Reevaluating new and existing challenges early career researchers face across regulatory ecotoxicology

A SETAC Pellston Workshop® on "Improving the Usability of Ecotoxicology in Regulatory Decision-Making" was held in August 2015. One outcome of the workshop was a publication, which highlighted the challenges ecotoxicologists of the future face in applying academic research to regulatory decision making. The authors proposed that training students on issues of relevance and reliability will lead to improvements in the applicability of academic research for regulatory decision making, whilst also setting out the importance of cross-sector partnerships in preparing academics for a career in regulatory ecotoxicology. As nearly a decade has passed since the initial workshop, we believe it is important to reevaluate previously identified challenges faced in applying academic research to regulatory decision-making, highlight challenges not previously identified, and assess the uptake of proposed training and skills. A survey was developed and deployed online to gain understanding of the challenges early career researchers (ECRs) face in applying academic research to regulatory decision making, and the training and skills received throughout their career. 52 ECRs responded to the survey. Just over a quarter of respondents (27%) considered themself to be part of a training network, however approximately half of all respondents state that they have received training to understand the regulatory context of their research (52%); ecotoxicology methodologies or guidelines (44%); and principles of quality assurance and good laboratory practice (54%). We explore why ECRs may or may not receive training, and assess the extent to which they agree that it has improved the applicability of their research for regulatory decision making. We conclude that whilst some areas of training have developed, some remain a challenge (i.e., interdisciplinarity, cross-sector partnership) and set out a series of recommendations for ECRs to overcome new and existing challenges in applying their research to regulatory decision making.