broken. No-one is game to do any research where they are not confident of a good enough result to get funding in the next round, and as a result science is stagnating horribly, and we only generate piles of unremarkable data. The big questions are ignored.
All the smart people get out of the profession (or increasingly never get into it in the first place). And $3000 a year in HECS to become a scientist, when lawyers pay half as much? In retrospect I should have become a dentist and ended up working one or two days a week......
Posted by: Shane | July 25, 2006 12:27 PM
how much do lawyers earn per year?
Posted by: Julie | September 21, 2006 12:47 PM
More than I bloody well do.
Posted by: BK | September 21, 2006 12:56 PM
I'm in the same boat as a lot of post docs out there at the moment. Our funding has been cut due to the drought. I was in a comfortable position with funding available for my project until 2010. However, with the drought, alot of funding organisations have had to withdraw their funding at the last minute. This has left me with only two months to find new work in a field hit hard by lack of funding. I hate hearing that we need to train more scientists when I know that 9 out of 10 PhD students must go overseas because there is no work here.
Posted by: Alan | May 4, 2007 10:03 AM