Having both the Chair and Secretariat based at NTU offers several advantages, including enhanced communication, established relationships, and the opportunity to build on the excellent work already being carried out to support researcher development — which lies at the heart of the RDC’s mission.

The main contact at NTU is Dr Christopher Barenberg, Research Associate for the UK Researcher Development Concordat, who is looking forward to working in this role and to meeting colleagues in due course.

For enquiries, please contact the Secretariat via email at: rdc@ntu.ac.uk

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to colleagues at the Scottish Funding Council, who kindly undertook the Secretariat role during the interim period.

Link to the templates can be found Resources

The report provides an overview of the work undertaken by the RDCSG to meet its commitments as governing body for the Concordat. The report also covers:

• Highlights from the Research Culture and Practice Forum
• Work on fairness of employment in research
• Case studies on supporting the development of researchers
• Priorities for the RDCSG in 2024.

You can download the

• Full 2023 annual report.

The University’s Concordat Steering Group (CSG) provides a robust framework for the implementation, realisation of benefits and monitoring of support for the University’s diverse and talented postdoctoral and early career research fellow community. This transparent approach to internal governance is led by the Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Impact (PVC R&I) who chairs the CSG in liaison with the University’s Head of Researcher Development and Research Culture. The CSG has a diverse, targeted membership, including the Associate PVCs for Research and Impact, the University’s Research Staff Association (RSA), research-related professional departments such as HR, the Diversity and Equality Team, Research Support Office, the Open Research Team and the Technicians Network. Critically, there are 7 research staff representatives on the CSG, who ensure the Group’s accountability to Liverpool’s postdoctoral and early career researchers, and consistent reflections of the researcher experience at Liverpool.

Operation of the Concordat Steering Group

The work of the CSG is fully embedded across the operation of the University. The Academy, a recognised centre of excellence in researcher development, leads the inclusive approach to the development and implementation of the Concordat via 6-8 weekly formal CSG meetings. The CSG reports to the R&I Committee, creating alignment to other R&I activities and, in turn, reports to University’s Council and the Planning and Resources Committee. In addition, the Concordat is embedded within parallel activities, including the formal management of the Athena Swan Charter, the Technician Commitment and the Race Equality Charter, ensuring that synergies and aspirations for research staff are foregrounded across all key areas.

Dedicated workshops with CSG members enable a governance approach that regularly reviews progress, collates input from key stakeholders, shares effective practice across Faculties, ensures alignment, accelerates decision making and enables efficient communication around research staff experiences.

Direct Insights into Researchers’ Lived Realities 

The RSA provides a vital forum for Concordat action plan progress, priorities and review. All weekly RSA e-bulletins contain a separate section on Concordat-related updates and information, including signposting resources related to wellbeing, EDI, bullying and harassment, HR policies and guidance for research staff on using their 10 days of professional development, and more. In addition, the RSA organises annual Concordat consultation sessions with its 920 members, the most recent being a session in May 2022 titled ‘What does the Concordat mean for me? The UK Concordat from the perspective of research staff’.

Postdoctoral and early career research fellows at Liverpool also directly contributed into the design and development of the University’s obligatory role-related open-access module on the Researcher Development Concordat. This development module is the first of its kind in the Higher Education sector nationally and empowers researchers with the knowledge to actively be part of the institution’s efforts for change.

Placing the research community at the heart of Concordat governance processes means the University of Liverpool not only provides a voice to those it seeks to support, but actively empowers researchers to engage meaningfully in the enhancement of institutional research culture.

The University of Liverpool is a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. 

The module is the first of its kind in the Higher Education sector nationally and further embodies the University’s focus on sector-leading researcher development. To view the module, click here.

The module is signposted to University staff during induction via the role related obligatory framework and via the University’s PGR Supervisors’ Network. A link to the module is also available in the ‘Development and Support’ section of the annual PDR form and to the Concordat pages on the University’s Researcher Hub.

Direct Insights into Researchers’ Lived Realities

Postdoctoral and early career research fellows at Liverpool directly contributed to the design and development of this module which seeks to empower researchers with the knowledge to actively be part of the institution’s efforts for change.

The module aims to further enhance the career and professional development of researchers, managers of researchers and professional colleagues supporting Liverpool’s researcher community. It serves to foster conversations that nurture a positive and inclusive culture in which researchers take responsibility for the development of their personal and professional practice. As role-related development, the module is available to new and existing staff as needed, allowing them to refresh their understanding of the Researcher Development Concordat, including the support for researchers’ professional development.

Guidance for the Researcher Annual Professional Development Allowance

The university continues to underscore its commitment to the Concordat with the publication of an open-access Guidance for the Researcher Annual Professional Development Allowance that was also co-created with researchers and development professionals. This is a living resource which is continually updated as the University cultivates its provision for supporting researchers to balance the delivery of their research and their own professional development. Notably, the guidance recognises that professional development takes a variety of forms – some synchronous, some asynchronous – and that development needs (and the activities associated with them) vary with career stages. Therefore, individuals are encouraged to choose the activities most relevant to their current situation with input from and agreement of their PI. Development activities might take place in a university setting, but importantly do not have to. The guidance includes a non-exhaustive list of examples of what research staff can do to make the best use of their professional development time at the University.

This work builds on the cross-University work based on the Statement of Expectations: Principal Investigators (PIs) and Research Staff that defines expectations around responsibilities for the roles of research staff and PIs with an emphasis on embedding professional practice; encouraging, supporting and allocating a minimum 10 days pro rata, per year, for research staff to engage with professional development opportunities, supporting researchers to balance the delivery of their research and their own professional development, recognising that researchers will pursue careers across a wide range of employment sectors.

Placing the research community at the heart of Concordat initiatives means the University of Liverpool not only provides a voice to those it seeks to support, but actively empowers researchers to engage meaningfully in the enhancement of institutional research culture.

The University of Liverpool is a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. 

The New Deal is a long-term government programme that aims to improve the experience and quality of postgraduate research training in the UK. The commitment to a New Deal was set out in the R&D People and Culture Strategy published in July 2021.

The Researcher Development Concordat Strategy Group advised that postgraduate research training should proactively nurture diverse talent and contribute to providing an open and positive environment for researchers to have constructive conversations about their career prospects. This includes actively outlining and supporting the transition into multiple career paths, including careers in industry, business and academia, and providing training that is equal and inclusive to researchers from different backgrounds and experiences.  The New Deal should also consider how postgraduate researchers are perceived and integrated into an institution’s researcher community and recognise the important implications of this on culture, mental health and wellbeing.

Other key recommendations the group made in the consultation was for the New Deal to:

• Explore the transition period between postgraduate to academic researcher / other career routes
• Address inconsistencies in models of supervisory support offered at departmental and institutional level
• Incentivise good leadership training for managers of researchers through recognition of sector concordats and agreements that stipulate better leadership provision
• Consider postgraduate researchers’ employment status, rights and conditions within the context of improving research culture, practice and the wellbeing of staff
• Consider the effects of different funding arrangements and financial support avenues on the outcomes of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity

The consultation was a cross-sector consultation run by UKRI between February 2022 and May 2022. UKRI will publish a report on the call for input later this year.

If you’d like to know more about this consultation response or have any questions, please contact CDRsecretariat@universitiesuk.ac.uk 

The University of Surrey is proud to announce that for the first time it has submitted combined documentation to extend its holding of the Human Resources Excellence in Research Award (HREiR) and demonstrate commitment to the Researcher Development Concordat (RDC), after aligning its reporting for both initiatives.

The university has held the HREiR award since 2012 and became a signatory to the RDC in 2020. Aligning reporting offered Surrey the opportunity to engage in a more robust assessment of its successes in supporting Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and more holistic identification of areas for improvement. Aligning reporting processes also helped streamline efforts by negating the need to file separate reports at different times, but it did increase the scope of the endeavour, requiring renewed investment from institutional leadership and thinking, a refreshed approach to stakeholder engagement, and new commitments in staffing.

To extract maximum value from aligning Surrey’s reporting to the HREiR award and the RDC, the former HREiR Working Group was renamed the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers Steering Committee. A strategic decision was taken to have the committee chaired by a senior member of university staff who could also champion both initiatives, with Professor David Sampson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation, assuming the role of chair.

Professor Sampson widened the membership of the Steering Committee to include a broader pool of stakeholders, while his decision to chair represented investment from the top of university leadership in delivering upon the institutional commitment to the principles of the RDC. The new ambitious scope of the new Steering Committee also required additional resources. The decision of the Doctoral College (DC) in 2021 to recruit a member of staff with the specific brief to lead on ECR engagement and on the HREiR and RDC reporting process was vital, providing specialist administrative support and advice, and representing a novel investment in staffing, underlining Surrey’s commitment to the RDC.

The Steering Committee’s membership then cooperated in creating, annotating, and editing the documents required for the submission in a newly created Teams site, with the collaborative documents allowing colleagues to pool their ideas and work together in deciding future priorities. It was particularly helpful to have in the Steering Committee university leaders with knowledge of initiatives similar in scope to the RDC. For example, Professor Emily Farran, academic lead for Research Culture and Integrity, whose experience in integrating the concordats related to Research Integrity and Open Research Data into university operations provided invaluable in the development of the final documentation for the HREiR and RDC reporting processes.

The documents that form the University of Surrey’s aligned submission are now publicly available. The Steering Committee will next meet in October to assess progress in implementing the new action plan in light of feedback gathered from both internal and external stakeholders, as well as Vitae, the custodian of the HREiR award.

The programme aims to explore the different potential approaches to the assessment of UK higher education research performance and metrics. This review has been driven by the UK government and devolved ministers and funding bodies.

The Researcher Development Concordat Strategy Group advised that the key purpose for the future research assessment should be develop the next generation of researchers. This should be achieved by building capacity and capability and shaping the research system to meet the demands of the UK’s growth of research and development. Critical to bringing the change needed is influencing the behaviours of the sector to improve research culture and the research environment and ensure that researchers are encouraged and supported in realising their potential.

Other key recommendations the group made in the consultation were for the future assessment to:

• Embed research culture in the national policy framework to incentivise good practice
• Promote and encourage commitment to concordats and agreements that support research culture
• Include emphasis on good employment practice, recruitment, status of researchers, career development support
• Support the use of narrative CVs in funding calls, recruitment and promotion
• Avoid requesting a duplication of information with other research culture related initiatives by encouraging a joined-up approach to assessment and evaluation of research culture

The programme of work will evaluate consultation responses, REF 2021 and possible models and approaches. The programme aims to reach a conclusion by late 2022.

If you’d like to know more about this consultation response or have any questions, please contact CDRsecretariat@universitiesuk.ac.uk

There were insightful and helpful sessions for and from the researcher community: from mental health and wellbeing to addressing the stigma surrounding research careers outside of traditional academia. The day also saw sessions addressing ways to improve collective accountability in research integrity and how to build and engage community, to name a few. Speakers included researchers, researcher developers and institutional champions of research culture as well as representatives from government, industry, UUK and GuildHE.

Addressing the implementation of the R&D People and Culture Strategy, the forum welcomed Brigid Feeny from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to speak about the work that government is doing to improve and progress understanding of research culture. Dr Ben Raynor (Higher Education Funding Council for Wales) and Dr Charlotte Matheson (Scottish Funding Council) gave updates on the research and innovation culture policy landscape and activity in Wales and Scotland, respectively. Additionally, members of UKRI’s Research and Innovation Culture team, joined the forum to present on the benefits of adopting the narrative CV in recruitment, promotion and career development and to update on the roll-out which was actioned in the strategy.

Other sessions addressed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, specifically on the barriers to attracting and retaining diverse and international researchers, as well as sharing best practice amongst the community. Actions for advocacy organisations and funders have been taken away to further progress with other key stakeholders and keep conversations going to address these issues.

With audiences and actors of both concordats in one ‘virtual’ room, groups could identify the connection between, and value of, good culture and good practice. Barriers to achieving excellent practice and research outcomes often trace back to wellbeing, health, pay, career development, progression and satisfaction of the research community. It is vital we consider the various tangents of the research system as one collaborative solution to better and healthier research in the UK.

We’re excited to keep the momentum and enthusiasm for these issues going and would welcome any discussions you’d like have with the Researcher Development Concordat secretariat. We’d also like to ensure that the voices of researchers are heard through publishing blogs, articles and stories via our Researcher Stories blog feed. If you are a researcher, at any stage of your career, and would like to tell your story and raise awareness for career development, please get in touch.

To arrange a discussion or submit your story, contact CDRsecretariat@universitiesuk.ac.uk

If you would like to watch the session recordings of the Research Culture and Practice Forum, please visit the Events UUK YouTube channel.

More than just a Network, a thriving research community

Starting in Autumn 2021 the British Academy partnered with the Wolfson Foundation to pilot a network for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the humanities and social sciences. The Network is for UK based researchers who identify as early career, broadly described for our purposes as within 10 years of their doctorate, who are working in humanities and social science disciplines, and who are affiliated with institutions in the Midlands, South West and Scotland.

A core aim of the Network is to foster a thriving and supportive community of Early Career Researchers, which is researcher-led and inclusive, making it accessible to all researchers regardless of their funding source or background. After the two-year Pilot, the expectation is for this to be a UK-wide network tailored to researchers at postdoctoral level in the humanities and social sciences.

Importantly, the Network will be responsive to the needs and interests of the researchers themselves, with the hope that this will enable a greater number of researchers to receive support in their career ambitions, through a range of skills development, networking opportunities, workshops, and events. This reflects well the principles for Researchers set out in the Researcher Development Concordat.

Since the Network launched in late September 2021, over 1,500 ECRs have joined. Members are keen to expand their networks and benefit from training, workshops and events that will positively enhance their personal, research and professional development skills.

Over the last 10 months a broad range of events have been organised for or by the ECRs, including but not limited to: media training, policy training; How to write a compelling grant proposal; interdisciplinary workshops; how to communicate research in the social sciences to a wider audience; planning impact; working outside of academia; international collaboration; and ‘From Thesis to Monographs: Getting your PhD published’.

Reflecting the hybrid world in which researchers now operate, as well as access and participation considerations, events to date have been a mixture of online and in person, allowing ECRs to come together, learn new skills and share knowledge and learning. Everyone is encouraged to suggest events and ideas for future engagement.

The Network intends to bridge an important gap between those ECRs who have security and funding and those who do not, enabling all researchers to develop their skills and explore opportunities; offering support for those ECRs who find themselves without access to some formal support structures.

The Academy works with partners across the sector to align efforts in the interest of the ECR community. As we are seeing, the Network has the potential to be transformative for not only ECRs but the broader sector, placing ECRs at the centre of change, and allowing the sector to benefit from the knowledge and drive of ECRs from all backgrounds.

To find out more about the ECR Network and to sign up and be part of the growing community click here. For organisations interested in collaborating on an event for the ECRs please email ecr_network@thebritishacademy.ac.uk

The British Academy is a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.