[Statistical data on the actual situation of postdoctoral fellows] Summary of characteristics, working conditions, annual income, tenure, and problems.4 min read

Postdoctoral fellow stands for "postdoctoral fellow," a person who, after receiving a Ph.Non-regular.A working researcher.

Currently in academia, competition for university faculty positions is intensifying, and many researchers work temporarily as non-regularly employed post-doctoral fellows (researchers).

This article will provide a detailed overview of post-doctoral positions in terms of 'characteristics, working style, attributes, tenure, income, problems, and advantages.

The main data presented areAnalysis of research activities and living conditions of postdoctoral fellows and others (2018)based on the latest data available at this time (as of October 2023).

What is a postdoctoral fellow?

First, the definition of a postdoctoral fellow is "a person who, after obtaining a Ph.Fixed-term positionsThe "researcher" is "a researcher who is not a university faculty member or principal investigator in a post of a university faculty member or principal investigator.

A more specific definition of a postdoctoral fellow is one that meets the following four requirements

If university faculty members are "full-time employees," post-doctoral fellows can almost certainly be thought of as "part-time employees.

Postdocs have a variety of official employment titles

From a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), researchers working as post-doctoral fellows were asked to answer "official job title" at their institutions in an open-ended format,More than 100 different job titles responded to 1035 respondents.The company has been

How to become a postdoctoral fellow

Since only a limited number of people can become university faculty immediately after obtaining a doctorate, researchers who did not have a post become post-doctoral fellows.

In exceptional cases, in the final year of the Ph.JSPS Research Fellow PDIn many cases, if you are selected for a fellowship such as the following, you will work as a post-doctoral fellow without seeking employment.

Postdoctoral fellowship can be considered a "training period".

In a nutshell, a postdoctoral fellow's position can be summarized as "a period of preparation for a higher position in academia or industry while accumulating research achievements.

Characteristics of Postdoctoral Fellows

There are four characteristics of the post-doctoral working style

Characteristics of Postdoctoral Fellows (1): Term of Office

The post-doctoral tenure is primarilyTerm of office from 1 to 5 years。

Depending on the results and the progress of the project, the contract may be renewed to work for more than the number of years of the contract at the time of employment.

If the source of funding for employment is the laboratory's basic research fund, they may work for a long period of time with repeatedly renewed contracts.

The term of office will be discussed in more detail below. →.Term of Postdoctoral Fellowship

Characteristics of Postdoctoral Fellows (2): Working under a Principal Investigator (PI)

Postdoctoral fellows do not have their own laboratories, but work for their employer, the principal investigator (PI).

Therefore, there are many different cases of working styles, as shown in the examples below.

Characteristics of Postdoctoral Fellows (3): Salaries are financed by various sources.

Postdoctoral fellows may be employed by laboratories, universities, etc., or they may earn their own salaries from external funds.

The details are described below.Post-doctoral employment fundingへ

Characteristics of postdoctoral fellows (4): Thin salary compared to their peers in other jobs

It varies depending on the conditions of employment,3-6 million per year for post-doctoral fellowsIt is.

They may work full time full-time or part-time, such as two or three days a week.

Considering that Ph.D. graduates are at the earliest just before the age of 30, the salary is thin compared to their peers.

Details of salaries, including by field, are described below →.Annual income of postdoctoral fellowsへ

Number of postdoctoral fellows

At the beginning, how many postdocs are there? From the point of view of the number of postdocs, there were 15590 as of 2018.

It is estimated that there are still approximately 15,000 people in the area.

Gender and age of postdocs

One possible reason for this is that the simultaneous mid-career post-doctoral fellows who did not age into the trend of hiring younger university faculty members are still post-doctoral fellows.

Where Postdocs Work

Postdoctoral Fields

Term of Postdoctoral Fellowship

Looking at the term of office at the time of post-doctoral contracts, the majority of these contracts are for one year or less.

Post-doctoral employment funding

According to the 2018 Fact-Finding Survey, post-doctoral employment funding is distributed as follows

Annual income of postdoctoral fellows

	average age	Annual income (ten thousand yen)
whole	33.0
By Field
slave labour camp	33.3
physics	33.0
engineering	32.3
agriculture	32.7
hygiene	34.0
Other	34.5

The above figure is the result of a survey conducted among postdocs in 2008.(This is old, as no new studies have been issued by the government since then.)

As for salary, there is a big difference between full-time/part-time and other types of employment.

For example, in the humanities, the percentage of part-time positions is high, so the salary as a postdoctoral fellow is also calculated to be low.

JREC-INYou can check the salary rates by looking at

If you would like to check the salary rates for postdocs in your field of studyJREC-INcan be utilized.

Check "Position: Researcher/Postdoctoral equivalent" and search by keywords such as research field to find employment conditions for each field.

Employment status varies, including annual salary and hourly wage.

Please also refer to this page, which lists salaries for fixed-term post-doctoral researchers and other positions at public research institutes.

Exceptional Postdoctoral Fellow

JSPS Research Fellow PDThere are also systems with a set number of post-doctoral positions available each year, such as open recruitment from the

Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of SciencePD

There are three types of postdoctoral fellowships available

The following is a brief introduction to the system, focusing on the special researcher PD.

Although the special researcher has not previously had an employment relationship with the host institution,2023Special Researcher PD, RPD, and CPD fromCan be employed by the host institutionand thus improved the coverage of employee pension and unemployment insurance.

	conventional	R5 fiscal year onwards
social status	Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No employment relationship)	Staff of the host institution
Salaries, etc.	JSPS provides the grant as a "Research Fellowship".	「salaryPaid by the host research institute as
Various allowances, etc.	nashi (Pyrus pyrifolia, esp. var. culta)	Commuting allowance, overtime allowance, etc. are provided.
public pension	national pension (Category 1 insured person)	welfare pension (Category 2 insured person)
health insurance	national health insurance	Health insurance by health insurance association, mutual aid association, etc.
unemployment insurance	nashi (Pyrus pyrifolia, esp. var. culta)	Applicable
Workers' Accident Compensation Insurance, etc.	Personal Accident Insurance (JSPS pays all expenses)	Applicable (The host institution pays all expenses.)
income tax	JSPS withholding tax	Withholding tax by the host institution
municipal tax	Payment by each person	Deducted from salary

Post-doctoral positions open annually from the Institute

There are also post-doctoral positions that are regularly advertised by the institute.

treatment	550,000 yen/month on an annual salary basis (including social insurance premiums) Commuting allowance (up to 55,000 yen/month) Housing allowance (part of rent) Travel expenses for postings (based on the Institute's regulations)
term of office	3 years

This is a very high salary for a post-doctoral fellow.

Postdoctoral Issues

Problem #1: Economic instability.

Postdocs are thinly paid, and in many cases there are no bonuses or other benefits.

In this context, there is also the problem of the low percentage of postdocs who are covered by Social Security.

In the 2018 survey, the number of postdocs with social insurance was as low as 65.9%.

Problem #2: You have to look for your next job in parallel with your research.

Postdoctoral fellows may become unemployed if they do not find a new post by the end of their term.

Even though it is a time when you want to focus on research and accomplishments, you must also simultaneously search for a job in order to obtain the next post.

This inability to conduct sufficient research activities has also been cited as a problem.

Problem #3: Changing workplaces will cause a lot of moving around.

Researcher jobs are available throughout the country.

A change of residence after a short term can be financially and emotionally taxing.

The problem becomes even more complicated when you have a family, especially if you live alone, your spouse is employed, or your children move to a different school or school.

Advantages of becoming a postdoctoral fellow

At first glance, postdoctoral positions may appear to have significant disadvantages, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Advantage 1: Acquire know-how from multiple laboratories

Laboratories are very closed.

It is not uncommon to find that, externally, the same research is being conducted, but the research methods are completely different.

In other words, the reality of the lab isYou never know until you belong."It is all about the

By experiencing multiple laboratories as a young postdoctoral fellow, you can acquire the following know-how

This is one of the greatest advantages of postdoctoral positions.

Research Methodology Know-How

When you are about to start some new experimental system, you may not be able to reproduce it by trying the research methods described in the paper.

Also, the same experiment can be very efficient in some laboratories, and there are tricks for producing data successfully.

In other words, the actual research methodology,You have to actually see and experience it to understand it.In most cases.

Know-how to obtain research funding

Perhaps the greatest benefit is the know-how gained in obtaining research funding.

There is a default in writing applications for competitive funds such as Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research that has been handed down in that laboratory.

When young people are writing applications, many PIs will often show them their own past applications, saying, "Use this as a reference.

From there, you will learn about the overall structure and wording, make your own final product, and have it corrected by the PI.

In addition, each laboratory has a list of foundations and other organizations that can easily obtain research funding.

In order to acquire the know-how to obtain this research funding, postdoctoral fellows have an excellent opportunity to do so.

Expertise in laboratory management

The know-how to run a laboratory is always a good thing to learn if you want to become a PI in the future.

Smooth laboratory operations are directly related to securing quality human resources, research environment, and research performance.

It is also the role of the PI to determine the direction of all these activities.

The best style for each laboratory will depend on its size and content.

Advantage 2: Expand your network of contacts.

Networking is incredibly important for a researcher's career.

• Post Acquisition
• collaborative research
• Knowledge and information sharing, etc.

Researchers may seem to work in solitude, but it is also a world where personal connections run deep.

By belonging to many laboratories as a postdoctoral fellow, you will be able to make a wider network of contacts.

By building up a solid post-doctoral period, this network of contacts will live on for the next 10 to 20 years.

Researchers need to decide whether to remain in academia or become corporate researchers

If you have any of these concerns, please continue reading below.

In living as a researcher,Deciding whether to pursue academia or become a corporate researcherThe following is a list of the most important factors that must be considered.

Researchers work in three main types of environments.

	Number of researchers in the country*.	feature
University (Academia)	336,800 people	Both Research and Education
public research institution	38,200 people	Focus on research
business	515,500	Focus on research (Mainly activities with an eye to monetization through research and development)

There are many differences between academia and corporate researchers, which are summarized in detail in this article>>>

summary

In this issue, we summarized STEP 1: "Characteristics, working style, tenure, annual income, problems, and advantages of becoming a postdoctoral fellow" as an overview of postdoctoral positions.

Please take a look at the articles after STEP 2 if you like.