The Petition

PETITION TO THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY

For more Permanent Jobs in Academia: Better Research, Teaching and Working Conditions

We call on the Federal Assembly to improve the working conditions of researchers, protect their health and family life, and thereby ensure the excellence of scientific research in Switzerland through the creation of a significant number of permanent positions for postdoctoral researchers.

Academic positions should be diversified through the creation or expansion of permanent mid-level positions between research assistantships and professorships. As the Swiss Academy of the Humanities and Social Sciences points out in its 2018 report, this means “converting employment categories that were previously fixed-term into permanent positions and limiting resources channeled to research projects in favor of a higher basic funding” [1]. The Federal Assembly must send a clear message to higher education institutions, their representative bodies, and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and compel them to review hiring and promotion policies for junior researchers in order to create a significant number of permanent academic positions available as early as possible after obtaining a doctorate.

[1] “Umwandlung von bislang befristeten Stellenkategorien in unbefristete Stellen sowie (…) eine Reduktion der projektförmig vergebenen Forschungsmittel zugunsten einer höheren Grundfinanzierung der Hochschulen”. Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften (2018), Next Generation: Für eine wirksame Nachwuchsförderung, Swiss Academies Reports, 13 (1), p. 46.