What could the proposed Academic Career Pathway (Research) mean for researchers?

You may have heard about the current consultation on the researcher reward and progression proposals. You may not think the words “HR consultation” are the most exciting in the world, so we wanted to take a moment to explain why we think these proposals are worthy of your consideration.

We think they have the potential to be a very significant change in the way we support research careers at Cambridge - providing researchers at the early, mid and later stages of their careers with cohesive opportunities for promotion and pay progression.

What do the key proposals mean for researchers?

A new research-only Academic Career Pathway

We already have Academic Career Pathways for research and teaching, and for teaching and scholarship. The proposed changes would create one for research only that is a complete pathway from grade 5 up to grade 12.

Currently to be promoted, researchers have to jump two grades (from 5 to 7, 7 to 9, and 9 to 11) – this proposal would make promotion more accessible by filling in the gaps at grade 6, 8 and 10.

We believe this proposal will make it easier for researchers to be promoted and create more opportunities for them to be brought in at different grades from the start.

New researcher role titles

Currently, a grade nine researcher is a Senior Research Associate. The proposed changes would make that title Assistant Research Professor, the new grade ten role would be an Associate Research Professor, and so on up to Research Professor.

We think this demonstrates alignment between the different academic career pathways and recognises the outstanding contribution that researchers make to the academic University.

Overhauling the contribution increment scheme

The proposals aim to make the contribution increment scheme for researchers fairer, more equitable and more transparent.

If someone has merited a contribution increment, or increments, for excellence in their role, the proposed changes would ensure that they can get those, irrespective of whether their grant can pay for them, by creating a University fund to support that.

What about the issue of precarity?

Some of you may be reading this, thinking - this is all very well, but the funding structures haven’t changed, this isn’t addressing precarity.

You’re not wrong. Cambridge is part of a much bigger research and innovation ecosystem in the UK. And, in truth, it is outside the power of any single institution to change that.

But we urge you not to reject these proposals on the grounds that they are not fixing all the issues. These proposals are real progress. There is a real opportunity here for Cambridge to lead the way in supporting researchers in their career development.

How to find out more or ask questions

Please consider participating in one of the town hall meetings if you would like to know more about the proposals.

You can also contact the Postdoc Academy if you have questions or would like to discuss it further.

How to submit your response

You can read the full consultation document and submit your response through the online survey here by 23 February 2024.

We believe the best chance of these proposals being implemented is if we have a really wide response from the postdoc community – so we urge you all to submit your responses.