Using the Vitae Researcher Development Framework

Providing professional development for your research staff and doctoral candidates

Principal investigators and supervisors have a significant role in supporting the professional development of researchers. The Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) can help provide that support. It enables structured conversations with researchers about progress to becoming a well rounded, capable and confident researcher.

Benefits of using the RDF as a PI or supervisor include:

• structuring conversations about professional development to provide clear well-focused guidance
• providing a framework to analyse the capabilities of your team
• identifying useful areas to consider when drafting training and development plans in funding applications

Enhancing the professional development of researchers

Use the Vitae Researcher Development Framework on a regular basis to:

• Work with individual researchers to explore strengths and areas for further development
• Recommend formal and informal opportunities for development
• Empower researchers to engage in their personal, professional and career development
• Inform constructive discussions about career opportunities inside and outside academia that suit individual strengths
• Plan regular review meetings or appraisals to explore skills and areas for development.

You might encourage your researchers to pro-actively use the Vitae Researcher Development Framework and the RDF Planner in their professional and career development.

Institutional impact

If you support researcher development at institutional level, consider:

• Proposing using the Researcher Development Statement as a basis to align institutional strategy with relevant national or international policy
• Actively recommending and championing the Vitae Researcher Development Framework in your institution. The framework can inform training and development plans and activities and align them with your overall institutional strategy
• Advocating an organisational subscription to the RDF Planner. This is an easy-to-use online application, based on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, that helps researchers to plan and record their professional development effectively

Practical ways to use the Researcher Development Framework (RDF) for research staff development:

Planning and providing professional development

• Mapping the RDF to your institutional provision at domain, sub-domain and/or descriptor level will enable you to:
• Show researchers what capabilities will be developed by any particular activity
• Identify gaps in provision or opportunities to build on existing development activities
• Embed the RDF in your existing development provision
• Create a library of provision organised around the RDF.

Empowering researchers

Engage researchers with their professional development by using the RDF to:

• Encourage researchers to provide evidence of capabilities and experiences. Familiarity with the RDF enables researchers and their managers to work together with a shared understanding to identify expertise, achievements and goals
• Enhance career development conversations using the range of capabilities within the RDF to explore the possible career options available to researchers
• Work with researchers to identify their development needs and create action plans. Training needs analysis and action plans can be designed to reflect the domains and sub-domains of the RDF, which will help researchers to identify appropriate training and development.
• Researchers might also find it helpful to review and record their progress against the developmental phases. The Vitae RDF Planner is a valuable tool for this
• Use the lenses on the RDF to encourage researchers to think about specific aspects of being a researcher and to highlight to them how their knowledge, behaviours and attributes can be used in other contexts

Promoting the benefits of the RDF

Some suggestions to raise awareness of the value of the RDF:

• Provide the RDS and targeted briefings to key stakeholders and institutional committees to facilitate strategic planning for researcher development
• Use the RDF to communicate and raise awareness about researcher capabilities to researchers themselves and to employers, by making presentations or providing information at induction sessions, conferences and seminars
• Encourage colleagues with management or supervisory responsibility for researchers to use the RDF in advisory sessions.
• Lay the foundations for success by organising a specific event to introduce the RDF to established PIs and supervisors, or by embedding the RDF into new supervisor training.

Institutional benefits of the Researcher Development Framework

The Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is the widely endorsed framework underpinning professional development for researchers at all levels. Using the RDF can help institutions to fulfil the requirements set out by funders and governments for the support of researchers and researcher careers. For example the UK QAA Quality Code – Chapter B11: Research Degrees and the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.

Researcher Development Statement (RDS)

The Vitae Researcher Development Statement (RDS) is derived from the RDF. It can be used to facilitate the achievement of strategy for researcher development, helping to fulfil institutional, national and funders’ requirements for standards of support for researchers.

Examples of key strategic aims in supporting development of researchers

• Achieving the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research Award
• Articulating your researcher development provision internationally
• Meeting research grant criteria for funders’ expectations of training and development for their funded researchers
• Mapping development provision for all researchers to a nationally endorsed structure.

Meeting national and international expectations

• Demonstrating the quality of research degree programmes for example in relation to the UK QAA Quality Code
• Implementing guidelines including the European Charter and Code for Researchers and the UK Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers
• Demonstrating impact and excellence in the research environment for institutional audit. (In the UK for the Research Excellence Framework (REF))

The Research Councils UK Statement of Expectations
The Statement of Expectations makes it clear that Research Councils UK expect UK research organisations to fully embed researcher development into normal processes in the research and training environment, and to use the Researcher Development Statement to underpin their professional development programmes.  Research organisations are expected to take into account the Researcher Development Statement when reviewing their range of formal and informal support and provision for researchers. (Statement, p.2)

European Commission expectations
European research organisations are asked to give good account of their researcher development policy and practice. The European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers sets out 40 principles relating to support for researchers’ working conditions and careers. The Bologna Process enshrines 10 Basic Principles for Doctoral Programmes (also known as the Salzburg Descriptors). Marie Curie Actions within Horizon 2020 require all funding applications to include a career development plan for researchers.