How is the Researcher Development Framework structured?

The Researcher Development Framework has been created from empirical data, collected through interviewing researchers, to identify the characteristics of excellent researchers expressed in the RDF as ‘descriptors'. The descriptors are structured in four domains and twelve sub-domains, encompassing the knowledge, intellectual abilities, techniques and professional standards to do research, as well as the personal qualities, knowledge and skills to work with others and ensure the wider impact of research. Each of the sixty-three descriptors contains between three to five phases, representing distinct stages of development or level of performance within that descriptor.