Short-term contracts, an uncertain future and the imminent end of residence permits – postdocs in Switzerland don’t have it easy. | Image: Anthony Annex/Keystone

Many young researchers turned their backs on science during the Covid pandemic, claims Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, the former president of the European Science Council. To halt this trend, scientists from all over Europe have now presented a manifesto with a four-point plan. They want researchers’ working conditions, pay and job changes recorded and monitored. They are also calling for improvements in the employment and working conditions of young researchers; more doctoral candidates should also be recruited by industry, they say; and finally, there should be targeted improvements made to the pan-European labour market for young scientists and scholars.

“Europe cannot afford to let its future workforce be drastically affected at a time when a global battle for talent is raging”, said Bourguignon at a conference in Brussels on 13 July 2022.

Emma Hodcroft is a biologist working in Switzerland who featured large in the media during the pandemic. Back in April 2022, she tweeted about the pressures to which young scientists are exposed here: “On top of pandemic stress, since 2020 I’ve cobbled together short-term contracts & tenuous housing (no job = no apartment) & the pending expiration of my Swiss residency permit (also tied to job) in November”, she wrote. “Of course that impacts my mental health, creativity, & productivity”.  In July 2022, in response to enquiries from Horizons, she said: “I would really like to stay in Switzerland. But I still have temporary contracts that will run out in less than a year”.

Politicians have also recognised the need to act. During its summer session this year, the Swiss Parliament accepted a ‘postulate’ that mandates the Federal Council to examine the possibility of forcing universities to create more permanent jobs for postdocs.