Contract researchers getting together

national | sci-tech | news report Wednesday November 29, 2006 15:16 by TestTubeBoy

Contract researchers are forming an association to improve their lot

A meeting was held on Monday 27 November at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland after the IRCSET conference on ‘The Post-Doctoral Experience’. The meeting was organised by the Trinity Research Staff Association (http://www.gen.tcd.ie/molpopgen/trsa).

Contract researchers are essential to the ‘knowledge-based economy’ of which the government is so fond, yet CRs are usually placed on fixed-term contracts of short duration. This makes applying for mortgages etc very difficult and contributes to researchers leaving academia and going into industry, often into jobs which do not reflect the experiences and skills gained in research. Basic requirements such as annual pay rises to reflect inflation and access to pensions are also not being met. Although the Irish Universities Association provides a salary scale for researchers (http://www.iua.ie/core_activities/documents/06scalesdef...c.pdf) this is honoured more in the breach than in the observance – indeed, some contributors to the IRCSET conference in senior management positions made veiled threats that paying researchers appropriately would lead to a reduction in the amount of research being done.

The meeting ended with call for contacts in other institutions and the formation of other research staff associations in other universities.

Two organisers from SIPTU were also in attendance and offered their assistance in forming a national association. Although some voices were against this, the majority feeling was that once a national association was up and running, it would be important to forge links with university unions which represent academic and technical employees and which negotiate on pay and conditions with the universities.