Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers

Committed to supporting the good management and support of researchers and their careers.

Principles

The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers is an agreement between the funders and employers of researchers in the UK, representing a significant development in national policy to support good management of researchers and their careers.

  • Recognition of the importance of recruiting, selecting and retaining researchers with the highest potential to achieve excellence in research

  • Researchers are recognised and valued by their employing organisation as an essential part of their organisation's human resources and a key component of their overall strategy to develop and deliver world-class research

  • Researchers are equipped and supported to be adaptable and flexible in an increasingly diverse, mobile, global research environment.

  • The importance of researchers' personal and career development, and lifelong learning, is clearly recognised and promoted at all stages of their career

  • Individual researchers share the responsibility for and need to pro-actively engage in their own personal and career development, and lifelong learning

  • Diversity and equality must be promoted in all aspects of the recruitment and career management of researchers

  • The sector and all stakeholders will undertake regular and collective review of their progress in strengthening the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers in the UK

Our Research Community

AU recognises there is a diverse community of researchers to be supported by our action plan including early career staff, postdoctoral staff and in fact all  research staff.

Composition of our research (and teaching) staff as of March 2019:

156 Research Only
300 Teaching and Research
155 Teaching only (in Academic departments)

 

Of the Research Only Contracts

 

Number

Research Assistant

45

Research Associate

71

Research Fellows

32

Senior Research Fellows

8

Total

156

 

 

Aberystwyth Researcher Concordat Group

 

This group oversees the annual review of the Policy Statement and manages the implementation plan. Should you wish to pass any comments, or require further information, please contact Dr Dafydd Roberts (dir@aber.ac.uk).

 

MEMBERS 2021-2022
Chair - Sarah Wydall, Associate Dean, Research Knowledge Exchange and Innovation for Faculty Arts Humanities and Social Sciences
Prof Helen Roberts, Director of Research Excellence & Impact, Dept Geography and Earth Science
Prof Rayer Zwiggelaar, Head of the Graduate School
Dr Dafydd Roberts, Research Development Officer: Arts and Humanities
Dr Ian Archer, Centre for Development of Staff and Academic Practice
Ms Ruth Fowler, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Human Resources
Emma Gibbons, Head of Organisational Development and Learning, Human Resources
Beverley Herring, Careers Consultant:Careers

 

Additional Support Information

 

Internal support includes:

Research, Business & Innovation- providing points of contact and resources for researchers, including the Research Grant Application Toolkit


Research Good Practice sessions – A program of training for new researchers


Research Supervision.


Staff Development Programme - Information regarding broader training provision in the University.

 

Welsh Language Researcher Development Courses - Information about the Welsh medium research courses provided by the Coleg Cenedlaethol.

Welsh Crucible - Professional and leadership programme for future research leaders in Wales.



 

External support:

Leadership Foundation.  Aberystwyth is a member of the Leadership Foundation and has free access to many of its reports and resources, and also receives a 25% discount on the full price of training and courses.  Some of their events are also free.  Please see here for more details.

 

Vitae- A programme, network and web resource that supports the development of researchers in the UK. Aberystwyth University is a member of the Vitae network.  Researchers and staff can now access the Vitae web resources by creating a login using your @aber.ac.uk email address. 

UK and European Policies to

Support Researchers

  

EU Charter for Researcher Staff

Vitae's Researcher Development Statement and Framework

Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research


Concordat to Support Research Integrity
 

 

Implementation and Review Documents:

Case Studies of Effective Practice

 

Case Study 1

Women in Research Network (developed by Dr Marie Neal, Research Development Officer, Research Business and Innovation)

(Diversity and Equality (Concordat Principle 6), Recognition and Value (Concordat Principle 2), Support and Career Development (Concordat Principle 3-4)

Read the full Women in Research Case Study

 

Case Study 2

Fixed-term Fellowship project (developed by Sian Davies, European Funding Officer, Research Business and Innovation)

Recognition of the importance of recruiting, selecting and retaining researchers with the highest potential to achieve excellence in research (Concordat Principle 1)

Read the full Fellowship project case study

 

Letter of commitment to the new Concordat