Report on Retaining Postdoctoral Researchers with Families Released

ROCKVILLE, Md. - June 21, 2017 - PRLog -- The Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law has partnered with the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) on its latest report, Parents in the Pipeline: Retaining Postdoctoral Researchers with Families. This report is part of an effort by The Center for WorkLife Law to ensure that parents — and mothers in particular — have an equal opportunity to advance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Parents in the Pipeline highlights the parenthood leak in the STEM pipeline and what institutions can do about it.

The report chronicles the experiences of postdoctoral (postdoc) mothers and fathers – both separate and shared – along with survey and institutional policy data on pregnancy accommodations, paid and unpaid parental leave, attitudes about leave, and benefits for postdoc parents; survey data revealing significant differences in the experiences of postdocs who are immigrants and/or people of color; and recommendations on how institutions can better support postdoc parents.

The report incorporated information collected from an online survey of postdocs, distributed by the NPA in March and April of 2016. Additionally referenced in Parents in the Pipeline is an analysis of data collected by the NPA as part of the NPA Institutional Policy Survey, and used in the report, National Postdoctoral Association Institutional Policy Report 2014: Supporting and Developing Postdoctoral Scholars.

The report highlights one of the NPA's core recommendations that institutions create a postdoc office (PDO) to coordinate university relations with postdocs and ensure the quality of postdocs' training. Additional recommendations include that institutions implement a formal parental leave policy, eliminating confusion for both postdocs and their mentors.

Since 2003, the NPA has taken on the ambitious agenda to improve the postdoc experience by supporting enhanced research training and a culture of enhanced professional growth to benefit scholarship and innovation. The association has assumed a leadership role in addressing the many issues confronting the postdoc community, achieving its mission through advocacy, resource development and community-building. Working in collaboration with the entire research community, the NPA envisions changing the culture of those individuals and institutions engaged in the U.S. research enterprise so that the contributions of postdoc scholars are fully valued and recognized.

The NPA has developed several family-friendly resources, including A Postdoc's Guide to Pregnancy and Maternity Leave and A Postdoc's Guide to Paternity Leave. For more information on these resources and the NPA's recommendations for postdoc policies and practices, please visit http://www.nationalpostdoc.org.

If you have any questions related to the report, please reach out to the lead author, Jessica Lee (leejessica@uchastings.edu). To access the report, along with additional resources for postdocs and those who work with them visit www.thepregnantscholar.org.

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The NPA is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 educational association headquartered in Rockville, MD. Founded in 2003, the NPA seeks to provide a national voice for postdoctoral scholars; to facilitate positive change for postdoctoral scholars; and thereby to advance the research enterprise in the United States. The NPA serves the postdoctoral community, including more than 6,000 individual members and some 200 institutional members. The NPA provides support to the postdoctoral community through resources, toolkits, professional development and networking opportunities.