Nat sets up a working group to improve well-being and career opportunities for postdocs and assistant professors

The faculty management team at the Faculty of Natural Sciences has set up a working group to improve well-being and career development for postdocs and assistant professors at the faculty. 

The working group is a key element in implementation of Nat's new strategy, and it will provide specific recommendations for career clarification, content for career development programmes and further initiatives to improve staff well-being and to ensure that more talents choose a career in research.

"At Natural Sciences, we have strong focus on staff well-being, job satisfaction and diversity. We have a responsibility for our early career researchers, even for those who are only with us for just a few years. Our ambition is to develop talents for careers both internally and outside AU, and this means we have to be able to deliver meaningful career paths that reduce uncertainty and don’t restrict family life, for example," says David Lundbek Egholm, vice-dean for research at the Faculty of Natural Sciences. 

Therefore, the Working Group will initially focus on career development for early career researchers at the faculty. 

As part of the new strategy, the faculty will make career steps and requirements clear and transparent for students and staff, with explicit and well-known opportunities for progression and development

The faculty will also ensure that students and researchers in temporary positions know about their career opportunities in the private and public sectors, and in academia.

The faculty will also enhance diversity and seek a significantly better gender balance in recruitment processes and within the staff group.

Recommendations from the working group are expected at the turn of the year 2021/2022.