By Emily Miller and Archana Pyati
In times of financial uncertainty and shrinking federal resources, it is essential that research universities continue to invest in robust career development and professional resources for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
The Trump administration’s termination of grants for scientific and medical research, along with proposed cuts to future federal funding, have placed enormous pressures on the university research enterprise. These dramatic cuts, coupled with congressionally approved caps on graduate student loans and the termination of the Grad Plus loan program, have immense implications for the future of doctoral education across all disciplines in the United States. In fact, some STEM graduate programs have already responded by admitting smaller cohorts.
The dismantling of initiatives aimed at supporting scientific career pathways has hit early-career researchers especially hard. The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have eliminated or significantly scaled back dozens of career development grant and fellowship programs this year, including NSF graduate fellowships and NIH career development and training grants. The agencies have also cut training and mentoring programs aimed at diversifying scientific careers pathways and supporting students transitioning from post-baccalaureate programs to doctoral education and to postdoctoral or faculty positions or scientific jobs in industry.
Research universities recognize the urgency of helping early-career scientists navigate this new landscape and of supporting their career and professional development. Even before the administration’s actions, doctoral students and postdocs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faced financial insecurity, an increasingly competitive funding environment, and a challenging academic job market.
Now more than ever, research universities need to empower early-career scientists to think creatively and strategically about their careers and equip them with skills and training to facilitate success in a variety of career paths. Fostering a “career resilience” mindset will be essential.
This was the sentiment shared by an expert panel that one of us (Emily) had the privilege of moderating as part of a National Academies’ summit on reimagining graduate education and postdoctoral career and professional development in the sciences. A recap of the entire summit is now available.
The summit focused on the question of what universities might do differently to prepare students for a variety of career paths. Panelists shared a range of perspectives and tools from grassroots, community-driven initiatives and well-established centers within academic institutions.
One of the panelists at the summit was Cynthia Fuhrmann, a biomedical researcher and associate professor at the University of Massachusetts. Fuhrmann is a pioneer in the professional development field – she is the principal investigator of pd|hub, which develops and shares effective, evidence-based practices for career planning, and has co-built the myIDP career planning tool, which allows doctoral students and postdocs to evaluate their skills and interests and explore career opportunities.
During the summit, Fuhrmann offered a counternarrative to the idea that career and professional development takes time away from lab research and that it does not apply to those pursuing careers in academia. “This culture leads to students and postdocs participating in career planning and professional development in secret or to delay participating for years only to ask down the road why they didn’t do it earlier,” she said.
Certain career and professional development programs have cultivated strong university-industry partnerships. The Erdos Insitute, co-founded by panelist Roman Holowinsky, associate professor of mathematics at The Ohio State University, helps doctoral students explore careers outside of academia in the fields of mathematics and physical sciences. Erdos now offers boot camps in data science, quantum computing, and other skills and works with companies to recruit and hire technical talent from Erdos alumni cohorts.
Other career and professional development programs are campus-specific and exist to serve students and postdocs at a particular institution. For example, University of Virginia’s PhD Plus program offers a variety of programs to UVA graduate students and postdocs, to help them transfer skills and experiences acquired in the lab to roles in industry. Similarly, Princeton University’s GradFUTURES program supports graduate students through workshops that develop core skills and competencies, fellowships and internships, and opportunities to build professional networks with alumni and peers.
Also exciting are initiatives developed by graduate students themselves. Panelist Ashley Moses, a doctoral student in neuroscience at Stanford University, launched PhD Paths featuring informational interviews with fellow PhD candidates and graduates who have successfully transitioned to careers outside of academia as well as tools for career discovery, skill development, and networking. She noted during the summit that academic advisors and mentors can play an active role in supporting students to think about their careers. “Don’t stop asking graduate students, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’” she said.
At a time when America’s research universities are under significant financial pressures, devoting resources to career and professional development might seem like a luxury. But this is not the time for institutions to scale back. These resources must be increasingly seen as a core component of academic infrastructure, essential not only for graduate students and postdocs in advancing their careers but for institutions in delivering on their mission to educate and train future scientific talent whose research and discoveries strengthen our nation’s health, economy, and national security.
Emily Miller is vice president for research and institutional policy at AAU where she works on advancing transformational organization initiatives in STEM undergraduate and graduate education as well as the research enterprise. Archana Pyati is an editorial and content officer at AAU.