Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers

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)

Number

Research Assistant

45

Research Associate

71

Research Fellows

32

Senior Research Fellows

8

Total

156

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 2019-2020

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.

Athena Swan - Recognising advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all. Its charter extends beyond STEMM to include arts, humanities, business and law.

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
 

Action Plan - 2010

Report 2010-2014

Action Plan - 2012-2014 

Report 2014-2016

Action Plan - 2015-2016 

Report 2018

Action Plan 2017-2018

Action Plan 2020