Credit: Ryan Mcvay/ Getty Images.
The discussion has started about how Italy can best use the resources from the EU recovery fund, and is set to dominate the first part of 2021. As members of the association of Italian PhD candidates and PhDs, we see a historic opportunity to improve the life and prospects of early career researchers.
In November, Nature reported the results of a survey about the research landscape, based on the answers of 7,670 postdoctoral researchers in 93 countries. Uncertainty about working conditions and low satisfaction, especially for more experienced postdocs, was common.
The survey results appear in line with those published two months earlier by ADI (Associazione Dottorandi e Dottori di Ricerca in Italia). We interviewed 2,000 postdocs, with a mean age of 34, corresponding to 15% of all postdoc fellows in the Italian university system.
The precarious working conditions of researchers are common to many high education systems; but in Italy this situation appears even worse, because of low funding and because the path to a consolidated research position is particularly difficult to navigate.
After completing a PhD or the first year of post-doctoral contract, more than 25% of the interviewees are unemployed for one year, with unemployment benefits eligibility lasting only six months.
Unemployment rate after completing the PhD (source: ADI).
Young researchers who do get a contract after completing the doctoral studies, might get a studentship (borsa di studio) or a short time collaboration contract, or a fellowship (assegno di ricerca). In most cases, the salaries of these fellowships are the minimum legal amount (about 1,400 € per month).
At the end of these contracts, it is exceeding difficult for a young researcher to obtain a rare three-year research position, the only possible path towards a professorship. Every year about 9,000 candidates obtain the PhD in Italy, and there are about 13,600 fellowship researchers. This estimate includes only the staff in public universities: a complete count should include the researchers employed in the public researcher institutes (e.g: CNR – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche or INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare). The number of postdocs far outweighs the available three-year positions: 340 per year for the ‘RTD-A’ type (untenured track not followed by a permanent position) and 860 per year for the ‘RTD-B’ type (which gives access to a permanent position as associate professor).
In addition, in Italy it is not possible to accumulate more than 12 years of work as fellowship and untenured-track researcher. Those who fail to obtain a permanent position within those 12 years are expelled from the academic system.
As shown by the ADI survey, 56.2% of the more than 13,000 annual postdoctoral fellows leave the university system after the fellowship, 29% after an RTD-A, 5.3% after an RTD-B. Only 9.5% of the initial fellows have the chance of obtaining a permanent position.
Furthermore, the poor financial resources for recruitment are allocated according to formulas that worsen the gap between territories, between small and large universities between scientific areas, and between fields with prevalence of applied research, instead of fields with prevalence of theoretical research.
These difficulties increase job uncertainty, and prevent planning of both large-scale and long-term research goals. They also affect private life: only 36% of the post-doc researchers declare to have access to mortgages. Also, while 92% of them would like to have children, 67% are putting starting a family on hold.
On the left, the current recruitment system for Italian universities. On the right, the ADI proposal for reforming it.
For years, ADI has been presenting this serious situation to Italian Institutions. These critical issues can only be tackled through regulatory and budgetary measures. We translated our proposals into a Senate bill that includes:
· Replacing the postdoctoral fellowship named ‘assegno di ricerca’ with a contract with no tenure track of a maximum duration between one and two years, only for specific research projects;
· Replacing the double track RTD-A/RTD-B with a single contract of a duration of five or six years, divided into a three-year period as junior researcher (mainly focused on research) and, after positive evaluation, a two- or three- year period as senior researcher (with the researcher involved in teaching);
· Preserving the tenure track (currently referred to RTD-B only) at the end of the senior period;
· Introducing a transitional regulation to balance the needs of fellows who have completed at least three years of fellowship, and RTD-A at least at the third year of contract. This would avoid saturation of the system that blocks access for a long time for the youngest researchers.
This last point can only be ensured through huge investment in research and, in particular, in basic recruiting. In this regard, the Next Generation EU plan offers a chance to reverse the de-funding of research, and to end precarious work for researchers, and to guarantee them uniformity of rights.
