The Impact and evaluation group (formerly the ‘Rugby Team') is calling for the sector to put forward evidence of the impact of researcher development. The evidence will be included in the sector report prepared for a launch at the third annual Vitae researcher development conference that will take place on 6-7 September in Manchester.
This is an important year for the sector to continue to build upon all the achievements so far in 'Building an evidence base for the impact of researcher development activities'. Having available to the sector all the best possible evidence base may well prove crucial in securing the future of researcher development activities, especially in this difficult economic climate and an inevitable uncertainty regarding future funding.
Type of evidence requested
Please refer to the previous report 'Rugby Team Impact Framework: one year on' for a general view of the types of contributions previously put forward. Also view the new impact section of the Vitae website. No contribution is too small or too large! And if you are wondering whether or not something would be of value please simply forward it to us for a quick look. Contributions might include:
a) A paragraph of information highlighting interesting findings from e.g. end of workshop evaluation forms
b) A case study of individual researcher experiences of development activity (See Essex University examples case study 5 on the new impact section of the Vitae website)
c) 1-3 page evaluation case studies of a more detailed nature, covering methodology and key findings mapped against the impact levels of the Rugby Team Impact Framework
d) Any suggestions of other reports, academic papers or projects you are aware of that you think contain evidence of impact of relevance to researcher development (I'm happy to receive multiple suggestions to include the same report rather than miss something)
e) Further evidence at levels 3 and 4 of the Rugby Team Impact Framework. (Evidence of impact at all levels of the Rugby Team Impact Framework is valuable and welcome, but further examples at levels 3 and 4 would be particularly welcome)
Please also enter case studies of impact evaluation into the Vitae data base of practice and provide us the practice number (ie web link).
A new section of the Vitae website dedicated to ‘The impact of researcher development' is now live at www.vitae.ac.uk/impact. Case studies of evidence and update reports are included along with resources on evaluation methodology and using the ‘Rugby Team Impact Framework'. The website will be updated with new case studies following the Vitae conference in September.
The evidence so far shows that researcher development has a demonstrable positive impact and that we can have optimism for the future, but we need to continue to build! Let's make the evidence base the best evidence base we can possibly gather!
Final date to submit evidence for inclusion is Friday 18 June.
Please submit evidence to Dr Tony Bromley by
email t.p.bromley@adm.leeds.ac.uk, tel. 0113 3432531
or by post:
Dr Tony Bromley,
Senior Training and Development Officer
and Co-ordinator, Vitae Yorkshire and North East Hub
Staff and Departmental Development Unit
Graduate Training and Support Centre
1.35c Parkinson Building
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT