Nature Cell Biology on Postdoc-hood

Another "We support the postdocs" editorial at Nature Cell Biology:

The days when one could imagine starting a laboratory following a short postdoctoral position, or even with no postdoctoral training at all, are long gone. Nowadays, extensive postdoctoral training is essential not only if you are pursuing an academic career, but also for a research career in industry or biotechnology.

Although the pool of postdocs has expanded significantly in the past two decades, an increase in the number of academic positions, and other research opportunities that they can subsequently move to, has not occurred. As a result, postdocs, the research community and funding bodies are finding that the needs of this group now are markedly different. The traditional definition of postdoctoral training as a period of defined length for independent and creative research that subsequently forms the foundation for the research programme in one's laboratory still holds. But, there is greater debate about how this is best achieved and whether the majority of postdocs will have the opportunity to run their own laboratories. There now seems to be clear benefits to adopting a more structured approach to training postdocs -- not dissimilar to that offered to graduate students at many American universities -- and to expose them to other career possibilities than research.

So here are NCB's suggestions:

Although the NIH has established salary guidelines for its NIH-NRSA postdoctoral fellowships, whether these recommendations are adopted for postdocs who are funded from a mentor's grant is entirely at the discretion of the institute. Results of a 2005 postdoctoral survey carried out by the scientific society, Sigma Xi, indicate that a structured training programme, which includes regular review of progress and formal guidance in areas such as grant writing, teaching, lab management and negotiating skills, improves the quality of the postdoc experience and facilitates greater productivity (Davis, G. Doctors without orders. American Scientist 93 (3, supplement), 2005; (http://postdoc.sigmaxi.org/results). Providing postdocs and students with greater exposure to alternative careers than the traditional goal of 'principal investigator' should be encouraged in training programmes. Fellowships that would allow postdocs to develop skills that are important for alternative career paths are one option. As many talented postdocs have limited independent funding, increasing the number of career transition awards to assist movement towards an independent research position should also be an important future goal. Postdoctoral associations are run on a largely volunteer basis and the issue of continuity within these groups would be remedied by setting up postdoctoral offices with administrative oversight.