Thread by @HannoSeebens

How to survive the German (and other?) academic systems without having a permanent position?

A thread🧵.

(Disclaimer: This is about my personal experience as an ecologist. In other disciplines, it might be very different.)

#academia #IchbinHanna #ecology #academiclife

Background:
In Germany, it is difficult to get a permanent position in academia without the typical CV (eg reasonable publication list, period working abroad, being young) AND if you do not fit into the classical categories of research (eg botany). And bad luck, of course.

Positions are advertised very specifically on a certain topic. Perfect, if you fit, nearly impossible if you don’t. I was once asked in an interview if I can analyse a certain kind of data set. Nope. Out. A habilitation is often expected, although usually only vaguely stated.

Being a (successful) junior group leader of course helps a lot, but one only get those if you are successful from the very beginning on (i.e., good publications and ideas already during PhD). Lucky those who get the right start, topic and supervisor for PhD to boost career.

In Germany, permanent positions in science are nearly always professorships. There are hardly any other positions. And of course there are way less professorships compared to the number of researchers, enthusiastic about staying in research.

As a consequence, competition for permanent positions is high in Germany and many people (incl. highly qualified ones) leave academia or the country. We even have an own hashtag for this situation: #IchBinHanna

Personal background:
I work in this system for about 15 years with a few breaks (abroad, parental leave) always on third party funding. Half of the time, I applied for positions, working on other researcher’s project, the other half I was applying and working for my own projects

Working on own projects is similar to the work of freelancers (getting projects for your own work). And in fact, it helped me mentally to consider myself as being a freelancer (more below). It actually helped me to say ‘No’ and to devote time more wisely.

One can complain much about the academic system in Germany, but the good thing about the German #academic landscape is that there are many opportunities to get funding through open calls (i.e., many agencies and foundations with open calls and comparatively high success rate).

However, still difficult to get funding, but at least there are ways to do so.

My personal example: I applied 4x to European grants and always failed. I applied 4x to German grants and always succeeded. Admittedly, the comparison is not fair as the scope / size of grants varied, and some proposals failed in the writing phase, but it gives an impression.

So, surviving is possible by requires constantly applying for grants, ideally to smaller calls of grants for shorter period but at a more realistic scale. Some recommendations for achieving this from my personal experience:

1. Think carefully if you want to go this way. It means to put your enthusiasm about your work above security of your future. Chances to fail are always there, and one quickly risks of getting unemployed. If you have family, house etc. like me, think even more carefully.

Keep in mind that even if you have funding, the end of contract is always in the back of your mind, and there will likely be intense periods of uncertainty, which can cause many sleepless nights (again, my personal experience).

2. Be flexible in terms of thinking and applying. Explore possible innovative ways of extending your research also to applied/fundamental research. Working with companies and agencies allowed me to access additional calls, not to speak of additional experiences.

However, try to stay within your personal limits of your research agenda (see below). It is important to think boldly/broadly overall, but the individual steps are usually incremental. These ensures keeping the focus and exploiting synergies.

3. Expand your research network: Collaboration is key. You cannot do everything on your own. The easiest proposal is the one, which is let by somebody else. And the larger your research network, the more opportunities you will find to join other projects.

In addition, collaboration including an open and welcoming and supporting research environment is beneficial in so many aspects: Fruitful discussions, joint papers and projects, new experiences and ideas, knowing interesting (and annoying) people, new perspectives etc.

4. Know your funding landscape. This is essential as every call has its own scope and characteristics, many are not explicitly formulated. Applying for proposals is a research on its own and the best proposal will be rejected if you does not meet the criteria of the call.

You have to become an expert on calls and writing proposals. Collaborating with others and reviewing proposals helped me a lot to improve this hidden science. And contact the funders to get the details and expectations of the call. Otherwise, you may waste a lot of time.

Writing good proposals is actually more important than writing good papers, although both go hand-in-hand of course.

5. Be flexible in terms of funding. Depending on your research, there may be various opportunities to get funding and you should also consider getting contract work (as I did) for more applied parts of your research, as long as it fits into your general research agenda.

6. Develop a long-term vision of your research. If you only have isolated projects and ideas, you do not have synergies. Try to develop bold ideas, which can be split into smaller pieces fitting into smaller grants. Fitting the pieces together will help you getting more funding.

7. Develop your writing skills: Scientific writing is a craft, which you can learn, although it is not taught in schools or universities. Read books and papers about scientific writing, and – very important – learn from your experienced co-authors.

I was/am lucky collaborating with some really good writers. They regularly heavily modified my texts. Have a careful a careful look at their changes and try to understand what made the text better by their changes. Learn from your mistakes and collaborators.

8. Consider yourself as being a freelancer (still being employed). It is not anymore the fun times of your PhD, it is hard work. It’s all in your responsibility. You have to lead and to push at least your own career. Devote your time wisely that you ensure your own survival.

This does not mean that you cannot do anything else. I work for IPBES at least one day per week voluntarily. I consider this a long-term investment, and it’s important to do thinks you are enthusiastic about. But I have to survive that time to benefit from it at a later stage.

This also does not mean that you should not anything in addition like reviewing manuscripts, proposals, editorial work etc. This work does not only help the community, it also helps you to write better papers and – more importantly – to write better proposals for your survival.

End notes:
If you are unsure going this way, think yourself if you are willing and capable of constantly developing new ideas to push your own agenda for new projects, if you are interested in writing texts (proposals, manuscripts) and if you have the enthusiasm to do this.

Another caveat for such a career in Germany is that some institutions do not allow researchers to stay for longer time even if they have their own funding. This means to move to other institutes from time to time. But having your own money everybody is happy to offer you a desk.

An advantage of working as an employed freelancers is that you are quite independent and you may be able to follow your own research agenda, which is very nice and satisfying. But overall getting a permanent position is much better for many reasons including your mental health.

Good luck to everybody in similar situations!