Master’s-level researcher

A master’s-level researcher is a researcher whose highest formal qualification is a master’s degree (MSc, MA, MRes, MPhil, or an equivalent national qualification), engaged in research work in a role appropriate to that qualification level — for example a research assistant, technician, or project-specific researcher post that does not itself require doctoral training.

How this differs from adjacent career-stage categories

The category sits between two others that funders and institutions track separately: it is distinct from doctoral candidates and early-career researchers with a PhD (whose career clock and funding eligibility windows are usually defined relative to date of doctoral award), and distinct from researchers whose highest qualification is a bachelor’s degree, who typically hold more junior technical or support roles. Master’s-level researchers are increasingly recognised as their own category in research workforce data and in some funder eligibility criteria, precisely because they are common in technical, professional, and research-support roles and are neither on a doctoral track nor holders of only an undergraduate qualification.

Example

A research assistant with an MSc who runs a laboratory’s day-to-day experimental protocols under a PI’s direction — a substantive research role that does not require, and is not defined relative to, doctoral training.