Vitae News: September 2022

Welcome

Welcome to the September edition of Vitae News. This month, we segue from #VitaeCon2022 into our new annual programme for 2022-23, which aims to support and progress conversations around researcher development and research culture. We also bring you news of recent Vitae publication launches and other initiatives taking place across the community.

Vitae International Researcher Development Conference 2022 - #VitaeCon2022  

We were delighted to hear from a diverse range of voices present at the in-person element of #VitaeCon2022 earlier this week. This included some rich conversations around defining and measuring research culture, how we recognise and reward contributions to the research environment, as well as efforts towards supporting researchers’ wellbeing and mental health.

Look out for further opportunities from Vitae to continue these conversations over the next few months, many of which can be found in the Vitae annual programme. 

Registered #VitaeCon2022 attendees are now able to: 

Vitae Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition final

Congratulations to all member institutions who took part and especially to Sadaf Akbari from Kingston University and Yasna Najmi from Ulster University, who claimed the Judges’ Choice and People’s Choice Prizes, respectively.  

Launch of Vitae annual programme 2022-23  

Take a look at the events and activities to engage in and benefit from over the next twelve months, with some events open to all. 

New Vitae publications 

Following #VitaeCon2022, the latest Vitae publications can now be downloaded from our website: 

Practice Pathways

We are excited to be supporting institutional researcher development provision for Vitae members globally, through our ‘Practice Pathways’ series starting next month. The series will offer insights and knowledge to help you navigate through specific themes in the research system, such as developing good supervisors and managers, and to add impact to the researcher development role. 

Call for HR Excellence in Research Award peer reviewers  

If you are looking to further your professional development, build experience in HR Strategy and deepen your understanding of Researcher Development Concordat implementation, Vitae is seeking to recruit peer reviewers for the UK process of the HR Excellence in Research Award. The call ends next week, so don’t delay. 

Application deadline: 12pm GMT+1, Friday 7 October 2022.  

Advertising researcher development roles 

We have been hearing from our community recently about the pressing need to fill new researcher development-oriented job opportunities. Such roles will play an exciting and pivotal part in furthering institutional ambitions in delivering researcher development provision, and in enhancing research culture.

To gain as much visibility and engagement with these existing and upcoming roles, Vitae will be helping institutions to drive applications by sharing these advertisements. If you have a role available at your institution that you would like to advertise, please let us know. 

Steering group members 

Following the UK Research Staff Association’s selection of Loughborough University and C-DICE to host The National PostDoc Conference 2023 ‘Transitions and New Horizons’, the recruitment of postdocs to join the conference steering group is in motion! Please circulate this professional development opportunity amongst your postdoctoral researchers who you think may be interested. 

Calling scientists of all career stages  

As part of research commissioned by the Royal Society, The Careers Research & Advisory Centre (CRAC) that manages the Vitae programme is seeking views from scientists on the challenges and opportunities that they face at different career stages. If you or colleagues would be interested in participating in a focus group in autumn 2022, please complete the short screening survey.