Reporting Guidance

The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers is a continuous improvement tool for institutions, funders and research institutes to improve their research culture, processes and behaviours to best support researchers at all career stages. Reporting requirements for the concordat are light-touch and flexible and should empower signatories to maintain consistent efforts to enhance their research environment, employment and professional development provision.

Concordat reporting process:

  1. Undertake a gap analysis to compare policies and practice against the Concordat Principles. If you have already conducted a gap analysis as part of the HR Excellence in Research Award process, this can be used for your Concordat evaluation.
  2. Draw up and publish an action plan within a year of signing up to the Concordat. If you have already approved an action plan as part of the HR Excellence in Research Award process, this can be used for Concordat action implementation.
  3. From the following year, produce an annual report, to the governing body, or equivalent authority which details your progress in implementing your action plan. Annual reports should be made publicly available on institutional websites. The due date for your annual reports will be to the month your action plan was published.

We have developed a new template for universities and research institutions to support them in their annual reporting. A separate template for funders and regulators is currently in development and will be published shortly. The new templates will help standardise the information signatories provide and covers the following:

  • Strategic objectives for the reporting year (these can include longer-term objectives if activity is multi-year)
  • Activities implemented to meet strategic objectives
  • Measures of success
  • Proposals for improvement
  • Learnings from progress
  • Forward look to actions for the following year

Annual reports will be collected and evaluated by the Researcher Development Concordat Strategy Group, supported by Universities UK, to evaluate national progress.

Aligning Researcher Development Concordat reporting with renewing the HR Excellence in Research Award

The following information applies to institutions that are both a Researcher Development Concordat signatory and also hold the HR Excellence in Research Award.

If you are planning to become a Concordat signatory / Award holder, please contact:

  • Universities UK regarding the Researcher Development Concordat
  • Vitae regarding the HR Excellence in Research Award
  • Aligning Researcher Development Concordat reporting with renewing the HR Excellence in Research Award

    Universities UK (UUK) and Vitae are working together to ensure that the reporting processes for the Researcher Development Concordat (‘Concordat’) and the HR Excellence in Research (HREiR) Award are aligned in order to reduce the collective administrative burden on institutions.

    The reporting templates for the Concordat and for renewal of the HREiR Award have thus been revised to ensure the information required for both reports is complementary with regard, for example, to details of the institution’s strategic objectives, measures of success, and progress against the implementation plan.

    Institutions are required to report annually on the Concordat and apply triennially for the renewal of their HREiR Award. To ensure there is no duplication of effort in those processes, those institutions that are signatories of the Concordat and also hold a HREiR Award will not be required to complete a Concordat report in the year they apply for renewal of their HREiR Award, but rather they should submit a copy of the documentation they have submitted for the Award to UUK to meet the Concordat reporting requirements (as illustrated in this infographic).

    To further support the complementarity of the reporting processes, institutions are encouraged to reschedule the date for submission of their Researcher Development Concordat report with their HREiR renewal date, so as to synchronize internal activities as far as possible. Please contact CDRsecretariat@universitiesuk.ac.uk if you wish to make a small adjustment to your Concordat reporting schedule.