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The University of Birmingham Graduate School website brings together all information offered to doctoral researchers by the University Graduate School (this covers both the University Graduate School and the Research Student Administration teams). The website is meant to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for all doctoral researcher information at the University. Upkeep of the website is the responsibility of the University Graduate School Projects Officer (Marketing and Events). New developments for the website are supported by the University’s systems and web teams.

A range of two hour bite-sized workshops aimed at research staff and students. Titles include Being Assertive: getting yourself heard, Being Strategic: getting others interested in your research, Getting the Most out of Conferences and Making Contact and Making your Contacts work for you.

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.

The courses and workshops outlined in our programme are designed to meet the needs of all groups of staff within the College and offer a wide variety of development opportunities in five key areas:

• Health & Safety

• Information Technology

• Leadership & Management

• Skills & Knowledge

• Wellbeing

In our 2009/10 training programme, we introduced a section specific to the development of researchers, in response to principle 4 of the Concordat. This section has continued to develop following feedback received from research staff, line managers and principal investigators.

Research staff may also attend any of the other Staff Training & Development courses offered in the programme.

The University of Strathclyde has a long standing reputation for education, research and teacher training in science, engineering and technology disciplines. In seeking to further enhance that reputation by achieving an Athena Swan Bronze Award, we wish to demonstrate how the university is allying its search for academic excellence with a concern for equality of opportunity and inclusiveness across the institution. The Athena Swan project has been instrumental in awareness raising across the University, and the engagement of staff at all levels within the institution in considering current and future practice.

A UK-wide process enables UK HEIs to gain the European Commission’s ‘HR Excellence in Research’ badge, which acknowledges their alignment with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for their Recruitment. The UK process incorporates both the QAA Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers to enable institutions that have published Concordat implementation plans to gain the ‘HR Excellence in Research’ badge. The UK approach includes ongoing national evaluation and benchmarking. This award recognises the positive actions that the University has taken to support the career development of researchers and the actions in place to implement the principles of the Concordat to Support the Development of Researchers. 

The document is based on a gap analysis performed in November 2010 which sought to map existing policies and evidence of good practice to the Principles and Clauses of the Concordat.  Actions were then identified where further work was required to ensure complete compliance, and responsibilities assigned. Actions highlighted are where new approaches or changes to existing approaches will be developed, identifying how these will happen and setting timescales.  These new approaches will then be implemented and reviewed at regular intervals.

The Researcher Development Programme (RDP) at Strathclyde offers all research students and staff a range of opportunities to continue their personal, professional and career management skills development. The courses, events and information sources aim to help researchers enhance their generic skills and competencies and widen their scope for future employability both inside and outside academia. The Researcher’s Portal is an online resource designed to support the RDP.

This is a two day workshop during which a series of talks by successful grant applicants illustrate the range of research that is supported by the different research councils, as well as offering insights into the world of EU funded projects. Participants develop their own research proposals in advance of day 2 and then work in small interdisciplinary groups (mock panels) to review and evaluate each other’s proposals.

GRADnews is a monthly e-newsletter aimed at postgraduate research students within the university and features information on a wealth of internal and external career-development related opportunities available to the community.