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I need to work in a safer state or country, and would prefer to remain in academia. I run a healthy ~1mil/year research group, and I want to take the willing part of my team with me (not all will be willing to leave). My local colleagues will write letters of recommendation if asked. My academic network, in general, is strong.

I’m unsure signposting that I’m leaving to any of those groups is a good idea. Each group is linked to each other, and people talk. It’s a chaotic time, and if I destabilize the group, funding could be in question and people could lose their jobs.

I know how to search for a new job, academic or not, as an individual. It is tempting to shut this lab down, and do what I know, but I’d like to keep the band together.

How do people do this?"

NOTE: I am posting this on behalf of a tenured PI working in the US in a STEM research-focused field.

EDIT: Some additional details, although not all as the PI still wants to remain anon.

PI is an engineer. Equipment is a minor concern. The team that is most vital is staff and postdocs, who are presently co-located. Most key PhD students have apparently already left the program.

Industrademic
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    STEM can mean a lot of things with different implications for this. You need to specify a field. In particular are physical labs requiring face time among researchers needed in your field? – Buffy Jul 10 '22 at 14:36
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    https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8058/how-hard-is-it-for-someone-who-already-has-tenure-to-find-a-tenured-position-els – Anonymous Physicist Jul 10 '22 at 15:33
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    https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/175432/applying-as-a-full-professor-to-assistant-professorships-at-other-institutions – Anonymous Physicist Jul 10 '22 at 15:33
  • https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/70892/advisor-moving-to-a-different-school-should-i-move-with-him – Anonymous Physicist Jul 10 '22 at 15:35
  • https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/184171/phd-advisor-switching-schools-wants-me-to-go-with-him – Anonymous Physicist Jul 10 '22 at 15:35
  • @Buffy I know what is going on, it just crazy how quite a lot seems to be devolving within such a short amount of time. – Sursula Jul 10 '22 at 15:37
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    And who is this "team"? Students, faculty, hired personnel, others? Are they co-located or dispersed presently? Lots is missing here. – Buffy Jul 10 '22 at 15:46
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    Tenured professors move around - it is a normal part of the academic landscape. – Jon Custer Jul 11 '22 at 12:58
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    "The team that is most vital is staff and postdocs, who are presently co-located" - Equipment can be moved without permission of the equipment. Moving people hopefully requires their consent, even in Florida. Picking up and moving people is largely dependent on those people, who may feel more or less strongly about "escaping" the region, and may have secondary reasons to stay (spouses/significant others/children and other family, friends and hobbies and other local ties, etc). – Bryan Krause Jul 11 '22 at 21:05
  • I think, @AnonymousPhysicist, that this situation is special because of the group. The group is unique, I will say, and the PI is not the only important part of why it is strong. I think this individual could pretty easily move solo, but really wants to move the group. – Industrademic Jul 11 '22 at 21:06
  • @BryanKrause, I think this is the challenge. The wisdom seems to be to be silent about looking for a move, even to one's group. I think this PI is aware, and in fact says so in the post. How to do this may boil down to the below advice: "Ask people who know your plans not to talk about them." – Industrademic Jul 11 '22 at 21:08
  • @Industrademic I think the advice to keep quiet really depends on a lot of factors that no one outside the situation can know. A tenured professor is in quite a different boat than others, I'm not sure exactly who they need to hide from. For the group, I don't think there is any ethical answer to the question "how can I get a group to move" except offering them a job where you plan to land, the rest is up to them. – Bryan Krause Jul 11 '22 at 21:21
  • @BryanKrause, I do not get the sense that this is a group willingness issue, more a question of how to socialize the moving of a group with a potential institution, and how to manage information appropriately. I think this individual seems to believe they will need to be discrete... as stated. That said, it is also something similar to a '2 body problem'. I do have the benefits of some conversations. One question I was unsure of was to the effect of "how do I talk about the strengths of my team when I'm unsure I can bring them, or that they will even come". – Industrademic Jul 11 '22 at 21:59
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    @Industrademic If it were me, the conversations with the team would come first: they need to move or find a new job, and for a lot of academic jobs, their skills may be tailored quite narrowly. For any non-temporary employees, they've likely given up a lot financially already by working this job. – Bryan Krause Jul 11 '22 at 22:13

1 Answers1

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  1. Have an excellent professional network.
  2. Ask people who know your plans not to talk about them.
  3. Identify the tiny portion of universities who are wealthy enough to "buy" your research group.
  4. Figure out who recruits post-tenure faculty at those universities. At one university, it was called the "Strategic hiring and retention program." Usually it is hard to find out who is involved.
  5. Convince them you really want to work there.
  6. Get an offer.
  7. Negotiate enough money to move your group.
  8. Convince your group to move.
  9. Convince your current university to let you take your equipment.
  10. Convince your funding agencies and current university to let you take your funding with you.
  11. Relocate all your equipment.

The whole thing is very likely to be quite unpleasant. Even if you have won a Nobel prize, you are likely to find steps 1, 7, and 10 very challenging.

A person who was involved in convincing post-tenure faculty to change to their university said the success rate at recruiting people was about 10%.

I would be quite understanding if you consider it worth the trouble to get out of Florida.

Anonymous Physicist
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    I guess if you won a Nobel, you could replace 8-10 with "just get new equipment/funding". But for any other scientist you will probably need to be far above average to even have a chance of getting to step 5/6. – mlk Jul 10 '22 at 18:48
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    @mlk Probably not. Some equipment cannot simply be bought. – Anonymous Physicist Jul 10 '22 at 22:52
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    Many universities are OK about letting gear follow the PI. These things average out in terms of incoming senior faculty. – Scott Seidman Jul 11 '22 at 02:26
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    I wonder if you could expand on steps 2 & 3, @AnonymousPhysicist. These are outside my own experience. Figuring out which institution is a good match is a really important part of the problem. – Industrademic Jul 11 '22 at 21:10
  • Re (9): Sometimes there's also the approach of keeping the funding at the current institution and using it there, e.g. for paying a postdoc to work with you (whether physically in the new location or remotely). – Anyon Jul 12 '22 at 01:35
  • @Anyon That's interesting. I assume you need a friendly PI to manage the $$$ for you? Can you elaborate? – Industrademic Jul 13 '22 at 01:23
  • @Industrademic I've seen cases where the professor who left kept a courtesy appointment with the old institution, so I'm not sure having another friendly PI would be necessary. Presumably depends on local policies. Either way, the old institution will be happy to get their sweet overhead money! Also, since grants to pay employees are budgeted to take locale-specific salary and taxation costs into account, moving them can be tricky. – Anyon Jul 14 '22 at 02:56