As a postdoctoral researcher, your aim is to consolidate and extend your research experience, publish significant new results in prestigious journals and build a reputation as a researcher in your field. If you are successful in this, you should be on track for a lectureship at a university or a staff research post in a research institute or a personal senior fellowship – and eventually a chair – that will fund your salary and some research costs for other staff and support.

But while you are a postdoc, you are generally working on short-term contracts and the future can seem uncertain. The Roberts Review found that only 10 to 20% of postdocs will get permanent university posts. Lectureships in UK universities for junior faculty are few and there is a lot of competition for them.

The better news is that the Roberts Review - and the concerns of other organisations including the Academy (see DOWNLOADS on the right, for the Academy’s reports on postdoctoral researchers) – have provoked some action to increase support for postdoctoral research careers.