Vitae News: June 2021
Welcome
Welcome to June’s Vitae News giving you the latest information around Vitae Connections Week 2021, the launch of a new report that was showcased at our RDF member event earlier this week as well as calls for content for a couple of exciting new initiatives.
Vitae Connections Week 2021 - #VitaeCon2021
Speakers
We are delighted to announce that Prof Rory Duncan, Director of Talent and Skills, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will join Debra Stewart in the opening plenary 'Policy development a year in review', giving us an overview of UKRI developments over the past year. Further speakers will be added to the plenary in the coming weeks.
Agenda published
Over 30 live, on-demand and social sessions have been accepted by the independent review panel and the first of these are available to browse on the Vitae Connections Week platform. We encourage you to register for #VitaeCon2021 as soon as you can as bookings for sessions will open soon and some sessions will have limited places.
Vitae 3MT® 2021 competition
Reminder - video submissions
Thank you to those of you who have already submitted your 3MT finalist’s video and slide. The deadline for submissions is Friday 2 July by WeTransfer to events@vitae.ac.uk. If you have any queries please contact the events team. The six finalists will be asked to perform their presentation again for the Vitae 3MT 2021 competition final, sponsored by Taylor & Francis, which will be broadcast on Friday 10 September during the final day of #VitaeCon2021.
Researcher Development Framework (RDF) news
New methodology report
A report following a recent study exploring the experience of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) using the Researcher Development Framework (RDF) at UK universities, was showcased earlier this week at ‘The RDF: Now and for the future’ event.
The report includes how PGRs were introduced to the RDF, how they have benefitted from using it during their PhD and the extent of support they received from their institutions and pinpoints recommendations for PGRs, institutions and for the wider sector. The report was kindly funded through the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).
Call for examples of practice
Researcher Development Concordat – Platform of Practice
Following the Concordat Strategy Group (CSG) ambition to create a practice-sharing community platform to help engage, inspire and innovate uphold and achieve the Concordat Principles, we invite examples of practice in implementing the Concordat from across the higher education sector.
Once launched, the platform will provide access to varied examples across different contexts and stakeholders. The launch of the populated platform will take place during Vitae Connections Week 2021.
Researcher networks working group ‘Toolbox’
Examples of practice are also being invited for a new effective researcher networks ‘Toolbox’ being developed by the Vitae Researcher Networks Member Working Group. By gathering the community’s collective knowledge relating to the formation or running researcher networks, including case studies, the Working Group aim to build this handy collection of examples to showcase later this year.
Other news
Open science community starter kit
Ideal for Early Career Researchers, this new open access starter kit provides the rationale, design and guidelines to start a local Open Science Community.
Do pass on this useful recourse to those relevant within your networks and help inspire the adoption of Open Science practices!
Job vacancy
The Careers Research & Advisory Centre (CRAC) that manages the Vitae programme is currently advertising for an Engagement and Policy Project Manager to join our team to cover for maternity leave. Please forward to those in your networks who may be interested. The deadline for applications is 28 June.
Academic precarity webinar
A webinar titled ‘Academic Precarity: Deteriorating Working Conditions in Research’ will be taking place on 1 July discussing the key findings from the recent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Global Science Forum "Reducing the precarity of research careers” report. The webinar will cover the main challenges faced by many researchers around academic precarity with suggestions around overcoming some of these challenges.
