This article makes a great case for postdocs as a response to COVID-19, but the case for such a scheme stands alone even without the current crisis 1/N https://twitter.com/nicgaston/status/1315733669496066053

As noted in the article, there was a national scheme that funded up to 60 positions at a time, but that was cut ten years ago, seemingly on the basis of poor advice to the Minister, which noted there were only 20 positions (the advisors confused stocks and flows) 2/N

Why do we need such a post-doc scheme? Wouldn't researchers support more postdoc positions from their grants if the system really needed these roles? Well no ... 3/N

Research grants in NZ are subsidised to fund PhD positions over postdoc positions, because PhDs don't attract overheads. There are very strong financial disincentives for grant holders to fund postdoc positions in NZ. 4/N

This is not helped by the fact that PhD stipends are below the minimum (not to mention living) wage with downstream consequences for equity in the research sector. 5/N

So, our research system has been fuelled by exploitation of poorly paid PhD students, who find a lack of opportunity at the postdoctoral level because of a step-change in subsidy to research grant holders 6/N

In the past, many ECRs have coped with this roadblock by heading overseas for postdocs. This exacerbates equity issues, particularly disadvantaging researchers whose work is grounded in Aotearoa. With COVID-19 this now a full blown crisis. 7/N

If we were serious about our full-cost recovery funding system, we would apply overheads to PhD positions funded by research grants, which would shift $ from PhD stipends to postdoc positions. This would be a major (but cost neutral) shake-up for our system. 8/N

The scheme proposed by @nicgaston and @justinhodgkiss is a less disruptive alternative to address these imbalances. It has the advantage that it would add disciplinary richness and diversity to our research community, especially if we address PhD stipends at the same time. 9/N

It is far past time for the research system to deal with this problem. It has been letting down our ECRs and the New Zealand community for decades. /end