Fixed-term academic contracts discourage ‘radical’ research

The rise of fixed-term academic contracts means researchers are likely to play it safe in their choice of research topics, eschewing the kind of ambitious, radical discovery European policymakers want. 

That’s the conclusion of a new survey of UK-based geographers, which paints a bleak picture of the mental strain that temporary contracts place on young scientists. 

“I feel like years of precarious employment have not been conducive to good ideas,” said one anonymous respondent to States of Precarity in UK HE Geography, which surveyed around 350 academics. 

Fixed-term contracts “made me feel pressured to focus on ‘topical’, ‘buzz worthy’ issues” and diverted “weeks of writing and thinking time toward applications,” they said.

Concern over the rise of precarious employment in academia isn’t new. Academics have long warned that temporary contracts hit their family life, mental health and job satisfaction. Last year, the EU launched its Choose Europe initiative, which will offer €51.25 million in 2027 to co-fund the recruitment of postdoctoral researchers, in part to reduce precarity. 

But this latest report also highlights that short-term contracts limit researchers’ ability to pursue high-risk, high-reward discoveries. 

“Pressure to secure jobs in a precarious environment may push geographers to focus on ‘safe’ research areas that are more likely to attract funding or attention, potentially stifling innovation and the pursuit of more radical or open-ended research questions,” it says. 

European concern

The warning comes amid European and global concern that the pressures of scientific careers prevent many researchers from exploring radical new ideas. Pressure to publish papers forces academics to work on projects that will produce surefire results in a short time-frame. Meanwhile, funding is often decided by committee, meaning the least controversial ideas are supported, rather than the most ambitious. 

“Support for breakthrough disruptive innovation remains limited,” wrote former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi of EU research schemes in his 2024 blockbuster report on the European economy, which has steered European Commission policy since. 

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Say yes to everything

There are three reasons why precarious careers stop academics pursuing ambitious ideas, said Johanne Bruun, a geographer at the University of Birmingham, and one of the report authors. 

The first is that with funding “hyper competitive,” researchers are funnelled into areas where they perceive a better chance at job security, she said.

Currently, the few jobs in geography that are available tend to focus on climate and the environment. “These are of course clearly vitally important, but reflect a small segment of the discipline,” Bruun said. 

The pressures of needing to secure funding also leads researchers to “self-discipline,” she said, meaning they avoid research that might seem “too radical” or “overtly political,” she said. 

A final constraint is time. Academics on fixed-term contrasts feel they have to “say yes to everything,” Bruun said, including teaching, field experience, publishing and conferences, which means less time and energy for wider thinking. 

Short research contracts also mean brief, more constrained projects, she continued. Ambitious, open-ended research is “not always feasible” when academics need “immediate results” that built their CVs and “evidence productivity,” Bruun said. 

Confidence shattered

The survey relays the often tragic consequences for academics’ personal lives of constantly having to chase new fixed research contracts, forcing them to constantly uproot, with deleterious consequences for their ability to think. 

“Our jobs require us to concentrate, to be creative, to read and write, [and] all those depend so much on how we feel, and my confidence was so shattered, especially during my fixed-term lectureship,” said one anonymous respondent. 

“I don't know if I can keep doing this to myself or my family; I just want some stability,” said another.  

“I limited my family size. I stopped practicing hobbies,” said one. 

More than half of respondents said a fixed-term contract had a “significant” or “clear” negative impact on their personal life.