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I graduated with my PhD in ecology in the fall of 2011, and was one of the lucky 9% of applicants to be awarded an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship. My current position comes to an end in 5 months, which means I’ve beating the bushes for more funding for salary since last September. The academic job market in Canada for early-career researchers is, in a word, abysmal. Most universities employ only one or two researchers who use birds as their study organism (regardless of whether the researchers call themselves “ornithologists”, “population ecologists”, “behavioural ecologists” or some other moniker). So until these individuals start retiring, there’s little hope for landing a term, let alone tenure-track, appointment. Of the 10 or so academic jobs for which I was even remotely qualified in 2011-12, I received one interview (which was noted as being extraordinary), and no job offer. This year to date, it’s been another 10 applications, and 2 government exams, but still no bites. So postdoc-ing it is.
A major source of postdoc money for ecology in Canada comes from NSERC. In 2012, the success rate of the 1254 applicants to NSERC’s post-doctoral fellowship program was 7.8%. That’s 98 NSERC-funded postdocs, of which I classified 11 as ecologists. To top it off, NSERC has revised its guidelines so that individuals may only apply once in their career for an NSERC PDF (which itself falls only a few years after reducing the funding for masters students in the PGS/CGS-M program to 12 months). The end result will be PhDs putting off their NSERC applications for a few years until all those PhD papers are out, and ultimately making it harder for recently-minted doctors of philosophy to apply for fear of brutal competition from later early-career researchers.
There’s the Banting Post-doctoral Fellowships program, a prestigious award, of which 70 are awarded annually among the three Canadian funding councils (NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR). Last year, 21 of these were to NSERC applicants, of which one or two could be considered ecologists. Not great odds there, even if one’s application is endorsed by the university (can be < 50% of institutional applicants). I was one of the “lucky” ones, after spending a month putting together an application that my university endorsed. The result: ranked 146/180, with 23 fellowships awarded.
Well, there’s always the NSERC Industrial R&D Fellowship (IRDF). Researchers in my field have often paired with a non-profit research-based NGO. At least they could up to 01 December 2012, when not-for-profit organizations are no longer eligible to be host organizations for IRDF fellows. There are not a lot of companies doing work in ecological research that would quality to host an IRDF position.
Finally, there’s the Visiting Fellows in Government Laboratories (VF) program. What’s not readily apparent is that NSERC provides no funding for this program at all – the salary and research costs must be borne by the government supervisor out of his/her base research funds. Finding an extra $47,000 per year is no small task, especially with overall reductions to government research funding at Fisheries & Oceans, and Environment Canada, and the increasing trend of using contracts.
I was a recipient of an NSERC post-graduate scholarship during my PhD, and now I hold a post-doctoral fellowship. NSERC has invested over $140,000 in my training and development as a scientist and contributing member to the Canadian research community (this is not counting any input from my supervisors’ NSERC Discovery grants, for example). By the time the various research costs of a MSc, PhD, and one year of a post-doc are thrown in, the overall amount easily doubles, if not triples.
My research has no direct possibility for commercialization, and doesn’t affect economic policy – it’s basic and applied research in ecology, and conservation. A 2009 survey by the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS) found that half of all respondents were paid from their supervisors’ research grants, while only 18% received their salary from the Tri-Council funding agencies. Given that the mean NSERC Discovery grant in Ecology & Evolution is about $28,000 per year, being paid by one’s supervisor isn’t a viable option for most postdocs (or, in fact, most faculty).
Times are tough for post-doctoral ecologists in Canada. That’s not to say that times aren’t though for other research disciplines – I’m sure it is. But with unprecedented global ecological change, urgent conservation needs for Canada’s biodiversity (especially in the Arctic, where working is already expensive), and a reduction in government’s scientific capacity, something’s got to change.
So for the interim, it’s looking like piecemeal contract work, prolonged employment uncertainty. I don’t pretend like I’m the only one facing the situation of a brutal job market, reduction in postdoc funding opportunities, and gutting of federal scientific research, but it sure does hit home when I have to find a way for my 6-year-old laptop to keep chugging along a little longer
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Dan J. Andrews said:
I commiserate. I’m an ecologist, was part of the Kluane Project in the Yukon with Dr. Krebs, work with birds, and worked contracts that required me to move around the country a couple of times per year. I finally gave up on any full-time academic or government work and went to consult for industry, where I work part-time but still make more money a year than I did in the full-time contract positions. Actual research in this job isn’t going to happen, but I manage to use some of my spare time to work on small (hopefully publishable) projects–we’re submitting another paper in spring. And I still do guest lectures at the local university, which I quite enjoy.
The future for ecologists in Canada looks very dismal. The once mighty ecology department at UBC is dwindling in influence as its professors retire. The sexy work is now in biochem, molecular genetics, and funding for the ecology department wanes. Our current government also devalues the work done by ecologists—actually, it seems to actively oppose the work, given the shut-downs of research labs, the muzzling of scientists, the closing of research councils and round tables…..sighhhh…….
So, can’t answer your rhetorical question of what’s a PhD to do, but just wanted to let you know that you have lots of company just within the ecology field itself, not to mention the other biology field disciplines. You could apply to jobs at engineering firms and do some of the EA work (the lead person in the firm where I work is a former professor, PhD, well published, has a couple of books out, and is trying to figure out a way to retire so he can get back into doing research)….it may not be what you want, but it does build up the bank account fast and may give you enough of a cushion that will eventually allow you to get back to doing what you want to do.
Alex Bond said:
HI Dan – thanks for your thoughts. This post has been, by far, the most viewed of anything I’ve written, so I know that there are many of us out there (ecologists between PhD and full-time research job).
The other issues with government research jobs is that they are a) rare, and b) can take >1 year from deadline to actually making a decision. It’s in the government’s interest to postpone these as long as they can since it only saves them salary money.
Consulting for industry is certainly something that’s looking more and more appealing, but something that, during my 10+ years of university, was always derided as selling out to “the man”, dismissed, and never treated as a viable career option.
Jeremy Fox said:
Re: environmental consulting, it’s not as narrow a field as some folks seem to think. Yes, a lot of big consulting firms in western Canada (Golder etc.) do a lot of their business consulting for the oil companies, and that’s not going to be every ecologist’s cup of tea. But for instance, I have a finishing PhD student who works for a smaller environmental consultancy in Calgary that’s pretty much all U of Calgary ecology grads (BAs, MScs, and PhDs). They get most of their business from landowners and other groups impacted by oil development, housing development, etc. Those impacted folks often want their own consultants, to push back against those hired by the developers. And while I don’t know how much time the consultants have to pursue research (probably little to none), they’re all people who’ve published research in the past. That’s the way this firm markets itself–if you hire them, you’re hiring real scientists, who’ve published peer-reviewed scientific papers. You’re not just hiring people who only know how to fill out forms and write fill-in-the-blanks reports. So if you’re an ecology researcher looking for a fallback, that sort of environmental consultancy might be a good option.
anotherpostdoc said:
I feel for you. I got my PhD from a top 20 Canadian institution in 2009, and had absolutely no luck finding a job in Canada since then.
I applied for an NSERC PDF, but didn’t make the cut…being an international student means you have no grant/fellowship track record with NSERC, which apparently makes all the difference. And my supervisor didn’t have funds to keep me as a postdoc. I applied to the VF program to be placed on the “available list”, and applied for a couple of government jobs, but never got anything from that either. Since 2009, I’ve applied to about 30-40 institutions in Canada and the US, and got exactly one interview, at a very small Canadian university, but didn’t get the job.
I’m no superstar, but I have published consistently and in good journals in my field, have actual teaching experience with positive evals (not just TAing), have successfully supervised graduate students, and have a very solid research network, including collaboration in big US-agency funded research. I also have permanent resident status, which puts me on the mythical preference hiring list for Canadian universities. The only thing I don’t have, and which seems to have been the key for some successful colleagues, is pedigree – a well-published, “famous” and/or well-connected supervisor (and I’m not North-American, although I still like to think this doesn’t matter in Canada). That left me with the option to try and postdoc for another X years, hopefully with someone who could give me a weighty letter of recommendation and general endorsement, or leave North America.
Since then, I have returned to my home country, got a very nice 3-year postdoc fellowship where I have the freedom to work on my own projects, and I might be landing a permanent position soon. I had, however, to make the dreadful choice of either leave academia or give up the dream of living in Canada permanently. All the time and money I invested in getting PR status is about will be wasted, and my Canadian spouse has to endure moving to a different country and culture, where the language barrier severely hinders her job prospects (and her ability to pay back her $25k Canadian student loan – much more expensive now because of currency differences). Overall, we are still happy being here, and I think I do have an opportunity to help raise the academic bar in my country. But every once in a while I still feel cheated by being forced to make the choice.
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Jonathan O'Donnell said:
Well, that sucks! I hate this sort of economic rationalist reductionism. In Australia (at least for now), ‘industry’ is defined as anyone who will pay part of your research costs and use your results. This includes non-profits, charities, non-government organisations (NGOs), government departments and anyone else with a quid.
I think that this is really short-shorted ‘advice’. As Jeremy Fox pointed out, there are some really good options out there. More importantly, research is meant to Save The World (or at least change the world). You can’t do that without grappling with industry, government, community, everybody.
Bond_Ionic said:
This move by the Canadian Government really seems to line up with their reduction of available funds for any sort of fundamental research. There are not a lot of opportunities for researchers in the fundamental sciences to get industrial post docs, and taking away the ability of NGOs to do so just seems to line up with our Government’s attempts to squash any research they don’t think is going to benefit them. Like research an environmental NGO would do on oil sand pollution, maybe….
NSERC should get money and be allowed to distribute it how they see fit as scientists. Otherwise what’s the point of having a president, etc.?
I’m an engineering PhD, so while I’m not so worried about a job afterwards with lots of possibilities and closer ties to employers, even the profs in Eng can see the trend of ever reducing funding for fundamentals and ever increasing funds for industry collaborations. I mean, universities are not supposed to be ways for corporations to get disgustingly cheap R & D. They are supposed to be places of innovation and the forefront of their field. It is definitely no so in Canada.
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judithbouchard said:
Really interesting post! The funny thing is that a friend and I co-write a post about the professionnal futur of phD researchers in march 2013 too! By reading your post it decided me to publish a home-made translation of our post, since I think it may interest some people in other canadian province and probably in the United-States… http://lecarnetdejudith.com/2013/07/26/phd-a-good-investment/
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