The UK has one of the highest per-capita post-doctoral populations globally, attracting some of the most talented researchers from across the world.
Despite this, the postdoc layer risks being overlooked, not least in relation to career development.
There lingers an ingrained perception of a single track to success: securing an academic position. But the ratio of postdocs to full-time positions is acute.
The Researcher Development Concordat explicitly mandates a minimum of 10 days professional development for researchers pro rata. Yet carving this time aside still leaves open the question of how best to use it, and what resources exist to support it. More can be done, and not doing so amounts to a tremendous missed opportunity – not just for postdocs, but for UK HE and the wider UK economy.
