Madam, – In a letter on the plight of postdoctoral researchers (March 29th), Paddy Healy in his bid for Senate election blatantly misrepresents the career development for young researchers at UCD. Indeed, UCD has been to the forefront among Irish universities and has reformed the shambolic and ad hoc systems of the past to provide postdoctoral researchers with stable contracts of employment, well-defined paths of progression and support for career development. Postdoctoral researchers have many career options, including academia, public service and industry, and as entrepreneurs.
UCD’s Campus Company Development Programme in Nova UCD helps postdoctoral researchers start new enterprises. Its Seed Funding Schemes provide our young researchers with experience in competing for grants. It has built world-class facilities to support its research community. This is why UCD attracts postdoctoral researchers from all over the world.
Categorically, it does not limit their contracts to four years. UCD takes its responsibility to all of its staff very seriously and utterly refutes any suggestion otherwise. The author needs to keep abreast with the real problems now facing postdoctoral researchers, such as the Employment Control Framework, which seeks to cap the opportunities for our best and brightest. – Yours, etc,