Call for programme content

The deadline for submitting workshop proposals and abstracts has now passed. If you still wish to submit a proposal please contact Louise Atkin on 01223 448519.

Please note that special interest session proposals are still being accepted.

Background

The established Vitae researcher development conference is the largest event for all those with a strategic and practical role in developing researchers.

This year we particularly welcome international colleagues for whom the conference will include a range of dedicated workshop sessions.

The annual Vitae researcher development conference in 2011 will bring together over 400 UK and international professionals for a two-day programme of policy and strategic development, learning and practice sharing. 

Conference content proposals

We are again inviting participants to propose workshop sessions and special interest sessions.

The conference will address the strategic and practical implications of the following themes:

• Sustaining and building institutional capacity for researchers' professional development to maintain research excellence
• Demonstrating the value of researcher development on research outputs, researcher careers, economic prosperity and society
• Policy developments relating to the doctoral education and employing researchers
• Sustainable practice to support researcher skills, professional and career development

Choosing what to propose

 The following information is designed to help you choose how you can best contribute to the information and practice sharing activities at the 2011 conference.  If you would like to discuss the best format or suitable collaborators for your proposal please contact Louise Atkin at louise.atkin@vitae.ac.uk or on 01223 448519.

Workshops

Workshops must be well planned, structured sessions. They will have clear learning outcomes for participants and address an area of policy or practice in researcher development. How each workshop develops one or more of the conference themes will be easily identifiable. 

There will be two different formats of workshop:

1. A 55 minute workshop addressing an area of policy or providing information on a researcher development policy related topic.  These workshops will run on Monday 5 September.
2. An 80 minute ‘interactive' workshop addressing an area of practice in researcher development. These workshops will run on Tuesday 6 September.

The deadline for proposing a workshop was Friday 1 July 2011.

Abstract submissions

In partnership with the International Journal for Researcher Development, Vitae invite abstracts (250 words maximum) for conference papers covering researcher development

• Research and Theory: original empirical research, conceptual analyses, policy analyses, and theoretical perspectives.
• In Practice: Reflective overview and discussion of innovative practice, including the inspiration for the practice, design, implementation, outcomes and learning for practitioners.

Four different papers will be presented within the research strand which will run on Tuesday 6 September.

Each presenter will be allocated 20 minutes within the programme with the expectation that a minimum of 5 minutes of that time is allocated for Q&A.

The deadline for submitting an abstract was Friday 1 July 2011.

 Special interest sessions

Special interest sessions will last 30 minutes and offer an opportunity to explore an area that does not clearly fit into a workshop because:

• the topic does not clearly link to the stated conference themes but is of interest to some participants
• the session structure is very flexible and/or has no predefined outcomes
• the topic is a fledgling/undeveloped idea
• the topic comes to the fore close to the conference date and so is too late to schedule and plan a workshop about it

Propose a special interest session

Although special interest proposals will be considered at any point, only those submitted by Friday 1 July 2011 will be considered for inclusion in widely circulated conference information.