my career in August

After the last reorganisation in our natl lab, I am located in a cubicle next to my old office. I t is occupied by a senior colleague, whom I overheard talking about my junior colleague, a clueless uni graduate. It appears that he left for the overseas recreational leave, and this weekend is the closing date for the applications for the permanent position which was promised to him. He did not apply. So the senior colleague was ringing all the administrators involved and even was talking about a possibility to prepare and lodge the application on the Y-Gen'er behalf. I wish they were this caring when making a permanent position for me. However, everyone keeps quiet about it. Do they expect I have to start jumping over the hoops or what, so that to convince them to start making this position up for me ?

I remember a year ago, the senior adminstrator had a conversation with me and told me that he would be advertsing a position soon which he recommended me to apply for, and also recommended me to publish a couple of papers to strengthen up my future application. And then the was a reorganisation, and the creation of the new positions (one of them -- for me) was postponed until the beginning of the new financial year, that is now.

I published a paper in the local conference proceedings (it was non-peer-reviewed, and thus less prestigeous. However, the senior administrator liked my style of writing). I also wrote a paper for the pear-reviewed publication. But it got stuck with my boss. It was not only with my paper, and the senior adminsitrator arranged for an alternative supervisor to approve it; however my paper got stuck again.

So, here I am. At the last departmental meeting, my junior colleague was told that a position would be organised for him; I was told that they definetely want to keep me, but the position could not happen out of the blue sky -- I have to work for it and carve a niche. They would write up a job description based on this niche work, and get approval from the top boss to create a position. I would then apply for it alongside any other applicants which might happen. Their unwillingness to promise a permanent position for me seems to be reasonable, because this is a senior position, and they would like to make sure that I can perform according to their expectations.

So, I am concerned what to do now. I want to demonstrate that I am worthy of the permanent position. Obviously, I have to prove that I can generate high-quality reports. There is not enough of my previous work to make up one more paper (BTW, one of the reasons of reorganisation and deposition of my boss was that he did not manage his staff well). Now, I am doing computer modelling work, which is a conceptually new exercise for me. I have a year more left in my contract, and I would be able to generate one good paper by the end of that year. This is too late. I estimate that I need to get that permanent position in about half a year, and if not, I have to start looking someplace else. What would the learnt men recommend me to instigate the administration to open up a position for me ? I know that they have a bunch of vacant positions (some people left recently), and they seem to receive me well (my current boss set a general topic of work for me, and constantly pushes me and my new colleagues together to get me going, and wants me to go to major conference in our field).

What strategy should I buttume ? Thanks.