From G.A. Butcher, Imperial College London
It is doubtful if there will be any significant rise in the numbers of permanent jobs available to short-term contract researchers in the near future (“Stuck on the road to nowhere”, 14 October, and Letters, 4 November). However, something could be done to ease the stresses and strains of those of us who live in this way, as I have done for thirty years.
Universities should provide sufficient funds to enable postdocs who have completed a given number of contracts to retrain either during or at the end of a grant when they have decided to leave a project. They could, for example, do courses in management, journalism, or learn a new scientific/laboratory skill.
The scheme would have to be universal to cope with the mobility of researchers and would require some central organisation. This would at least make people more employable within or outside science and help to maintain morale and enthusiasm.
