Science needs a home too: CE3C warns about the housing crisis

The CE3C Executive Board would like to express its solidarity with the concerns raised by society regarding the current housing crisis, a reality that is increasingly affecting the scientific and academic community.

The housing crisis directly affects CE3C’s activities. As a research center, we recruit researchers through competitive national and international projects, host researchers hired under scientific employment programs, and regularly welcome new career researchers and university faculty members. The ability to attract and retain these professionals is fundamental to the institution’s scientific development.

Science is an inherently international and collaborative endeavor, based on the mobility of researchers across institutions, regions, and countries. Many of the CE3C researchers move to Portugal to take up positions funded by programs such as the Scientific Employment (CEEC) or other research contracts, contributing to the renewal and competitiveness of the national scientific research system.

Therefore, it is with growing concern that we observe that the salaries offered by the Portuguese research and scientific system, set at the national level without adjustment for the local cost of living, are increasingly incompatible with access to decent housing in many of the regions where scientific activity and higher education are concentrated. This reality poses a growing obstacle to attracting talent, fostering scientific mobility, and retaining highly qualified researchers. 

This concern is particularly relevant at a time when the country is seeking to strengthen scientific careers and create better prospects for professional stability among researchers. The benefits of any structural reform of scientific careers will necessarily be limited if researchers continue to face significant difficulties in securing adequate living conditions. Portugal’s ability to establish a competitive and internationally attractive scientific community depends not only on research funding and the creation of career opportunities, but also on the existence of conditions that allow researchers to live and work with dignity.