Research in science: “In an environment where precariousness is so strong, if there is no money and there is no motivation, young people will not stay”
“I remember, during my undergraduate internship, having a conversation with a doctoral student about the precariousness of a research career.” Sandra Tavares still had “many steps” left to complete her training and, due to what she now says was “a certain naivety”, she thought “that nothing could be bad for so long”, “that things would, in the meantime, be resolved” . But She never thought that, 15 years later, she herself would become “a victim of the problem”.
“When I started my degree in Biochemistry at the University of Porto, in fact, what I wanted was to join the Judiciary Police, but after completing it, I decided that I wanted to go into research.”
From then on, he says, “it was a process of experimentation”. He spent a year at the António Xavier Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB) with a research scholarship studying “the rescue of soils contaminated with organic components”, but, later, he would realize that “the enthusiasm” he felt for “was greater”. study of cancer mechanisms”. Today, as a project leader at i3S – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, his research focuses on breast cancer. The reality of work, he confesses, is “distressing”.
“When I defended my doctorate, in 2016, my scholarship was twice the national minimum wage, now, almost ten years later, I earn twice the national minimum wage”, says the researcher. “I increased my degree, responsibilities and work, I have people I train, people I have to pay and I continue to earn the same”.
Against precariousness in science and for integration in careers
This afternoon, researchers, scientific workers and higher education teachers gather in a national demonstration against precariousness in science and for integration in careers. The protest, which results from the joint initiative of several unions and associations representing scientific workers and higher education teachers, is currently taking place in front of the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovationheading to the Assembly of the Republic and passing through the Foundation for Science and Technology.
The demonstration “has as its main purpose demand that the Government, in particular, the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, and Higher Education and Science Institutions provide an effective and immediate response that puts an end to precariousness of the links that cover researchers, guest lecturers, managers and science communicators and research technicians”, reads the note sent by FENPROF – National Federation of Teachers to the newsrooms.
This is at stake, indicates the National Union of Higher Education (SNESup) also in a note to the media, “the lack of effective and permanent solutions for hiring doctoral researchers”. The union estimates that, by the end of 2025, more than 2000 researchers will see their contracts terminated. The program currently in force, FCT-Tenure, will co-finance 1100 positions for indefinite hiring, which, according to SNESUP, “is insufficient for the needs of the scientific system”.
These are stories like that of Sandra Tavares, who joined her career in 2021, when after spending five years in the Netherlands, she got a work contract in Portugal. A contract valid for six years. “Long-term decisions are very difficult to make,” he says. “I don’t know what my life will be like in three years”. “Buying a house” or “starting a family” has to be “very carefully considered”.
Sandra Tavares obtained a master’s degree in Molecular Biomedicine, in Aveiro, and a PhD in Cellular Biology, at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.
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“It’s almost like you’re a freelancer, but with contracts”says Sara Romão, research fellow. “You enter your career and then stay in temporary competitions for x years or x months, always thinking about the next one [o que] makes it difficult to have a perspective on the future.”
Furthermore, he points out, “in the initial phase, one is not seen as a researcher, but as a student”. “You are doing research, conferences, articles, working in science, but without recognitionwhether from the employer, from colleagues, or from representatives of entities and research centers”, he explains.
At 27 years old, Sara Romão is in the third year of her PhD in Philosophy at the institution – and in the area – where she completed her entire academic career, the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon. Develops research mainly in the areas of “aesthetics and urbanism”, but, pregnant and with the end of the scholarship period approaching, she admits, she won’t do it for much longer.
He entered “the world of scientific research” without knowing, “at all, the reality of those in the field”. “When I found out that the application for the doctoral scholarship had been approved, I thought it would be an important choice,” she says. Therefore, he resigned from the job he had at the time and thought, at that moment, that he could pursue a career in research.
Today, admits that the picture he paints is “very dark”but that it is necessary “to talk about these problems, so that those who see research as a future are aware of the real conditions of work in the area”. The situation is “ungrateful” and “quite discouraging” for “work recognized as important for scientific progress and as a contribution to solving social problems”.
Low wages and little social protection
In the private company she worked for, Sara Romão had conditions that “seemed impossible in the context of young people at work”: “a contract with security, health insurance and vacation pay”; earned “above average”. Having experienced this reality, he says he “very easily notices the disparity” with a possible career in research, whether in “monetary” terms or in terms of “labor rights”.
Sara Romão in a protest action against the precariousness of the investigation.
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The value of the research grant “is not updated according to inflation, but according to the minimum wage”explains the scholarship holder. “I am not entitled to the 13th and 14th month and vacations are not regulated”, he adds.
Furthermore, because social security deductions are not made, some social protection mechanisms do not apply to researchers in this situation. “When the scholarship period ends, I will not have unemployment benefit”, says, for example, Sara Romão. Soon, she will go “on maternity leave” which, she explains, “will be paid by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), not by Social Security”.
“Access to credit without a guarantor” is also difficult for those who do not pay social contributions. “When I was a doctoral student”, says Sandra Tavares. “I thought: how is it possible for a person to follow this path of studies and development, not only personally, but also for the community, and not be able to buy a microwave in installments?”
Go out or abandon the investigation
For young researchers, the future of the area no longer looks promising. “Instead of taking a path that leads to the sustainability and stability of the research career and makes it attractive, we are doing exactly the opposite”, says Sandra Tavares. “It is increasingly difficult to have opportunities and these positions in Portugal”.
“If I reach the end of the six years of my contract and I don’t have another one, I will leave science and like me, many”says Sandra Tavares. For younger generations “there must be a very strong motivational component and science is a highly competitive field, where emotional reward takes a long time to arrive”, he says. “In an environment where precarity is so strong, if there is no money and no motivation, young people will not stay”.
Sara Romão says that it is necessary to “weigh both dishes carefully”, and the precariousness that she foresees for a future in research “does not justify taste, nor scientific curiosity”. “When I finish my doctorate, I’m going to leave academia”account. “For anyone who has ever worked in a job with other conditions”, he explains, this “is a non-issue”.
“We are losing a lot of very well-trained and very capable people”, says Sandra Tavares, because if they don’t leave the area, “they will leave”. And, for Sandra Tavares, who did research abroad, the differences are palpable. “In the Netherlands, where even doctoral students have a formal contract, there is a salary increase every year”explains. “To increase your status, you don’t need to go to a national competition, an internal assessment is carried out”, he adds.
“We have no problem being absorbed by other countries, because we are very well trained, we think very well and we have a very good capacity to use few resources”, he says. “Maybe, this is a problem we have, because we get used to those who finance us continuing to hope that we can make lemonades without lemonsbecause the truth is that we continue to do it.” “I understand everyone’s struggle, but when will it be our turn?”
*Article written by Mariana Ramos Loureiro and edited by Pedro Candeias
