Fostering Early-Career Researchers

In the context of changes in the higher education landscape as well as the national and international funding environment, the University of Bern, together with the faculties and the Intermediate Staff Association, worked on improving the framework conditions for early-career researchers. The aim is to make academic career paths more transparent and easier to plan, so that opportunities and prospects can be clarified at an early stage.

The structure of the assistant professorship with tenure track was improved. The assistant professorship with tenure track was created to offer an alternative career option for people who wish to specialize in teaching, services or applied technology, for example. New job categories for postdoctoral researchers replaced the previous senior assistantship and research assistantship with dissertation.

The doctorate is completed in 3 to 4 years, and doctoral students are given sufficient personal research time regardless of the source of funding.

• At the University of Bern, there are three doctoral models (graduate school, doctoral program, traditional individual doctorate).
• Doctoral students are supervised by at least one other person in addition to their main supervisor.
• Doctoral students are entitled to protected research time.
• A doctoral agreement regulates the procedure, duration and objectives of the doctorate for all doctoral students, as well as expectations, progress and entitlements.
• Career meetings support doctoral students in choosing their future career path and ensure academic progress.

The Early Postdoc is particularly aimed at working on a project and acquiring personal funding as well as on research mobility. The Advanced Postdoc aims to consolidate the person's position as a researcher with a view to qualifying for a professorship.

• In the phase after the doctorate, the focus is on research mobility and the acquisition of personal funding with a view to a successful academic career.
• Postdoctoral researchers are entitled to protected research time so that they can quickly make a name for themselves by producing notable publications, developing their own research area and establishing an independently lead research group.
• A postdoctoral agreement regulates the process, duration and goals of the postdoctoral period as well as expectations, progress and entitlements for all postdoctoral researchers.

A lectureship is an attractive alternative career goal to a professorship. Through the tenure-track assistant lectureships (TTAL), a career path with a probationary phase and a view to permanent employment was created. The aim is to give early-career researchers the opportunity to work towards a permanent professorship.

• TTAL are appointed through transparent application procedures.
• TTAL have complete academic independence, which is a prerequisite for independent acquisition of third-party funding.
• The performance of TTAL is regularly reviewed.

The tenure-track assistant professorships (TTAP) aim to provide academic qualifications with a view to taking up an associate professorship or, in exceptional cases, a full professorship.

• TTAP offer the opportunity for longer term career planning and provide the University with a means of securing excellent researchers in a phase of high creativity and productivity. The advantages lie in recruiting highly qualified early-career researchers at an earlier stage and providing greater planning security, since the position is made permanent following successful evaluation.