Mid-career researchers: a blueprint for change

How to tackle the problems faced by the ‘squeezed middle’

Mid-career researchers face significant challenges in developing their careers, and these are increasing as the pressures and expectations within modern higher education continue to mount.

This won’t come as a surprise to any of us who work in universities. As a development manager, I was faced with the frustrations of trying to find funding for researchers who had tipped over the line from early to mid-career. Dedicated schemes dry up, and those who are newly-minted mid-career researchers are thrown into the turbulent and competitive waters of the open calls, having to fend against much bigger and more experienced fish.