Current issues surrounding research and funding, in particular questions
about training and workforce stability, affect career development
amongst graduate students and postdocs. The Future of Research
Symposium, held in Boston, USA, in October 2014, was organized by early
career researchers to facilitate discussions about the scientific
enterprise and central to these discussions were a series of postdoc-led
workshops aimed at discussing problems, and identifying solutions. On
May 20th at the NatureJobs Career Expo 2015 in Boston, USA, postdocs
from the Future of Research organization led a workshop using a similar
format, inviting participants to identify barriers to career awareness
and preparedness for early career researchers, and possible solutions to
these problems. Here we present the data from this workshop and
summarize the main points raised, for the use of the early career
research community.