Breadcrumbs
The impact of researcher development activity
One of Vitae's key strategic aims is 'evidencing the impact of professional and career development support for researchers'. Sector input to this activity comes through the Impact and evaluation group (formerly the Rugby Team), a sector-wide working group representative of all key stakeholders.
Researcher development offers a powerful opportunity for researchers to realise their potential and enhance their careers. Researcher development is also capable of making an important contribution to the achievement of the research and broader aims of all stakeholders and the evidence base for impact continues to grow.
This section provides the latest evidence on the impact of researcher development activity and on how Vitae is working with higher education institutions and other stakeholders in building the evidence base. For evaluators, more detailed information on the evaluation methodology is also provided.
STOP PRESS A call for evidence of the impact of researcher development Submissions invited by 18 June 2010
The evidence of impact:
‘There is emerging evidence that researcher training and development activity:
- improves research outputs, grant writing success, fellowship success and performance in research
- enhances the postgraduate researcher and supervisor experience
- enhances employability
- enhances and increases the public understanding and outreach activity of researchers.'
[Executive summary, ‘The Rugby Team Impact Framework: one year on' Sep 2009]
Impact - researcher development case studies provides multiple case studies and summaries of evidence.
Overview - building the evidence base for researcher development provides background information including the drivers and developments that have led activity over recent years
The impact of research: The work in building the evidence base in researcher training and development is just one aspect of a much wider impact agenda.
Further information for evaluators:
Researcher training and development evaluation methodology. How does the sector evaluate researcher training and development activity? What is the national ‘Rugby Team Impact Framework'? How is the Rugby Team Impact Framework used?
Evaluation: step by step guide. Applying evaluation ideas.