Progress in establishing the UKRSA

02 April 2010

By David Proctor

There have been several posts introducing the Research Staff Association of the UK (UKRSA) to readers of the Vitae research staff blog.  A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to establish the UKRSA, and from time to time I'd like to share our progress and plans with you.  I also encourage you to contact us if you're interested in working towards the aims detailed here.

Following the Vitae research staff conference in November 2009, a Vitae research staff advisory group was formed to provide input into policies and practices developed by Vitae.  We decided at our first meeting in January 2010 that we could best provide a collective voice for UK researchers by forming the Research Staff Association of the UK (UKRSA), supported by Vitae. With the agreement of Ashley Pringle, an original member of the National Research Staff Association (NRSA), we decided to continue and extend the work of the NRSA.  We agreed upon a structure for the committee and a symbiotic relationship between Vitae and UKRSA.  Now, we communicate regularly online to further develop the UKRSA, and plan to meet again in July 2010.  We've made some progress in our four aims:

1. Creating a sustainable research staff association

Our efforts to establish a sustainable research staff association have gotten off to a good start: we have an active committee that interacts online.  Additionally, in order to represent the diverse UK research community, we've sought representatives from each home nation, research discipline, and Vitae Hub.  

Due to the high turnover of research staff, it's important that the committee establish mechanisms to preserve knowledge and reduce the reliance of the committee upon individual members. The support of Vitae is vital in this, and we've invited representatives from partner organisations to participate on the committee as advisers.  

2. Establishing an online community for researchers

There are a variety of online communities for researchers, including the Vitae research staff blog and Nature Network. The UKRSA has no plans to compete with these resources by creating another online community.  Instead, we would like to promote these communities, facilitate their use and connect them by linking them through our website.  

The UKRSA and Vitae websites will contain information on a variety of subjects, including career development, employment rights, and researcher mobility.  Where relevant content on these subjects is already available online we will point researchers to this content.

3. Support local research staff associations

As part of our online resources, we are developing a guide to setting up research staff associations.  In this guide, we're collecting examples of the organisational structures of existing UK research staff associations.  We plan to have this resource completed and online before by July 2010.

Several members of the UKRSA committee have visited UK universities to share knowledge and contacts, discuss the benefits of having a local research staff association, and provide examples of the challenges and solutions for starting an association.  The University of Aberdeen, Newcastle University, and Queen's University Belfast have recently benefited.

The UKRSA is also working closely with Vitae to establish regional associations based on the Vitae Hubs.  A research staff forum in the Scotland and Northern Ireland Hub exists, and efforts are currently underway to establish a research staff forum in the London Hub.

4. Provide input on policy issues affecting researchers

Through interactions with online communities, diverse representation on the UKRSA committee, and regular surveys of research staff across the UK, we hope to maintain an ongoing dialogue with UK research staff in order to provide a collective voice.  We will gather information and report upon the opinions of the research staff community with regards to policy.

We have begun to establish ties to organisations that develop and implement policy relating to UK research staff. The UKRSA is represented on the RCUK Independent Review Panel evaluating implementation of Sir Gareth Roberts Review 'SET for Success', as well as the Vitae Rugby Team charged with proposing 'a meaningful and workable way of evaluating the effectiveness of skills development in early career researchers'.

Get involved

Still in its infancy, the UKRSA cannot exist independently of the research communities it aims to represent. For information on participating in the representation and development of research staff in the UK, write to us here on the Vitae research staff blog or contact ukrsavitae@googlemail.com