Crisis point

The EU’s intervention on research careers cannot come soon enough

Europe’s early career research is in crisis. The evidence is everywhere—from the number of PhD holders and postdocs leaving academia, to the extreme pressure faced by those who stay. Nearly half of Norwegian postdocs, for example, leave academia within four years, according to a 2021 study by the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education. In Italy, 40 per cent of PhD students surveyed last year by their professional body reported feeling anxious or depressed. 

The challenges faced by young researchers are the same across Europe: precarious contracts, low pay and, in many cases, the inability to break through academia’s hierarchies. These longstanding problems have been exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, which have hit hardest those at the start of their careers, on the lowest incomes, with the least job security.