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Researchers are key members of academic staff. They are central to the College’s status as the leading centre for veterinary research in England, as well as its global aspirations. Beyond this, the College recognises that researchers make many other important contributions, for example in undertaking valuable research support, teaching and supervision duties, and as a vibrant group within the wider RVC community.

Following the launch of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, the College developed a Concordat Code of Practice and Guide which demonstrates the Colleges commitment to the provision of timely and effective support for Research Staff and their chosen career paths.

Ketso is an interactive, hands-on toolkit for bringing meetings and workshops to life. It is compact and portable, simple to use and accessible to everyone. Ketso extends people's ability to run effective and enjoyable workshops - virtually anywhere and in any setting. It encourages people to be creative and share in productive dialogue, while also generating real results that can be put into action. Ketso provides a set of tabletop tools that can be used to capture and display people's ideas. It consists of colourful 'branches', 'leaves' and other materials, which can be placed on a felt workspace and easily moved around in response to changing discussion. Ketso is robust and portable, and comes in a handy carrying bag, making it easy to transport to and from events. Ketso provides a series of free resources to help you run effective workshops and engagement processes - such as workshop plans and training videos in planning and running a workshop.

The Social Media sessions demonstrated a successful integration of a student-led initiative within a formal graduate training provision. The initiative underlined the importance of engaging PhD students in their own learning and training needs, in both sharing expertise with peers and in contributing to their own professional development. In doing so, it demonstrated to other postgraduate researchers how they might utilise their own areas of expertise to develop further student-led initiatives.

Open competition to fund projects relating to research staff development

Loughborough and Cambridge Universities are championing a new guide which has been developed to support the early career development of research staff. Entitled Signposting Career Paths for Post Doctoral Researchers, the guide has been developed by the Athena Forum – an umbrella organisation that oversees developments designed to advance the career progression and representation of women in science, technology, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) disciplines in UK higher education. The initiative, which was recently launched at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, is being championed by Loughborough’s Vice Chancellor Professor Shirley Pearce, and Professor Alison Richard from the University of Cambridge. Although the guide was developed for those working within STEMM subjects, it is relevant to all disciplines. It aims to provide accessible, useful and practical advice for individuals starting their careers. To help publicise the guide, a bookmark has been produced to highlight the sources of support available to research staff at their university. It also encourages postdoctoral students to consider ten crucial questions about their career aspirations and the practical issues that might affect their progress. All members of research staff at Loughborough will receive copies of the bookmark, along with a personal letter from Professor Pearce. Professor Steve Rothberg, Dean of Engineering at Loughborough University, said: "Research staff in the STEMM disciplines will play huge roles in delivering economic recovery and future prosperity to the UK. Among them are the academic and business leaders of tomorrow. “Over the last three years we have significantly increased our efforts in support of their career development with a range of targeted initiatives including dedicated careers and professional development support and we are delighted to be championing this vital initiative from the Athena Forum with its special focus on women scientists and engineers." Further information about the Guide and links to sources of support at Loughborough are available at www.lboro.ac.uk/athenaforum http://www.lboro.ac.uk/staff/news/articles/2010/signposts.html

Over the course of the 2010/11 academic year, this AHRC-funded programme offers postgraduate researchers from the Arts & Humanities faculties of six of the East Midlands’ leading universities an opportunity to gain training and practical experience in curating part of a public programme in collaboration with Nottingham’s renowned Galleries of Justice. Postgraduate researcher participants will be offered the chance to harness elements of their research to devise and deliver 2 public engagement (PE) events with a critical/creative perspective on the permanent Crime and Punishment exhibition. This opportunity will be underpinned by an innovative programme of public engagement training and mentoring from a senior curator at GoJ, and through a new collaboration between the award-winning researcher development programme at the University of Nottingham (UoN) and the applied research and consultancy expertise in the Centre for Museum and Heritage Management at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Participants will undertake a total of four full-days of specialist training and at least two days of mentoring. Training will focus on: project management; advanced communications skills; working with young people in schools; audience research and evaluation techniques. It will also include two half-days looking at two different exhibitions from a critical perspective and applying the skills that you have developed. This will be followed by the opportunity to work together to plan and deliver a public programme relating to the permanent ‘Crime and Punishment’ exhibition at the Galleries of Justice to two new audiences.

This is a student led project which aims to bring together researchers from different disciplines to discuss the use of new media technologies.

This day conference (13 May 2009) was intended as a contribution to the development of more open and research-informed dialogue about being a contract researcher and carrying out fixed-term research in a range of social science disciplines and in of institutions. In addition, it highlighted the role that social science reserach can play in mapping employment patterns in research and in illuminating the personal, professional and institutional issues surrounding fixed-term employment. It provided a forum to review existing evidence about fixed-term employment in research, from several angles: that of contract researchers themselves, and their career experiences and identities; that of institutions as employers; that of research governance; and that of the disciplines/ fields as a whole. The conference was convened by the Research Staff Forum of the Oxford University's Department of Education, chaired by Dr Alis Oancea, and supported by the Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice and by the Social Sciences Division. Speakers included Jacqueline Allen-Collinson (University of Exeter), on occupational identity and the lived experience of undertaking contract research; David Mills (University of Oxford), on the demographic profile of social sciences; Lynn McAlpine (University of Oxford), on the next generation of social scientists; and Zoe Fowler (Independent consultant), on contract researchers, career development, and capacity building. Iain Cameron (Head of Careers, RCUK), Rebecca Nestor (Associate Director, Oxford Learning Institute), Matthew Smart (Divisional Officer, Oxford University Social Sciences Division), Justin Hutchence (University of Reading), and Elizabeth Oliver (University of Liverpool) acted as discussants. The conference was attended by key representatives of Oxford University and of other UK universities, including decision-makers and academic and support staff. In August 2009, the British Educational Research Association published a thematic issue of its newsletter, "Research Intelligence", which summarised the proceedings of the conference.

Volunteering is an often-overlooked route to skills development. Working with the Guild of Students, the Graduate School promotes a range of volunteering options to enable postgraduates to develop a range of invaluable skills while also helping the local (and wider) community.