Senior researchers

Abstract

The third and final empirically informed chapter of this book looks at researchers who have reached an advanced stage in the careers, defined as having over 12 years of post-PhD experience. Reflecting the idea that a university workforce is bifurcated, I provide insight into two specific forms of seniority. The first I term the ‘research professor,’ relating to people who, for the most part, started their careers before or during the time of expanded investment in R&D in Portugal in the 1990s, and have since progressed towards leadership positions in their institutions. A second approach relates to a further prolongation of the project-to-project approach, and an intensified focus on individualized success. In the chapter, I am able to identify the contrasts and commonalities between these two positions, including a somewhat uneven distribution of precarity in their professional lives despite high levels of scientific productivity from both parties.