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- Launch of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers
Launch of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers
- Institution(s):
- University of Stirling
- Region(s):
- Scotland and Northern Ireland
- Date first submitted:
- 4 Jun 2009
- Date last modified:
- 4 Jun 2009
- Relationship to RDF:
-
- Domain A: Knowledge and intellectual abilities
- Domain B: Personal effectiveness
- Domain C: Research governance and organisation
- Professional conduct
- Domain D: Engagement, influence and impact
- Focus:
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- Career development
- Audience:
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- Research staff
- Range:
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- Institution
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Rationale, aims and outcomes
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What is the rationale for doing this?
How does it fit with institutional strategy?
What are the main features of the provision?
What are the aims and expected outcomes?
The University of Stirling highly values the major contribution to its economy and reputation which is made by its many researchers and is at the forefront of efforts to support their professional development. The university therefore invited its research staff and others involved in supporting research careers to a launch event to raise awareness of the revised Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.
The aims and objectives of the launch were to:
- raise awareness of the purpose of the Concordat;
- increase awareness of the aims and objectives of the Concordat;
- exemplify the principles and recommendations contained within the Concordat.
- discuss how the concordat may be implemented at Stirling.
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Engagement
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Are there any pre-requisites for engagement, e.g. levels of skill, years of experience, essential pre-activities?
How many participate in each 'activity'?
All senior staff, research directors, service personnel and research staff were invited to attend. Over 50 members of staff participated in the event.
Presentations from Rosie Beales (RCUK), Ian Simpson and John Rogers explained the history behind the Concordat, its principles and how its implementation would be facilitated in the future at Stirling.
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Evaluation: benefits, challenges and next steps
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How do you monitor effectiveness?
Who do you seek feedback from?
Do you have benchmarks?
This event was particularly important as the Concordat aims for the first time to put researchers at the forefront of development. It was important to establish and communicate as early as possible that the University of Stirling would be taking this agenda seriously and would do everything it could to implement the principles and recommendations over the coming years.
Some research staff were sceptical about the potential benefits of the Concordat and whether Stirling would have the capacity and drive to implement the receommendations.
To overcome this challenge in particular the University appointed an coordinator responsible for researcher development who presented at the launch event a set of outline plans for the implementation phase of the Concordat and the development of the 'Researcher Development Programme'.
It will be important to keep researchers up to date with developments on a regular basis. A Researcher Task Group has subsequently been established and the remit for researcher development passed to the well established 'Stirling Graduate Research School Steering Group'.
Since the event, communication with researchers has been regular and will soon be followed up with distribution of the 'Concordat Briefing Papers'