It takes a village to raise an ECR: Organisational strategies for building successful academic research careers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe organisational strategies that support early career researchers in building a successful track record which can lead to a successful academic research career.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on more than a decade of experience designing, implementing and evaluating professional development programmes for early career researchers in universities.

Findings

If an early career researcher is to achieve long-term success, the first five years after graduating with a doctorate are critical in establishing long-term career success. Professional development programmes for early career researchers are more successful if they are supported by organisational strategies around workload, performance management and accountability.

Originality/value

If implemented, these organisational strategies can assist early career researchers to build a successful track record, which can lead to a successful research career and contribute towards increasing aggregate institutional research performance for universities.

Citation

Browning, L., Thompson, K. and Dawson, D. (2016), "It takes a village to raise an ECR: Organisational strategies for building successful academic research careers", International Journal for Researcher Development, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 192-197. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRD-11-2015-0031