A letter issued this week by the RCUK sets out how the Research Councils expect research organisations to recover costs from all funders, and how the Research Councils will be embedding researcher development funding into their normal funding mechanisms.
On 30 March 2010, the Research Councils circulated a Statement of expectations regarding researcher development. This included the principles that:
'Our expectation is that the quality of skills provision and the employability of researchers are maintained and improved, through research organisations acting to recover funds to support researcher development from all funders of research and research students.'
'The Research Councils anticipate that funding for researcher development will be increasingly embedded into their normal training and research grant mechanisms.'
The Vitae policy forum report 'Exploring funding options for researcher development' provides a summary of key issues and discussions between HEIs and the Research Councils on the future of 'Roberts funding'.
Embedding researcher development will be a key theme of the Vitae conference taking place on 6 and 7 September. The outcomes from an independent panel reviewing the Roberts' recommendations for transferable skills and career development will be announced at the conference.
For further information, see the following links:
The sustainability of the Researcher Development agenda by the Research Councils
Vitae policy forum 2010: Exploring funding options for researcher development
For more information, please contact Maija Sirola at maija.sirola@vitae.ac.uk