‘It's not a permanent thing’: Projectification and precarity in higher education research careers

Abstract

This article addresses the topic of working as a researcher in higher education, recognising the importance of fixed-term employment episodes in constructing a career via a ‘project-to-project’ dynamic. Focusing on the example of Portugal, I argue that this approach can be interpreted as a form of projectification, but one that generates precarity beyond the early career stage through reliance on continual success in state-supported funding competitions, illustrating this position through discussing accounts from 44 researchers at intermediate and advanced levels. This evidence, collected in 2022 and 2023, reveals both the positive aspects of this form of career-building, with relatively democratic access to funding programmes and the ability to remain at the same institution for long periods, alongside some negative implications, especially prolonged exposure to job insecurity. The concluding discussion argues that this is an under-appreciated aspect of precarity in higher education that has implications for the well-being of researchers and the sustainability of research units, with recent policy developments in Portugal suggesting movement towards tenure-oriented employment as a response.