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Your positive coverage of the reduction in the use of fixed-term contracts for research staff is very welcome.

The research councils share the concerns, which have been voiced by many people, about the excessive use of short-term contracts that make research careers highly unattractive. However, your leader comment perpetuates the myth that funders of research constrain universities, leading them to use such approaches. This is not the case.

Research Councils UK is leading a revision of the concordat for the management of researchers this year, which we hope will dispel this myth once and for all.

Universities cannot absolve themselves from being responsible employers even if they have multiple funding streams.

Ian Lyne
Chair
Research Careers and Diversity Group
Research Councils UK