{"id":5322,"date":"2017-07-16T19:52:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T18:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/?p=5322"},"modified":"2017-07-16T19:52:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-16T18:52:03","slug":"are-things-getting-better-for-postdocs-in-cambridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/2017\/07\/16\/are-things-getting-better-for-postdocs-in-cambridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Things Getting Better for Postdocs in Cambridge?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a recent article<\/a> in Nature pointed out, housing costs in Cambridge are a significant issue for new recruits to the university. As a city it suffers both from its proximity to London \u2013 well within commuter belt, as the busyness of the peak time trains attest \u2013 and from sitting at the centre of the thriving Cambridge cluster. It isn\u2019t only the university as an employer that brings numerous early career professionals (not just researchers) to the city. There are many research institutes around the city, as well as the hi-tech cluster (for instance ARM, not to mention all the companies on the various science parks), plus the imminent arrival of Astra Zeneca, all pushing up both house prices and rental costs. Life as a postdoc \u2013 or a new staff member \u2013 is not easy or cheap.<\/p>\n

The University is doing what it can to alleviate some of these problems through the development of the huge North West Cambridge development, now known as Eddington. The first phase is nearing completion and some occupants have already moved in<\/a>. Eligible key workers from the University (staff at the low end of the payscales and postdocs) are able to apply for accommodation with a rent capped on average at a third of income. So far the University has invested \u00a3350 million into this development. In the autumn a new space for the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs\u00a0 (OPdA) will open; the primary school is already open and currently has an intake of three years of children and, to the delight of Churchill College inhabitants such as myself and others living to the west of the city, finally a supermarket will be opening next month as part of this development. Other elements of infrastructure \u2013 such as a hotel and a doctor\u2019s surgery\u2013 will be opened in due course. Much more information can be found here<\/a>: I don\u2019t intend to reiterate public information. The image shows a photo I took of the site from a rather perilous roof (or at least the ladder to the roof was fairly perilous) last autumn, to give an indication of the scale of the enterprise. The site stretches, for those familiar with Cambridge, from the Madingley Road to Huntingdon Road running roughly parallel to the M11, although the northern end will only be completed in later phases.<\/p>\n

\"NWC\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The commitment to purpose-built space, including workspace, a meeting room and break-out rooms, for the OPdA represents a recognition of the importance of this part of the community to the whole research endeavour across Cambridge. OPdA<\/a> itself is quite young, only around four years, but offers much to support the enormous community of such researchers working across the city (several thousand). Currently OPdA occupies two sites: in the centre of town and on the ever-expanding Biomedical Campus around Addenbrookes Hospital. The new dedicated space in Eddington will replace the centre-of-town location.<\/p>\n

Postdocs, for so long valued (one hopes!) by their supervisors but rarely able (unless home-grown talent) to participate fully in Collegiate Cambridge, are seeing a much more inclusive environment develop. Many colleges, my own included, now offer various forms of postdoctoral membership. Churchill awards around 10 postdoctoral by-fellowships a year, following a fairly simple application process. They allow postdocs full membership of the SCR, entitlement to some free meals at high table, access to sports and music facilities and many opportunities to participate in the academic and social life of the College. Not all take full advantage of this; some, one fears, only want the by-fellowship so that it looks good on their CV. One thing I personally am particularly enjoying is a new series of so-called \u2018post-prandial\u2019 talks midway through each term by one of the postdoc by-fellows, to complement fellows\u2019 post-prandial talks at the start and end of each term.<\/p>\n

Post-prandial talks can be a bit of an ordeal, as I know from personal experience. As part of the interview process to become Master of Churchill I was required to give such a talk at the end of a long session of meetings across the college site, which had been designed to give me a feel for the college, followed by a high table dinner. (The formal interview came the next morning.) This meant I was expected to make small talk over dinner whilst retaining the strength of mind to decline the wine proffered \u2013 which might have helped the nerves but not the diction of my presentation. And then, when everyone else was feeling \u2018jolly\u2019 and full of food and alcohol, I needed to maintain their interest through a talk about my research suitable for the expert as well as the novice in my field: that was a challenge I hope I don\u2019t ever have to face up to again. I trust for the postdocs who volunteer to give post-prandial talks the pressure is a great deal less than I faced! Certainly, the ones I\u2019ve heard have been pitched excellently for a general audience even when the talk\u2019s topic may be pretty technical. Speakiing to such an audience \u2013 be they fellow Fellows or the general public \u2013 is of course a skill to be mastered and valued. In the College the talks are sure to be greeted by extensive, interested (even if perhaps on occasion na\u00efve) questions.<\/p>\n

I digress from NW Cambridge, but that\u2019s because I think the way the University and its colleges are moving to support our postdoctoral community is so important. There are other attributes of the new development that I find personally very exciting. I will cover just one. I mentioned a primary school. What is so remarkable about this (about from its innovative circular design) is that it can be used as a testbed for educational research by the University\u2019s Faculty of Education. It is the first Primary level University training school, and as such collaborates with a number of partners in order to contribute to the growing research underpinning primary education. Evidence about what works in education is so important, yet often lacking. The school itself uses research-informed teaching practices and aspires to be a hub of learning for adults as well as children.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has visited Cambridge recently will know just how much the city is expanding, and not just on this northwest side. The biomedical campus on the south of the city is growing rapidly, and nearby the new suburb of Great Kneighton seems to be nearing completion between Addenbrookes and Trumpington. I have watched these developments mushroom as I pass by on the train, but have not yet explored the new complex of roads and houses, plus a pond or two no doubt designed to accommodate the drainage from the site. But our infrastructure is creaking. Our roads, our trains, our station \u2013 even now Cambridge North<\/a> has opened \u2013 barely cope. It only takes one broken down lorry, or one new hole in the road to be dug, for everything to grind to a halt on the roads. Success has its price in the fens. Cambridge is a wonderful university city, but its achievements mean that it is expensive to live in and not always comfortable \u2013 for postdocs or for anyone else.<\/p>\n

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As a recent article in Nature pointed out, housing costs in Cambridge are a significant issue for new recruits to the university. As a city it suffers both from its proximity to London \u2013 well within commuter belt, as the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[1098,1153,1154],"class_list":["post-5322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","category-science-culture","tag-accommodation","tag-north-west-cambridge","tag-office-for-postdoctoral-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}