Growing Progress in Supporting Postdocs: 2021 National Postdoctoral Association Institutional Policy Report

Growing Progress in Supporting Postdocs: 2021 National Postdoctoral Association Institutional Policy Report  seeks to improve the experience for postdocs—individuals who have doctoral degrees and are working in temporary positions while they learn the skills they will need to pursue their career goals.

The report analyzes data collected from 79 institutions across the United States on the impact of certain important and measurable factors, such as the number of postdocs at an institution, on postdoc policies, benefits, and training programs. The latest data show positive trends when compared to the last edition, such as the continued creation of new postdoc offices at research facilities, a small increase in postdoc office budgets, and a few more institutions offering family friendly benefits to postdocs, to name a few.

The report’s key recommendations to institutions that hire postdocs are to increase the staff and budget for postdoc offices, provide higher compensation and equality in postdoc benefits, implement a uniform postdoc onboarding process, offer an intentional training program, build a diverse postdoc population, and implement better career tracking of postdocs after they leave their training institutions.

The report was released as a supplement to the May-June 2021 issue of Sigma Xi’s publication, American Scientist, and is also available online at the Sigma Xi and NPA websites. Comprehensive data from the full report is also available to NPA members only on the NPA website. The report is the third in a series of triennial reports on this topic. It is an update to the 2014 and 2017 reports.