Scientists are generally quite happy to boast about grant income. But ask us about our personal income, and we tend to become much more coy. We rail against any suggestion in the popular press and among the various credulous ‘sceptic’ movements that personal enrichment is ever a motivation - or even a possibility. We’re not in it for the money, we say. It’s a vocation, we say. Our thirst for knowledge is what drives us.
Well OK but let me state clearly, and for the avoidance of all doubt: damn right I’m in it for the money. If I didn’t need a salary, I’d quit in a heartbeat. I would be more than content with a life of gardening and guitars, cricket and crosswords, kids and kayaking.
Of course, the money is not my only motivation - if it was my primary concern then I’d have done something dull and lucrative. Given that I need to pay the bills, I’m happy that I get to do a job that I (often) enjoy. And although I have played the career game poorly, I still get nicely remunerated, well enough that I have the extraordinary luxury of being able largely to ignore financial matters, indeed of having only a ballpark idea of what my salary actually is. But despite my chronic lack of interest in money, I do know that a little bit extra here and there is always welcome, and this last year in particular my priorities have been roughly family > students > other stuff in my actual job >> other stuff I can get paid for > > > > other stuff I don’t get paid for. So I thought I would pass on some of the knowledge I’ve gained haphazardly over the past couple of decades regarding opportunities you have as a research scientist or academic to supplement your income.
I will start by acknowledging some of my privileges. Clearly the fact that I am a white, male, native English speaker has not exactly harmed my prospects; and some of the opportunities I describe below as arriving more or less by serendipity, have fallen to me in particular because of the kinds of informal networks that people like me so easily find ourselves in. Let’s also mention the Matthew Effect - you tend to get offered these sorts of things once you get known for doing these sorts of things. And also the universal truth that the more you can afford, the less you have to spend - you probably have to do stuff for free before the paid stuff comes in. (Oh and yes, I do still do stuff for free as well - I do try to be a good academic citizen.) BUT - you can make your luck to a certain extent, and in the various sections below I’ll try to give some practical tips on how to board these particular gravy trains. The general advice is always to try to be a good collaborator (and collaborate beyond academia if you can), and to actively look for opportunities and push yourself forwards to take them. And if you get a chance to do something once, do a decent job and it’s more than likely you’ll be asked again.
Reviewing
OK OK OK - don’t spit your coffee out! I know most reviewing we do is unpaid, and I know that the fact we do this routinely for massively profitable multinational publishing companies is a source of much Twitter ire. However, some reviewing pays - in particular, some funding agencies will pay you to review grant applications. I have in the past been paid by various national funding agencies, as well as with the EU as an expert reviewer and assessor of Horizon 2020 proposals. This kind of work will tend to either pay a set rate per proposal, or will assign a time value per task and pay you based on that. For instance, the EU will pay a few hundred euros per day worked - and they are reasonably generous (and very clear) about assigning hours to specific tasks. As always, you need to be careful that these kinds of time commitments don’t become overwhelming. But my view is, if you’re gonna be reviewing stuff anyway, why not get a holiday out of it? You tend to get these opportunities as you progress in your field anyway - and I have always tended to prioritise reviewing funding applications over papers, regardless of any financial considerations, as it’s time well spent to better understand the processes of funding agencies. But you can be more active too - for example, you can register as an expert for Horizon 2020 here. (And if you have a PhD, you are an expert.)
I’ve also reviewed book proposals for various publishers and, while these tend not to be paid, often you will be offered books in return - I’ve been offered books to a value of between £50 and £200 in the past, for providing brief comments on a proposal. I think I first got asked to do this because I tended to socialise with publishers at scientific conferences…
Editing
As for reviewing, lots of editing is unpaid. I’ve been on editorial boards of various journals for the last decade or more, and never been paid for that. Executive or senior editors are often paid though - fair enough, as it’s a much bigger time commitment. I don’t know all the going rates, but it can amount to a few thousand pounds a year - a proper second job, in effect. The only time I’ve been paid for editing was as assistant editor of what was then the British Ecological Society’s Bulletin - a post that was advertised, and that we (it was a job share), as early career researchers at the time, applied for. Honestly can’t remember how much we got for that but it was a really fun assignment!
Consultancy
I’ve done various bits of consultancy over the years, and I’m not quite sure how - it’s not something I’ve especially sought out, but I’ve been lucky to be working with people (typically not in the university system) who then secured some funding for a job that my specific skills could contribute to. Generally (though not always) this has been related to R and data and stuff, ranging from getting code to work after its originator had left their job in a hurry, to producing some nice plots and indices of biodiversity change, to writing a literature review. Although you can do this privately, my university makes setting these kinds of contracts up quite easy, and I like easy. Basically everything then goes through the university books with two options for the fee: get it paid into your salary, or get it paid into a cost centre. In the past, when I had fellowship funds to keep my research going, I would opt for salary. These days I typically opt for cost centre, which means I can purchase things for my group, pay for travel (remember that?), or sometimes pass it on by engaging recent students as casual workers. Consultancy fees will vary a good deal, with some jobs paying a day rate (typically several hundred pounds) while others might come with a flat fee based on delivering a stated piece of work. The jobs I’ve taken on have typically had a total value of between about £1000 and £5000. I don’t really have any practical advice on how to secure consultancy work - the stuff I’ve done has been for several different organisations, often subcontracted as part of a bigger piece of work. I’ve had no strategy, other than saying ‘yes’ when things sounded interesting.
Examining
Universities depend on external examiners at all levels. I’ve been an external examiner for quite a few PhD vivas - for this you’ll typically get a fee of between about £100 and £250 in the UK, on top of expenses. Given that preparing for and conducting a PhD viva can easily be a couple of days solid work (possibly more if you’re physically travelling there, as we did in the Before Times) this is not exactly the going rate. But good for a pair of shoes and some fancy wine. External examining for undergraduate or masters courses also typically brings in a fee, usually scaled to the number of students on the course(s) you’re examining. I’m doing this for a couple of MSc programmes at the moment, and expect to bring in a few hundred to a thousand pounds a year for this.
Acting as external examiner for PhDs is one of those things that again tends to start happening as you get on in your career. Some universities (my own included) require you to have specific experience, either of supervising your own PhD students to completion, or of examining elsewhere, before they’ll accept you without a special case being made. But it’s certainly worth letting your friends and collaborators at other institutions know that you’re keen to do this. Likewise with MSc or BSc examining - you’ll need a reasonably established teaching position, but again let people know you’re looking for this kind of work. Suitable examiners can be hard to find, and I even see calls put out sometimes on mailing lists.
Teaching and Training
I’ve not really done external paid teaching but I know people who do deliver training courses on a consultancy basis. My one, rather surreal experience of this was delivering an R course, many years ago - I only really worked out that was what they wanted me to do when I got there, so it was all a bit on the fly. And I didn’t realise there was any kind of remuneration until I was given an envelope of cash - this is the per diem model, where you get a set amount per day to cover your expenses, more common in continental Europe than it is now in the UK. I’ve benefited from it in a workshop before as well. Trick is, of course, to do as my uncle used to when travelling the country as a telecom engineer on per diem - sleep in your car, eat bread and cheese, pocket the cash… My sense, if you want to make any kind of money out of delivering training courses, is you need to really set it up yourself and have at least some kind of entrepreneurial spirit.
Other stuff
There are a number of things I’ve not been paid for but would not turn my nose up at. Should anyone wish to pay me to write a book, or for any broadcast or print media work, they may. I have no idea what kind of fees such things might entail. I have heard rumours of blockbuster undergraduate textbooks paying for houses for their authors. I suspect most science books are more likely to pay for a houseplant. I would be interested to know.
Things to remember
Remember: fees equate to time. Set your boundaries, stick to them, stop when you run out of time. Think what a reasonable going rate is - and don’t undervalue yourself. It’s likely that if you try to do consultancy work through your university, they will recommend you charge somewhere between £500 and £1000 a day. So if you’re offered, say, £200 worth of books to review a proposal - that’s 2 hours work max.
Remember: tax and so on. What sounds like a juicy fee might shrink somewhat before you’re able to squander it all on luxury goods / gas bills.
Remember: you don’t have time to do everything. Think about what you’re committing to - will you really be able to find two full days in the next month? Really?? If you don’t have time, don’t say yes. It’s only money.