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This survey was the first successful attempt to quantify the income of young researchers and academics at all stages of their early careers. The results show that not only are incomes for researchers and instructors low, but there are also significant differences between them.

Women’s incomes are significantly lower than men’s. This disadvantage increases with age, which the study clearly links to having children. The income of researchers working in rural areas is also lower than that of those working in Budapest, even when taking into account, among other characteristics, the gender, position and academic performance of the respondents. The share of second jobs and fellowships in respondents’ income is extremely high, which implies a high workload and financial insecurity, and can also make it difficult for young researchers to plan families, among other things.

In addition to the above, the survey also asked respondents in detail about their job satisfaction, the activities carried out and the time dedicated to them during their work hours, as well as about the impact of the closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovatively, the questionnaire also invited respondents to attach their publication profile from MTMT (Hungarian Science Bibliography) to their answers, under the appropriate data protection guarantees, which allowed for a comparison of their scientific performance. Relying on this data pool, the survey endeavours to offer a quantitative picture of the difficulties faced by young researchers and academics, along with the factors that have led to their success.

Bibliographic data of the report for accurate citation:
Németh Brigitta, Munkácsy Balázs, Vida Zsófia Viktória, Fröhlich Georgina, Hatvani István Gábor, Tóth György, Solymosi Katalin, Máté Ágnes, Lőrincz László és Lengyel Balázs: A fiatalok helyzete az akadémiai pályán. Kutatási jelentés. 2022. ISBN: 978-615-6448-18-7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.36820/fka.2022

The research report will also appear in print and will be available in the collection of the National Széchényi Library and the MTA Library and Information Centre.

The Appendix of the report contains the detailed data sets prepared on the basis of the responses of the questionnaire. The authors of the report can be contacted for further information on the specific areas of the survey at fka@titkarsag.mta.hu.

The authors of the survey would like to thank all respondents for contributing to the survey, as well as the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the MTA Library and Information Centre for their help in publishing the research report.

The preliminary findings of the questionnaire survey were presented by principal investigator Balázs Lengyel, Zsófia Vida, László Lőrincz, and Ágnes Máté at the 6th Young Researchers’ Forum on 3 May 2022. The video of the talks is available on MTA’s YouTube channel (in Hungarian). The final version of the research report gives a more elaborate and thorough analysis of the findings than the talks delivered at the Forum.

The founding members of the Hungarian Young Academy prepared their first survey on the situation of early-career researchers in 2018. The detailed research report of the first survey can be accessed here (in Hungarian). The findings of the 2018 survey served as a catalyst for the founding of the Hungarian Young Academy, and have oriented the activities of the organization in the past four years. In order to advance the solution of the problems identified by the findings of the 2021 survey, HYA will strive to put forth proposals and initiate discussions with science policy decision-makers in the future.