Research assistants are vital – so why is their funding so precarious?

Please tell us, specifically: what jobs and where will RAs go for pay IF they leave universities?

Whilst I do sympathise, there aren't many jobs in the HE sector that aren't rewarded better outside of it. I guess we choose to stay as we love what we do and have to accept that this comes at a price.

Having tried to support one of our most experienced senior RA for almost a decade, often through one year contracts and fractional funding on parallel grants, I fully appreciate the scale of the problem also from the PI's perspective. When academic positions open up often the internal candidates are overlooked and undervalued.