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Background to the project

The importance of developing highly-skilled researchers and promoting the value of research careers to build our research capacity and ensure our economic and cultural prosperity has been well-recognised. The 2005 launch of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for their recruitment, and the revision of the UK Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers are evidence of a growing requirement to establish the career of ‘researcher' as a valued profession.

Implicit in the researcher development agenda, is an understanding of the skills that researchers need to develop. For postgraduate researchers this is currently articulated in the Joint Skills Statement (JSS). For research staff there is no equivalent national statement, although a few higher education institutions (HEIs) have developed internal models. Currently, the only national reference is the JNCHES academic role profiles for research roles, which focuses on job descriptions rather than personal and professional skills development.

The 2006 scoping study for Research Councils UK (RCUK) for a research career mapping tool to enable researchers to access key information, advice and guidance about research careers identified the importance of a national framework for researchers and research careers.

‘A fundamental issue that has repeatedly emerged throughout this project is the lack of clarity about what constitutes a research job/career, and about the defining characteristics of a ‘researcher'. There is no overarching ‘framework' on which to contextualise the mapping of research careers.' Research Career Mapping Tool Report, 2006, CRAC/UK GRAD Programme (now Vitae)

This lack of framework for research careers was also recognised at the 2005 UK Presidency conference launching the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their Recruitment. The outputs from the conference stressed the need for "substantial cultural change in the way researchers are perceived, managed and conduct themselves. The recognition of research as a profession - with researchers recognised as well as recognising themselves as professionals - is a key aspect of this change in perspective"

The 2008 Roberts Policy Forum and subsequent consultation by the Rugby Team endorsed the importance of developing an ‘overarching competency framework/model of professional learning that builds on the Joint Skills Statement'.

It was suggested that this should include:

  • the complete researcher continuum from postgraduate researcher to research staff to principal investigator/supervisor
  • the complete breadth of the academic role: research, teaching and learning, career development, knowledge transfer, etc
  • include competencies/skills, behaviours and build in different levels of development related to research career phases, with clearly defined entry and exit points
  • be informed by the requirements of different job roles/functions as appropriate during a research career
  • be flexible enough to:
    • allow individuals to take different routes through the framework
    • recognise varied learning styles and approaches to development
    • take into account differences between disciplines in how these competencies might be described
    • provide opportunities for local variability in content, e.g. specialist topics.