UKRSA- what are we up to? PART I

16 August 2010

By Tennie Videler

This summer I am not keeping up with things at all. Time just seems to slip away. It is already just over a month ago that the second meeting of the UKRSA committee took place in London and I haven’t reported on that on here yet at all. Or on any of the other frantic activity that is going on. We are really busy, so busy in fact we don’t get round to updating you…. Apologies.

The meeting: Chris Thomson was elected as co-chair to work alongside David Proctor. Liz Dodson, who was co-chair, has stepped down and I just want to say a huge thank you (on behalf of all the committee) to her for all the hard work that she has put into helping to set up the UKRSA. Apart from the nitty-gritty of setting up the association, Liz has also represented the UKRSA on the expert panel for the independent review of Roberts’ recommendations. This panel will provide a high-level and independent assessment of the impact of the work that has been done to implement the recommendations of Sir Gareth Roberts’ Review (SET for Success, 2002) regarding the employability and career development of research students and staff.

The UKRSA has also been represented at a HEFCE event in July to discuss equality and diversity in research. It was a group of senior academics and HR professionals gathered by HEFCE to discuss ongoing inequalities in research careers. Chris Thomson contributed to this on our behalf.

Similarly, the UKRSA now has representation on the CROS steering group and the Concordat Implementation Strategy group.

Three members are giving a workshop at the Vitae annual conference with an emphasis on exploring ways that UKRSA members and training and development professionals (the target audience of the conference) can collaborate.

Then there is the research that is being carried out, but I guess I’ll update you on that in a separate post and ask for your participation…