Developing our researchers of the future

In April 2019, I participated in a lively and productive discussion in Edinburgh organised by the British Society of Criminology (BSC) and Criminology and Criminal Justice (CCJ). The speakers and the audience thoughtfully debated the future challenges for criminological research and what that might mean for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and other funders.

The event focussed on paradigms, methodology and inter-disciplinary working. As the day went on I was surprised by how little debate and discussion there had been about the well-known career and welfare challenges for those starting out in research. The precarious employment conditions and short-term contracting of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are well-documented in the United Kingdom (Chakrabortty and Weale, 2016; Jones and Oakley, 2018; UCU, 2016a, 2016b). Great people development and clear career pathways will be critical for a healthy and productive academic research community in the future.

The Scottish Government are, of course, interested in research to inform policy development. We commission universities to undertake specific projects and, more recently, we launched a grant programme to incentivise research on the experiences of people who come into contact with the criminal justice system. What is sometimes less recognised is that government and the wider public sector in Scotland are often the future employer of PhD graduates and ECRs.

The Scottish Government has been trying to play a small part in improving the career trajectories and options of ECRs. Working with colleagues in the Scottish Centre for Criminal Justice Research (SCCJR) and the Scottish Institute of Policing Research (SIPR), we launched a Justice Fellows Scheme in 2018. ¹ The scheme offered short-term fellowships to PhD students in Scotland to turn their thesis into research summaries, presentations and pod-casts for policy makers and practitioners.

Competition was tight. We received more than three times as many applications than we could fund. Feedback from the Fellows and the criminology research community in Scotland was very positive. We offered a writers’ retreat, an opportunity to meet with the relevant policy teams and one-to-one mentoring with an academic and Scottish Government colleague. Feedback from our fellows and mentors suggested people made great connections, fostered friendships and developed a great understanding of each other’s work and role. A second round of the Fellow’s programme is now in development.

The Fellows scheme was initially motivated by a concern that important research knowledge was being generated by PhD students in Scotland and not making it into either the academic or policy literature. However, there was also a recognised challenge for students coming to the end of their PhDs. Commonly there was no time to turn their thesis into a more succinct or creative form that could have policy or practice impact. Furthermore, making an impact with your work can seem daunting, with government appearing impenetrable to some and the political processes intimidating.

The Scottish Government has also been a host organisation in the Scottish Graduate School of Science (SGSSS) intern scheme since 2014. ² The scheme allows PhD students to take up a 13-week internship in an analytical team in Scottish Government on a specific project. The internships both allow PhD interns to test for themselves what it might be like to work in government and offer some valuable insight into how, as academics, they might work with government colleagues. Many of those internships have been hosted in Justice Analytical Services (JAS) in the Scottish Government. Some of those interns have gone onto an academic career, while some have applied to work in government on completion of their PhD.

The contribution of these schemes to improving the opportunities for ECRs has, in relative terms, been small. However, it is clear that there is potential for growth to ensure more sustainable and creative opportunities. As funders and collaborators, we all need to have ECRs and their career pathways at the heart of our research programme and projects. Only then can we be confident of a thriving research community in the years to come.