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Tenure time loopers

Nature Biotechnology volume 41, pages 1375–1377 (2023)Cite this article

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Say, “I’m tenured,” and most people think you have a lifelong job guarantee. It is a rare luxury; you would be hard-pressed to find the security that tenure promises beyond academic walls. However, as a mid-career (N.Y.) and junior professor (N.S.) in biotechnology, we challenge academic institutions to rethink the existing tenure model. In short, we are ready to leave the perceived safety of tenure to become ‘tenure time loopers’ who instead undergo tenure renewal every five years throughout their career. This proposed model would focus more on the long-term evolution of research programs and include peer reviewers at all career stages.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank Carl de Boer, Anna Blakney, Samuel King and Carolina Tropini of the University of British Columbia, Dayag Sheykhkarimli of the University of Toronto, and Toshio Tsukiyama and Robert Eisenman of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center for shaping our view.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Nozomu Yachie & Nika Shakiba

  2. Premium Research Institute for Human Metaverse Medicine, Osaka University, Suita, Japan

    Nozomu Yachie

  3. Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Nozomu Yachie

Authors
  1. Nozomu Yachie
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  2. Nika Shakiba
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Contributions

N.Y. conceived the idea of this piece, with content shaped by N.Y. and N.S. Both N.Y. and N.S. led the writing of the piece, with edits and input from individuals listed in the Acknowledgements.

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Correspondence to Nozomu Yachie or Nika Shakiba.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Yachie, N., Shakiba, N. Tenure time loopers. Nat Biotechnol 41, 1375–1377 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01924-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01924-3

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