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What do you want from your research staff association?
24 February 2010
By Elizabeth Dodson
Last month Tennie introduced the new UK Research Staff Association (UKRSA) and as one of the current co-chairs (alongside David Proctor) I want to post regular updates on this blog.
As a brand new initiative, there has been a lot of behind the scenes work, gathering information on local research staff associations across the UK, developing the terms of reference and putting together text for the planned UKRSA website.
Although the terms of reference are still being finalised one of the key themes is development of a research staff community in the UK – bringing together local networks to find a shared voice on research staff issues such as career development and training needs.
The UKRSA is supported by Vitae and will in return advise Vitae on researcher support and engagement. We also hope to provide expertise and a strategic view on policy development, making direct contributions to relevant consultations.
Over the next few weeks we aim to get more information available online, to formally introduce ourselves to as many research groups as we can identify and to start networking with these groups and other relevant parties.
The UKRSA is your research staff association and now is a great time to shout up and say what you hope it will offer. We aim to finalise the remit over the next week (although it will be reviewed again in the summer) – so this is your opportunity to provide ideas on how your views can be understood and represented, on what issues are important to you and on how we can effectively engage with the wider research staff community.
So please, get involved by making your views known…
Sarah Davies26 February 2010 at 01:08 AM
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This is really exciting! I'd like to see an organisation that is a voice for its members. This blog has shown some of the highs and lows of research staff life, and that many of us feel that we are - at times, at least - treated in a way that is unfair or which puts us in difficult positions (having to choose between our career or having a family, to cite a recent example). While I don't expect the UKRSA to find the answers to these things, it would be great to see both the wonderful work that research staff do and the challenges they face given a higher profile. Oh, and any good club should have a badge. Maybe a secret one, that members can wear under their jacket lapels at conferences? ;-)
Simon Smith01 March 2010 at 04:08 PM
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Liz - the sentence that grabbed my attention was: "We also hope to provide expertise and a strategic view on policy development, making direct contributions to relevant consultations." That's the kind of thing I'd like my Research Staff Association to concentrate on. Be pro-active about it if possible, by developing policy ideas/briefings and getting them in the public domain. There are a lot of areas where our interests are quite divergent because we all come from different disciplines, so it will be important to identify the right issues, where there is a common 'researcher' position. But tell me how will UKRSA distinguish its voice from Vitae on policy matters? Would there be separate submissions to relevant consultations from both, or would UKRSA become the advocate and Vitae concentrate on its professional development role?
Elizabeth Dodson02 March 2010 at 05:21 PM
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Hi Simon. As I understand it, although Vitae is supporting the development of the new UKRSA, we will have an independent voice. Although our interests are closely aligned with those of Vitae, we may sometimes have differing opinions to voice. Where there are policy matters relevant to both organisations, I would expect each to make seperate submissions. It is also likely that our remit will be broader than that of Vitae - so we may be responding to consultations that cover issues outside of Vitae's core development interests. Sarah - if you want to get designing a secret badge then I'll put it to the vote ;-)