It takes a village to raise an ECR: Organisational strategies for building successful academic research careers

Purpose: To describe organisational strategies that support early career researchers in building a successful track record which can lead to a successful academic research career. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on more than a decade of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating professional development programs for early career researchers in universities. Findings: If an early career researcher is to achieve long-term success, the first five years after graduating with a doctorate are critical in establishing long-term career success. Professional development programs for early career researchers are more successful if they are supported by organisational strategies around workload, performance management, and accountability. Originality/value: If implemented these organisational strategies can assist early career researchers to build a successful track record which can lead to a successful research career and contribute towards increasing aggregate institutional research performance for universities.