Elsevier Foundation Supports Family-Friendly Programs at Princeton
Postdoctoral Partner Travel Program Helps Fight Attrition Among Young Faculty in Science and Engineering
A postdoctoral fellowship is an important stepping stone in most successful academic careers in science and engineering – and a period of great vulnerability in the academic career path. Large numbers of young scientists and engineers – among them a disproportionate number of women – decide not to apply for assistant professor positions at research universities. The challenge of balancing family and career is a critical factor in the attrition seen among women researchers at this stage of their careers.
In 2008, The Elsevier Foundation awarded Princeton University a grant of $75,000 over two years to address two key challenges: child care travel grants to enable postdocs and graduate students to attend career-building conferences, and "dual-career" partner travel grants for postdoctoral fellows in science and engineering who are separated while pursuing career opportunities.
The Postdoc Partner Travel Program enables dual career postdocs in the STEM fields to see their partners while pursuing their best career opportunities. To date, Princeton has awarded 27 grants to 24 dual-career postdocs in the natural sciences and engineering (17 men and 7 women, reflecting the ratio of men to women in these programs at Princeton). Each grants helps two people who are in the middle of their training as scientists or engineers, providing support at a crucial time in their training.
"Being family-friendly is not only in the interest of the recipient; it is also very much in the interest of the university," said Princeton Professor Joan Girgus, who has championed the program. "People are not going to do their best work … unless they are indeed able to have family lives that work for them as well as work lives. We really need all of the talent that exists out there, and when weʼre losing talent disproportionally, that something we just canʼt afford.
"(This program) really signals clearly that you think these issues are important and that the university should take them seriously"
Princeton University originally predicted awarding 12-15 grants through the Partner Travel Program, but eventually distributed 27 grants to meet a need that proved greater than anticipated. Largely untapped funds from the Dependent Care Travel Program were used to expand the number of partner travel grants that helped reduce postdoc stress while increasing productivity. In the words of one Princeton postdoc: "The travel grant enabled me and my husband to spend more weekends together, and greatly improved our personal life and experience at Princeton. A big relief on both emotional and financial terms, I was able to focus more on my research."
