Researcher Development Survey 2024

Research Consulting and Vitae invite UK and Australian institutions to express interest in a benchmarking initiative for researcher development.

Plans for a researcher development benchmarking study

Universities rely on their researchers to build strong, impactful research profiles and capabilities. As a result, most universities invest significant resources into researcher development programmes – through staff development units, internal programmes, external programmes and one-to-one mentoring programmes. Designing the optimal delivery mechanisms and evaluating outcomes of the investment required may be challenging.

In partnership with Research Consulting, we are exploring the potential to run a new benchmarking exercise for researcher development functions. The project will build on Vitae’s expertise in leading world class professional and career development of researchers and draw on Research Consulting’s experience and expertise running three previous benchmarking exercises on the topic of research contracts management.

This project aims to identify the structures, processes and programs that different types of institution find most helpful in researcher development. The project also aims to identify effective approaches in researcher development programmes and provide the opportunity for participants to discuss results in a collaborative manner.

Our initial thoughts are that this study would:

  • Be open to universities and research performing organisations in the UK and Australia.
  • Gather data via a survey, which will include information on; staffing and resources, programmes and delivery, incentives and evaluations, systems and metrics, external drivers, and the remit of researcher development teams and programmes.
  • Result in an in-depth benchmarking report for participants, together with a freely available public report summarising the high-level findings.

There will be discounts for Vitae membership organisations and options for running adapted surveys for smaller and specialist institutions.

How to get involved

You can express your interest (no commitment, before 30 September 2024), find out more, and contact the team on the project website. 

 

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