Recommendation 21

HM Government · verbatim extract Not Addressed

110. As mentioned in paragraph 16, the Government is committed to working with UKRI and non-government funders of research to improve the sustainability of roles within STEM academia, whilst recognising that the use of different types of contracts is an issue that rests with employers. 111. The R&D People and Culture Strategy recognises the issue of precarious contracts and sets out our ambition to ensure dynamic, and sustainable career paths in R&D through a range of measures, such as extending pilots of flexible, cross-sector training programmes to encourage more movement and collaboration between academia, industry and the third sector, and driving the adoption of the Résumé for Research and Innovation narrative- style CV across the sector. 112. UKRI’s 5 year strategy “Transforming Tomorrow Together” supports this ambition. A priority area for UKRI is to make the UK the most attractive destination for talented people and teams from the UK and around the world. This will need a more holistic approach that values the entire workforce and the breadth of skills needed to deliver high-quality research and innovation, and the design of a more flexible and agile system which is responsive to the needs of talented people and teams. This will include redefining outdated views of a ‘traditional’ research career path, making more visible the full range of careers available in research and innovation and creating exciting new opportunities to attract a new generation of talented individuals and teams. 113. The Government will respond to the inquiry into reproducibility and research integrity once the committee’s report has been published.