Seven speakers and 80 participants joined in an in-depth conversation about the mobility requirement in academia at Unicorn Startup & Innovation Hub on April 17, 2024.
The spark for discussions came from Mireille van Poppel, Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Equal Opportunities, and Joachim Reidl, Vice-Rector for Research.
- In a welcome interview, both Rectorate members shared the stations of their own research careers, that led them eventually to Austria, from the Netherlands and Germany respectively. In both their trajectories, the postdoctoral phase was key in establishing both long-lasting international connections and the basis for their later research.
After this, we zoomed out again to take a bird’s eye-view on academia: Opening talks by a political scientist and MSCA fellow from the University of Vienna, and two social scientists from Joanneum Research critically reflected about internationalization in the higher education and research system:
Vera Axyonova (co-editor of the collection: Academics in exile: Networks, knowledge exchange and new forms of internationalization, 2022) started with a personal story of her first academic mobility as a student in the USA, making the point that opportunities to leave and desires for return markedly differ depending on where you started off from.
- She introduced the concept of „forced internationalisation“ (Ergin, De Wit, Leask, 2019). Universities in the Global North benefit from expertise that scholars displaced by war and other adverse circumstances bring to their new workplaces; yet there is often little provision for the wellbeing of individuals on the move.
- Axyonova posed (and answered) the question who the 'ideal' mobile subject in today's academia is, and who becomes immobile (as a result): She described that family and social bonds must be elastic, one must possess enough physical health and mental stability to handle instability, and must have a place to return to. Among the characteristics of this “type” of academic who has the best outcome from mobility is also the possession of a passport that is highly ranked in the global passport ranking and a family background with a stable income.
- Vera Axyonova also touched on intersectoral mobility, as well as mobility between disciplines, which was discussed in more detail in the second opening talk.
Florian Holzinger and Angelika Sauer, who work in the POLICY unit of Joanneum research, presented insights from their various (applied) research projects:
- They started with the current policy framework: The free flow of knowledge and expertise is a key ERA objective - mobility is deemed necessary to bring the EU to the level of "innovation leaders". This resource currently privileges "centers" and creates places from which there is an inflow into the centers. A similar point can be made on intersectoral mobility: Industry can receive a boost from researchers who leave universities. There are huge potentials in mobility between sectors - but it needs more work on assessment criteria to allow of a return to academia from the "space beyond".
- The speakers touched on factors for researchers that make one destination more attractive than another one: working with leading scientists, autonomy, balance between research and teaching, good working conditions; and they spoke to public frameworks that can attract especially female talent: Dual career programmes, availability of childcare places (also for internationals with a temporary stay), provision of support services (e.g. for visits to authorities, for the job search of the partner, to get to know locals etc.).
- Holzinger & Sauer presented results on the Granted project on gender disparities in grant allocation. In observing the work of ERC review panels and interviews with panel members, the project found that mobility plays a role in assessing a researchers' independence. Female applicants are more thouroughly looked at when the negotiations between reviewers take place; mobility is seen as a trait of male applicants: reviewers assume that men are mobile and women are not. It takes longer to arrive at the decision that a female early-career researcher demonstrates sufficient independence.
- The team also mentioned an increasing attention to "foreign interference" in European higher education institutions.
A round table followed. It explored if and how researchers can make mobility part of a successful career, and what the individual challenges can be. The four panelists brought, among other aspects, perspectives from working in research beyond academia, university leadership, engaged supervision of early-career researchers, and equality work and employee representation.
Mónica Cano Abadía is a Senior Scientist at BBMRI ERIC, a European Research Infrastructure headquartered in Graz.
- She started the discussion with describing how she graduated into an economic crisis that affected Spain (among other countries), and how she made her way as a researcher throughout Europe; driven by a passion for philosophy, but also by economic (and buerocratic) nessecity.
- A wise word of advice was to make sure you are aware if your newest opportunity abroad is a scholarship or a position that comes with pension and insurance.
- Cano Abadia, who now has a permanent position in Graz, described the realities of working in European projects - between opportunities to investigate fascinating areas related to diversity, artificial intelligence and ethics and travelling for 1 week out of 4.
Wolfgang E. Ernst is an Emeritus Professor of Experimental Physics at TU Graz, with a long history of hosting international guest researchers, early-career researcher supervision, and committee and institutional leadership
- He emphasised that stays abroad can create long-lasting and personally enriching relationships that can span decades.
- Ernst also gave a fascinating insight into how it worked for him to gain tenure, and how that was initially only possible by going abroad.
- A focus of his statement was also supervision: He highlighted how committed he is to "send his students out", opening possiblities for them, keeping in touch, and saying that there also needs to be a personality match among those you go to work with, not just institutional prestige.
Tea Pavkov-Keller is an assistant professor – soon to be an associate professor - of molecular biosciences at our university. She is one of the project leaders of “Biomolecular Structures and Interactions", a PhD training programme connecting three universities in Graz.
- She moved to Graz from Croatia to get deeper into biomathematics. After her PhD, she won a prestigious mobility fellowship which opened up access to infrastructure, expertise and research independence.
- Pavkov-Keller shared a personal example for challenges: starting a family while in one country, with parents in a second country and a partner in a third country, and described how she made it work for her career.
- From her experience on funding panels, she was also able to contribute an example for the discussion on gender bias in research assessment.
- She closed with a statement on the importance of counselling and coaching for persons early in their career - to support them in finding a path they really want to go.
Viktorija Ratković is a Postdoc Assistant at the Department of Educational Science & Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education, University of Klagenfurt and a member of the Works Council for Academic Staff (i.e. Betriebsrat). She looks back at 20 years in the same institution and inspired us among other things with these insights:
- there's a freedom to be found in knowing the lottery-like statistical odds of academia, and researchers can use this freedom to pursue niche topics, care for students and the PhD community, and represent the interests of those who don't have a seat at the table.
- hiring committees sometimes award "penalties" for being too mobile, and mobility is seldom the decisive factor for awarding a professorship
- there can be great value for a university in having long-term committed staff members who take on leadership responsibility from which the wider community benefits
- while care responsibilties for parents or children can make it effectively impossible to move for your research, there is a shame attached to stating you have little international experience.
Some points from the conversations and audience discussions this evening were:
- making the most of mobility options requires some stability in the background (e.g. "a place to come back to")
- funders have a lot of room for improvement still - be it financial provision for childcare when offering mobility fellowships, or be it actually making the reviewer panels stick to the guidelines that ensure unbiased assessment of especially women
- there's a huge appreciation among postdocs for when a person in a leadership role takes this role seriously and genuinely supports younger colleagues.
Some questions posed at the event that are yet to be discussed:
- Is the dominant concept of mobility still relevant in the age of digitalization?
- Do all researchers fit into the dominant concept of mobility?
- How do we avoid forcing researchers with high potential to take an exit strategy and leave permanently for another sector?
-
Where does policy (i.e. COARA guidelines, mental health provision, diversity committments) differ from current practice in assessment processes?
-
And: Is it really research excellence if I can never see my cat?
The PostDoc Office is committed to continuing this conversation and to do our part in creating an environment in which all researchers can thrive. We're really grateful that so many people engage with us and contribute to the wonderful community we have here.
Many thanks to all the brilliant speakers who generously shared both their personal experience and their research insights, and all the members of the PostDoc Peer Mentoring Team, who got honored at the very end of the event on April 17 for their committment to professional development and to supporting each other on their path.
This was already our third Annual Event:
- Shaping postdoc careers: From short-term contracts to long-term impact
- Exit to the right: Is academia losing its talents?
- The settled-down postdoc: Does mobility improve your research?
We're excited to see where the discussions with speakers, panel guests and audience will take us next year!
(Pictures by Gerald Lind & Corinne Von der Hellen)
Report: Johanna Stadlbauer, 18.4.2024