Mapping the Future: Survey of Chemistry and Physics Postdoctoral Researchers’ Experiences and Career Intentions

The Institute of Physics (IOP), its Women in Physics Group (WiPG) and the Royal Society of Chemistry jointly initiated a project, part-funded by the UKRC's Innovative and Collaborative Grants Scheme (IGCS), to investigate the experiences of male and female postdoctoral researchers (PDRs) working in university physics and chemistry departments, whether their experiences were different and how this affected their long-term career intentions.  Respondents were questioned on issues such as how long they had spent as a PDR, the number of contracts that they had taken on, their motivations for and overall opinions on undertaking postdoctoral research. Overall, female respondents had spent less time undertaking postdoctoral research than male respondents. Male physicists had spent the most time undertaking research and were more than twice as likely as female chemists to have been a PDR for seven years or more and almost three times as likely as female chemists to have been a PDR for more than 10 years. The most popular reason for undertaking postdoctoral research, chosen by all groups of respondents, was “Out of interest and enthusiasm for science” (74%) although physicists were more likely to select this than chemists. The second most popular reason selected was “To gain a permanent academic post” (49%), which males (53%) were more likely to select than females (40%). The most common “downside” of postdoctoral research was “No job security” (78%).