Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to reduce the use of short-term research contracts in universities; and what plans he has he has to help reduce precarity for early career researchers.

The R&D People and Culture Strategy recognises precarity facing researchers in early-career stages and sets out the actions that government and the R&D sector will take, working together, to address this.

BEIS has established a R&D People and Culture Ministerial Coordination Group to drive the successful implementation of the Strategy. One initial area of focus is supporting dynamic and sustainable career paths, which will look at the actions the sector can take individually and collectively to address early-career precarity alongside the government-led actions set out in the Strategy.