Jonathan Cottet, Lukas Schmid, and Shen Wang co-authored an article in the Postdocket (the Journal of the National Postdoc Association).
The article discusses the challenges faced by postdoctoral leaders in advocating for postdoctoral scholars and presents the RIPEN framework, consisting of five criteria for successful advocacy: Recognizing allies, Identifying opportunities, Presenting data-backed solutions, Encouraging involvement to raise awareness, and Never giving up. Through examples like the Yale Postdoctoral Association, the Columbia Postdoctoral Workers Union, and the MIT-PDA it illustrates how advocacy efforts have shifted the spectrum of allies, engaged key decision-makers, and led to policy reforms. The framework emphasizes the importance of collecting data, maintaining momentum, and resilience in advocacy endeavors, ultimately aiming to improve the well-being of postdocs and catalyze structural change in academia.
The full article can be found here.