Eurodoc 2018 conference will be held in Tampere, Finland, on April 18–19, 2018. The event is organised by the Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers (FUURT) and Eurodoc, the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers.

The conference will focus on the challenges of research careers and employment with the title:

Research career – a living dream?

Europe faces a strange dilemma: While the goal for many countries has been to emphasise and invest in higher education and research, and the creation of high-level information societies, careers in academia have become more vulnerable. For decades, academic unemployment was a non-existing or a marginal problem. Currently, however, the number of PhD holders is growing whereas academic career options are decreasing. In addition, the postdoctoral phase of research careers is becoming extended, often consisting of several short/fixed-term contracts and positions. The Eurodoc conference 2018 will focus on this issue and other current challenges regarding research careers in Europe. The conference will invite speakers from research and higher education policy makers in Finland and Europe, universities, funding institutions, businesses and early career researchers (as Eurodoc members) to discuss the current challenges and common goals of research careers in Europe.

The conference is to tackle e.g. the following questions and topics:

• Doctoral training as a first step on a research career: how to secure adequate working conditions, professional status and recognition, developing transferable skills, quality in supervision?
• Teaching: a threat or a possibility? Challenges of time management between research and teaching, relevance of teaching to conducted research, gaining important working experience through teaching…
• When dreams and plans (don’t) come true: Research career as a puzzle of fixed-term contracts, grant periods, unemployment, working periods outside academia.
• International and intersectoral mobility: desired mobility or potential brain-drain?
• Equality and diversity of researchers in and outside academia.
• Academics in society: social impact of (early career) researchers, recognition of the value and purpose of doctorate, impact of open science…
• When it is time to leave academia, and are you able to come back? Eyes open for other career options.
• Research career model: what does it mean in theory and in practice?

The University of Tampere will serve as the venue for the conference (Pinni B 1100).