Research career stage models

Main

	Laudel & Gläser	EC	ESF	LERU
Career Focus	Academic research	Open		Academic
Description of career stages	Apprentice Colleague Master Elite	R1 First Stage Researcher R2 Recognised Researcher R3 Established Researcher R4 Leading Researcher	Doctoral training Post-doctoral training Independent researcher Established researcher	Doctoral candidate Postdoctoral scientist University scientists Professor
Defined by	Role sets/ Interdependence Authority	Competences/ Independence, Leadership	Positions/ Independence	Positions/ Rank
Sector	University	All	Public	University
Distinguishing foci	Work/ Community	Competences	Tracking/ Gender	Shared career responsibilities

Laudel and Gläser Model of research career stages

The Laudel and Gläser model of research career stages is theoretically informed whereas the remaining models are descriptive. Progression through research career stages may evolve differently within specific types of research careers.

Four career stages are described:

• Apprentice, Doctoral Training Career Stage (R1)
• Colleague
• Master
• Elite

The transition from one of these stages to the next is described as a change in the dominant ‘role set’. Ultimately it is the process of cognitive broadening, acquiring learning and other capabilities, which drives the transition from one role set to another – making the production of knowledge and the cognitive career the real trigger for career development (2001, p. 703). Laudel and Gläser (2008) show how transition from apprentice to colleague within the peer community involves the transformation of collaborative relationships (from mentoring to partnerships).

The four stages of a research career are drawn from career theory, specifically the work of Dalton and colleagues (1977) on professional careers.

European Science Foundation (ESF)

The ESF Member Organisation Forum on Research Careers seeks (2012):

• to develop a roadmap for research career development in Europe and by this means
• to create new and improve existing European level, including coordinated national, policies and programmes aimed at promoting different career stages, and
• eventually to raise the international visibility of the ERA as a common labour market for researchers.

A taxonomy of research career stages has also been developed with the aim of describing the academic research career structure in Europe. The structure revolves around 4 career stages:

Stage I Doctoral training stage

Stage II Post-doctoral stage

Stage III Independent researcher stage

Stage IV Established researchers (professors, research professors, directors, senior scientists, etc.)

However, it is also acknowledged that research careers are nowadays less path dependent. They develop more and more into ‘portfolio careers’. In consequence, the traditional career pipeline model is increasingly replaced by the model of a ‘career tree’. It symbolizes the decreasing linearity of career paths which is accompanied by the trend to combine several part-time roles building up to one full-time role, e.g. by working part-time in different fields of employment. Intersectoral mobility is flagged as important for non-linear careers. Nevertheless, the four-stage model aims to promote the recognition of correspondences across national systems.

This framework pays specific attention to gender. It includes several concepts designed to specify career relevant factors disproportionately affecting women. These concepts include:

Leaky pipeline → Statistics show the drop out of women at various stages from training through employment.

Maternity/paternity/parental leave → Work-Life Balance (WLB)

Career breaks due to family reasons → WLB and Women-only funding (WOF) & Dual Career Couples (DCC)

Equal playing fields → Women in Science /Research including Gender Equality Policy /Initiatives / Networks /Mentoring / Peer Review

League of European Research Universities (LERU)

The report by LERU (2011) focuses on the objectives that universities need to achieve to offer attractive research employment.

These objectives are:

• Well-designed employment
• Well-structured career opportunities
• Well-financed positions
• Effective career development
• Planning for diverse career pathways
• Shared responsibilities for research careers

For each of these objectives main challenges are discussed and a set of key principles is established.

The Report defines a four phase academic career, with associated activities and suitable tenure types

• Doctoral candidate
• Postdoctoral scientist
• University scientist
• Professor

LERU (2011) also identifies a series of academic career maps in Europe, according to the established framework. The maps show the different research positions available in an institution, the levels of responsibility, how they are funded at each stage and how the researcher may progress from one level to the next. Appendix 1 to the Report provides the guidelines to read the maps plus career maps from institutions in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and UK.

European Commission Research Career Framework

The Research Career Framework (CF) by the European Commission (2011) starts from the Frascati Manual definition of researchers as ‘professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems and also in the management of the projects concerned’. The EC sees the CF as an encompassing framework that is compatible with ‘sector specific’ frameworks such as those developed by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and League of European Research Universities (LERU).

The understanding of a research career is defined in terms of four career stages that characterize the proposed “Framework”. These stages are defined in the Annex as sets of necessary and desirable research competences. Taking a competences-based approach makes the CF applicable across different potential employment sectors and scientific fields. The CF does not link the research competences specified to any other competences, such as teaching or management (6), however the competences include responsibility for and self-management of the ‘research career’ including improving ‘employability’.

The specified ‘stages’ are:

R1 First Stage Researcher (up to the point of PhD)

R2 Recognised Researcher (PhD holders or equivalent who are not yet fully independent)

R3 Established Researcher (researchers who have developed a level of independence)

R4 Leading Researcher (researchers leading their research area or field)

The primary criterion is high quality research at all stages.

Despite the seemingly developmental structure of the four stages, ‘the profiles should not always be considered as stages on a progressive career path, although it may be assumed that a researcher in one profile will also have accumulated/acquired the necessary competences of the preceding profiles’ (6, bold emphasis added).

The benefits of the CF for the European Research Area (ERA) are to:

• promote more mobility across borders and employment sectors, by enhancing comparability and transparency on career opportunities, thus also helping to:
• better attract highly skilled talent from third countries and, ultimately,
• contribute to the establishment of a single market for knowledge, research and innovation.