Vitae annual programme 2019-2020

Vitae advocate for the professional development needs of researchers at all career stages and share good practice on improving wellbeing and mental health, research integrity, and equality, diversity and inclusion. We work with and for our member community in the UK, Europe and internationally to understand how research culture is realised on the ground, and ensure key messages and challenges are received and heard by policy-makers.

To support researchers at this time of fast-paced change, we are looking at the underpinning competences and behaviours of open research, collaboration, and responsible research and innovation. Working with our member community and other stakeholders, we’re exploring how the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) reflects this changing environment and how it can support researchers’ needs to ensure they are prepared to take advantage of the opportunities around them.

All staff supporting the development of researchers should be able to access appropriate development opportunities, and reward and recognition for this. We support our community through initistives such as the Careers Framework for Researcher Developers (CFRD), ‘Connections’ CPD events, and most recently, a professional recognition scheme for researcher developers. We aim to ensure that researcher development provision continues to build on good practice by creating a network of peers to share learning, provide mentorship and identify common challenges.

We put a spotlight on the idea of ‘once a researcher, always a researcher’ and explore the varied potential career paths doctoral graduates and research staff take in their later career beyond ‘being a researcher’. In particular, we are looking at the emergence of research ‘adjacent’ and professional roles across higher education and connecting with projects internationally looking at career tracking and career profiles of doctoral graduates.