Executive Summary

This report summarizes discussions during a workshop convened to examine and discuss the current state and role of the postdoctorate, the period following completion of the doctorate and before the start of a full-time professional position. The workshop had two major goals. The first was to illuminate the processes, characteristics and outcomes of the postdoctoral appointment. The second was to identify concepts, opportunities and priorities for activities by the National Science Foundation (NSF) uniquely at the postdoctoral level to strengthen science, mathematics and engineering in the United States and the human resources required to maintain scientific leadership. The workshop envisioned larger outcomes of NSF-supported activities at the postdoctoral level as well. These outcomes include establishment of a better prepared and more diverse United States workforce in the chemical sciences in a global environment; enhancement of the numbers, capabilities and diversity of workforce leadership in the chemical sciences; identification of opportunities other than research training that can be met at the postdoctoral level; and identification of additional research possibilities (including interdisciplinary research) to extend and fill gaps in the understanding and knowledge of the postdoctorate.

Workshop attendees represented a range of constituencies, largely but not exclusively in the chemical sciences, and included leading scientists and hosts of postdoctoral appointees; employers from academic, industrial, and governmental sectors; newly minted scientists, both with and without postdoctoral experience; current postdoctoral appointees ("postdocs"); public and private funders of postdoctoral positions; representatives of professional organizations; and representatives of organizations directed toward communities underutilized in science, including women, minorities, and people with disabilities. The workshop consisted of plenary presentations and panel discussions, each followed by breakout group discussions that were summarized for the entire assembly. Candor and a willingness to articulate deep-seated concerns and possible ways to address them characterized the workshop. Participants discussed expansions on the "traditional" research-only postdoctorate, acknowledging the underlying importance of research at the postdoctoral level. Additionally, several attendees and presenters described valuable postdoctoral appointments that did not incorporate research. The workshop made clear as well the need for more and better data to inform policy and program decisions. Embedded throughout the entire workshop was the notion that scientific and scholarly excellence and leadership are intimately intertwined with diversity. Indeed, the workshop explicitly identified and addressed enhanced participation of women, African-Americans, Latinos, American Indians, and persons with disabilities in the scientific and technical workforce and its leadership.

The workshop did not seek to achieve consensus on programmatic recommendations, nor was it able to speak to all the underlying questions. Rather, its intent was to identify those aspects of the postdoctorate that are worthy of attention as new programs are considered or existing ones reviewed. Among these are

• better guidance from multiple sources, including professional associations, in choosing and preparing for careers, beginning at the graduate-student level;
• more-energetic and focused recruitment of underserved communities into postdoctoral appointments;
• better mentoring during the postdoctorate by the advisor, the institution, and professional associations;
• the need for clarity and explicitness in expectations of the postdoctoral appointment among postdoc, advisor, institution, and funder;
• documentation of previous mentoring of and successes by postdocs in renewal proposals for funding;
• provision of adequate pay and benefits, and enhancement of institutional status;
• creation of and participation in "hybrid" postdoctoral programs or ones that are not restricted to research;
• broader assessment of the impact of the postdoctorate beyond research output, including tracking of the careers of younger scientists to gauge specific benefits of postdoctoral appointments.

Hybrid programs and ones that do not include research elicited attention, both for the potential to provide new postdoctoral venues and for their implications for career pathways, especially in research-intensive universities.

An auxiliary outcome of the workshop was the recognition that many of the themes presented there apply also at other career stages, including undergraduate and graduate study, and during full-time employment. Indeed, all the stages of "life-long learning" seamlessly overlap and share common elements. Addressing these elements at any stage benefits all levels of career development and progress and promotes the goal of achieving scientific excellence and leadership.