SHAPE Research Careers

In 2023, the British Academy launched a major project to better understand the careers, pathways and experiences of SHAPE post-doctoral researchers in academia and other sectors. SHAPE Research Careers sits alongside the Academy’s work on research culture as well as a longstanding programme of work looking at the research, development and innovation (RD&I) landscape and how to support and invest in the people at the heart of our research environments.

Informed by a series of evidence gathering and engagement exercises with the SHAPE research community, this current project supports the broader Academy aim of advocating for a well-coordinated and sustainable research ecosystem for all disciplines. We explore the pathways, drivers and barriers experienced by those in research and research-related roles across our disciplines, and aim to uncover hidden or hybrid research employment routes. To achieve this, the project is framed and guided by a set of questions under three rubrics:

• Identity: Who, what, and where are SHAPE researchers? What does it mean to be a researcher in SHAPE? Does this identity change over time or across sectors?
• Mobility: What does mobility look like for researchers in our disciplines and what does ‘mobility’ mean to them? What are the drivers and potential barriers to mobility for SHAPE researchers?
• Porosity: How free are SHAPE researchers to move between and across academia and other sectors? Does this look different for different disciplines?

The project is intended to benefit the wider research community and other stakeholders, including employers and those engaged in researcher development and careers support, as well as serving as an evidence-base to inform policy and decision-making.

Phase One

Phase one has focused on capturing the diverse professional experiences from the SHAPE research community. To do so, project activity to-date has primarily looked at gathering a mixture of qualitative and quantitative evidence to uncover SHAPE researcher perceptions and experiences of their professional identity and career mobility.

Following a scoping period with experts in research careers and mobility, we have led a range of activities that have included:

• online workshops, held with early-, so-called “mid”-, and later-career researchers across the humanities, arts and social sciences;
• a survey of researchers in higher education and other sectors conducted on behalf of the Academy by a team at the Careers and Research Advisory Centre (CRAC);
• an ‘unconference’ held in Birmingham with stakeholders including researchers and researcher developers.

Our synthesis report Being a SHAPE Researcher weaves together the primary findings from phase one, setting out the emerging themes and highlighting both the challenges and drivers faced by SHAPE researchers in academia or beyond.

Phase Two

As of autumn 2024, the project has entered its second phase; engaging more closely with the themes of mobility and porosity and with a concerted focus on sectors beyond academia. The second phase is intended to give greater visibility to SHAPE research and research-related routes beyond academia. We will identify where SHAPE research skills are in demand and sketch the pathways open to researchers across our disciplines, while also digging into both the perceptions and realities of sector porosity. This next stage will be guided by the evidence and outputs from phase one, as well as by further engagement with researchers and experts.