SHOWING INITIATIVE

摘要

Although postdoc organizations worldwide have struggled to change national policy, they have been more successful highlighting issues specific to their individual constituencies. Postdoc organizations may have a hard time improving, for example, short-term contracts, benefits and stipends. But they have seen some success bringing in career-training programmes. Here is a sample of their ongoing initiatives. Second that mentor This autumn, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, is encouraging fellows to choose another mentor beyond the principal investigator they work under day-to-day. "This gives the fellow some outside input when a postdoc and lab head don't agree on the project or understand each other," says Detlev Arendt, EMBL's postdoc coordinator. Adding another adviser need not be burdensome for the faculty of the fellow: EMBL recommends that the two meet once in the first three months of the fellowship, then once of twice a year after that.