Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Money and power or research?

I have been asked if I'd be interested in going for a position which means a lot more responsibility and a good chunk more money (at least 15 000$ or 12 000 eu a year) than what I have, for the next 4 years. It implies political influence, the possibility of making a real difference for (this little spot of) Norwegian academia, and a chance to meet a lot of interesting, important people and perhaps even be listened to by the same. The drawback? No research, no travel for conferences, no time to write and explore, no books, no articles, no research- or writing leaves for 4 years. At least. The maximum time, if I get caught up in this, is 12 years.

I can get the same kind of money, although not the same kind of influence, by working my ass off at publications and projects and become a full professor. Problem is - I don't get funding for my projects, because I don't have experience in leading researchers, something this job would give me.

I am suffering from cognitive dissonance. Or I am just plainly in doubt about what to do.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The chance to do something different than what you do today is usually a good thing.

You learn more from changing than from continuing with the thing you do every day. (Damn! I sound like a comment spam)

I think it is a good idea to get more women into places of influence and power. Your research is important, but so is your perspectives on research and you could probably do a lot of good for usually neglected areas of research:-) Good luck with choosing!

Thomas

unni said...

NOW I'm curious. This is a real skilled retoric talking, saying enough to leave me curious, then making me wait for the rest so that you KNOW I am listening...

Anyway, should you, with that fragile voice of yours, do this ? If your body is up to it, I would say go for it. But not if it puts an aditional stress on your system. I care to much about you to see you burn out and fade away.

ON the others side, I love seeing you conquer giants, fully confident that you can. As you allready is one of them in my eyes.

Looking forward to see what you decides.

By the way, something that makes YOU considder leaving the books behind must be something exciting.