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Dear Followers of FoR,

Welcome to the first newsletter about the activities of Future of Research. We have had an exciting and busy few months; and the remainder of 2016 will also be keeping us busy!

 

Current Action – the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Postdocs
First and foremost, what is keeping us on our toes is collecting information on how institutions are responding to the changes to the FLSA. Briefly, the salary for exemption from overtime has been raised from $23,660 to $47,476, taking effect Dec 1st 2016. This is above the minimum stipend at most institutions for postdocs, and so institutions must decide to raise salaries for all postdocs, or track their hours and pay them for overtime. This affects all postdocs regardless of visa status and funding source unless they are in a primarily teaching role. We currently take the opinion that hours tracking is near impossible for institutions, but some institutions are planning to do so. To find out why we think this and to see what institutions are doing, take a look at our new FLSA and postdocs resource.
Want to help? Please spread the word about this resource; and send info about your institution (and encourage others to send their info too) to info@futureofresearch.org and tweet it out using #FLSA.
 
Meetings
Recent meetings held/attended
Meetings/webinars coming up – Oct/Nov
  • Jessica Polka, President of FoR, will be part of the first webinar in the eLife #ECRwednesday series, on “What’s the deal with preprints?” The webinar is on October 26th at 12pm EST – see more details here.
  • I will be attending OpenCon 2016, at which Jessica Polka will be speaking on a panel, in Washington DC, November 12-14 2016. The conference is about “empowering the next generation to advance open access, open education and open data”. I will hold a satellite event on return to San Francisco, in December – stay tuned for more info.
  • Jessica Polka will also be speaking on November 14 2016 at the 2nd Annual NYU Postdocs Interdisciplinary Symposium (PoIntS). Paula Stephan, a labor economist with expertise on the economics of science, will be the keynote. You can register here.
  • I will be attending the “Bolstering Efforts to Prepare STEM PhD Students and Postdocs for a Full Range of Careers” workshop November 16-17, Washington DC, organized by the University Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP uidp.org).
 
Grants
You can read about FoR’s support grant from Open Philanthropy here.
We are also involved with NSF award 1624169, aiming to develop a community of experts around diversity and inclusion in STEM, primarily focusing on undergraduate retention in biology. Stay tuned for a blog post on the subject.
 

 

Publications
 
FoR in the News

 

Keep up to date with what we are doing:
 
What should we be doing?
Let us know your thoughts. Get in touch at info@futureofresearch.org

 

What would you like to do?
We are looking for volunteers for blog posts and writing projects. We are also looking for volunteers for local meetings, particularly in the Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington DC areas. If you are in the San Francisco area and have ideas for events that you would like me to organize in the Manylabs workshop space, please let me know. Also feel free to get in touch with project ideas/suggestions. We are looking forward to developing projects with you in the near future!

 

What has Gary been up to?
I began working full-time in the role of Executive Director in May funded by our grant with Open Philanthropy; since then I’ve been busy settling into Manylabs on a residency funded by the Moore Foundation and transitioning to full-time FoR work. Most recently, I spent just under a month traveling to Boston (for the Advocating for Science meeting); New York; Edmonton; Calgary (for the FoR Canada Calgary meeting) and Chicago (for the AAMC GREAT and GRAND Professional Development meeting). I gave talks at Harvard (with 100 postdocs in attendance!), Tufts (on the FLSA, see talk and slides), University of Alberta Edmonton, FoR Calgary and presented a poster in Chicago (more on this work in the next newsletter!). The travel was tiring but extremely invigorating, discussing the work to be done all over, most particularly meeting engaged advocates at the meeting in Boston, and seeing lots of interesting data in Calgary about postdocs, who have many similar concerns to the U.S. The next month should be quieter!

 

Acknowledgements

FoR and I are funded by our grant with Open Philanthropy; and I am supported in my Manylabs residency by the Moore Foundation. I am a co-PI on NSF award 1624169.