The purpose of this paper is to describe organisational strategies that support early career researchers in building a successful track record which can lead to a successful academic research career.
This paper draws on more than a decade of experience designing, implementing and evaluating professional development programmes for early career researchers in universities.
If an early career researcher is to achieve long-term success, the first five years after graduating with a doctorate are critical in establishing long-term career success. Professional development programmes for early career researchers are more successful if they are supported by organisational strategies around workload, performance management and accountability.
If implemented, these organisational strategies can assist early career researchers to build a successful track record, which can lead to a successful research career and contribute towards increasing aggregate institutional research performance for universities.
