With regard to bursaries and grants, providing adequate funding is absolutely important, particularly for people in that critical post-doctoral position who are looking for post-doctoral appointments. One of the impacts is that bursaries and grants have not kept pace with the rate of inflation. In some cases the subsistence that is provided for our researchers is below the poverty line, and people graduate with enormous amounts of debt. That's also a factor: Do I throw my hat into the academic employment ring, where I may not get a full-time job and I may have to work for several years and have to pay off all this debt as well? Looking at the impact of debt on career choices is certainly important.
Ultimately, if we want to make the career attractive, we have to provide the conditions necessary for people to do their work. That's where people will go. I think Dr. Myers was kind of hinting at that. It's not just a money issue; it's also having the whole range of working conditions that are essential. Fundamental to that, if you're going to engage in a long-term research project, you need stability of employment. That's where many contract academic staff get stuck. They get stuck in the routine of just taking on teaching contracts, and the research falls by the wayside. When full-time positions do eventually come up, they're kind of left out of the mix, because they haven't been active in research for a number of years.
Particularly in that early career stage, finding some ability to help people to avoid that rut would be enormously useful.