Dr. Richard Vance:

One of the key interventions needs to be setting targets specifically to reduce the precarious employment the sector relies on. If people are in precarious employment they cannot build sustainable research portfolios and then there is a loss of return on investment in the sector. Thus, the first priority is to set a target and monitor it using open data to see if it is met. That should also be linked to career progression streams with parity, that is to say, not just the traditional academic stream but also the research-focused stream and a teaching-focused stream so researchers can filter up through the system and retain all the expertise within that system. That avoids a system of the kind Mr. Jones mentioned where a person might spend ten, 15 or many more years languishing on various contracts without reaching his or her potential or bringing his or her expertise into the system and on upwards. The priority should be linking that to a specific instrument that sets a target for reducing precarity.