The Vitae Researcher Development Statement

The UK is committed to enhancing the higher-level capabilities of the UK workforce including the development of world-class researchers. Researchers are critical to economic success, addressing major global challenges, and building a leading knowledge economy.

The Researcher Development Statement (RDS) sets out the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of effective and highly skilled researchers appropriate for a wide range of careers.

The RDS is for policy makers and research organisations that provide personal, professional and career development for researchers in higher education.

It is derived from the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF), an approach to researcher development which aims to enhance our capacity to build the UK workforce, develop world-class researchers and build our research base.

The RDS and RDF contribute to researcher training and development in the UK by providing a strategic statement (RDS) and operational framework (RDF) to support the implementation of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, the QAA Quality Code – Chapter B11: Research Degrees and 'Roberts' recommendations for postgraduate researchers and research staff.

Read more about the structure of the RDS.