Many female postdocs do not return to academia after their position ends. One way to increase retention could be fellowships specifically geared to the needs of postdocs who are also mothers.

Here, we introduce the idea of competitive fellowships for postdoc mothers that enable them to pay for a Ph.D. student or early postdoc researcher, whom they will then supervise while in the early stages of motherhood. Such grants, we believe, could help these scientists maintain ties to their labs, their research, and their academic career path during a period of significant personal transition.

Ursula Keller, Physics professor at ETH Zürich and Anna Garry, NCCR MUST Outreach Officer, ETH Zürich outline a proposal designed to retain women scientists in an academic career.