Re-Imagining Postgraduate Training in the Plant Sciences.

The NSF-supported Plant Science Research Network (PSRN), in its third year, now counts 14 member organizations, including the Tri-Societies. Workshops were held in September and October, 2016, to discuss the graduate student experience and the future of postdoctoral training. Recommendations were made with a 20-year timeline, keeping in mind the shifting technologies, careers, and learning models that affect the plant sciences. Major recommendations to be discussed are:

1. Direct funding of students and postdocs. As the possessors of funding, trainees will experience greater choice and mobility.
2. Formation of mentoring committees that do not have a single major advisor, but instead include diverse and potentially dispersed advisors.
3. Formalized self-evaluation on career goals and research objectives, creation and management of an individual development plan.
4. A modular approach to training, including certificates, short courses and internships including those independent of, or outside of the home institution. Goals include transferable skills such as flexibility, adaptability, teamwork, communication across disciplinary, educational or cultural boundaries, community engagement, mentorship, and ethics.
5. Provide alternative training pathways such as programs to assist in the transition from 2-year and 4-year programs, postbaccalaureate programs, and non-PhD graduate research training programs.