Committing to the Concordat

Up-to-date information relating to the Concordat can now be accessed via this new self-contained website. This page is under review and will be revised shortly.

Signatory responsibilities

1. Raise the visibility of the Concordat and champion its Principles within their organisation at all levels.
2. Identify a senior manager champion and associated group with relevant representation from across the organisation with responsibility for annual review and reporting on progress.
3. For organisations employing researchers, ensure that they are formally represented in developing and monitoring organisational efforts to implement the Concordat Principles.
4. Undertake a gap analysis to compare their policies and practice against the Concordat Principles.
5. Draw up and publish an action plan within a year of signing the Concordat.
6. Set up processes for systematically and regularly gathering the views of researchers they fund or employ, to inform and improve the organisation’s approach to and progress on implementing the Concordat.
7. Produce an annual report to their governing body or equivalent authority, which includes their strategic objectives, measures of success, implementation plan and progress, which subsequently is publicly available.

Within the Concordat there are systemic challenges that require the engagement of all stakeholders. Signatories are encouraged to collectively engage in initiatives to make progress in these areas. For example:

• Seeking ways to provide more security of employment for researchers, such as, through reducing the use of fixed, particularly short term, contracts, providing bridging facilities, and flexible criteria for maternity and paternity benefits.
• Sharing examples of emergent practice in implementing various aspects of the Concordat, particularly in tackling difficult and complex issues, such as insecurity of employment.
• Gathering and publishing data on the career destinations and subsequent career paths of researchers.
• Aligning the Concordat with other concordats and frameworks to minimise reporting requirements and drawing on existing data sources.

In order to become a signatory you will need to inform Universities UK as the CSG Secretariat, who manage the signatories process for the Researcher Development Concordat.