HR Excellence in Research (HREiR) Award renewal – documentation to submit

Important: The summary report should be no more than five pages in length, using Times New/Arial font at minimum size 11 with margins no smaller than 2.5cm. These formatting conditions are to ensure that this document, as a publicly available report on your researcher development and research culture work, is as accessible as possible.

The summary report is intended to provide high-level detail on the nature of the institution, the researchers it aims to support with its action plan, recent previous progress towards the Concordat principles and the involvement of different stakeholders, and lastly, the strategy set out for the next three years.

Institutions should include the following in the summary report:

• the context of your institution, including its research activity, number and types/roles of research staff and other types of academic staff, ultimately specifying who you identify as your target audience for the Researcher Development Concordat
• how an internal evaluation was undertaken, specifically how you undertook your gap analysis/evaluation, how you identified the actions/priorities and how you included researchers/senior managers in the process (tip: describe the mechanisms/instruments used to perform the evaluation, as well as the number and types/roles of research staff who were consulted)
• the governance structures coordinating and delivering work against the 2019 Researcher Development Concordat, in particular whether you have research staff representation on decision making committees (tip: representation from research-only staff should be prioritised), who has overall responsibility for the action plan, and what senior leadership body the committee reports to. Describe how the institution connects its Concordat work with other accreditations/awards/quality assurance
• your past progress and achievements against your previous action plan, covering the three Concordat principles and the respective involvement of the ‘Institutions’, ‘Managers of Researchers’ and ‘Researchers’ stakeholder groupings. You should describe any lessons you have learned and how you will adapt to these in the future (tip: honest reflection on any challenges faced is encouraged)
• your strategic objectives and implementation plan to meet the obligations of the Concordat over the next three years, including:

1. a brief summary of your strategy and how it aligns with broader institutional strategy, to ultimately show that Concordat work is valued internally
2. details on how it addresses the results of your gap analysis against each of the three Concordat principles, and the high-level actions and success measures you plan to meet any gaps or priorities.

This document allows institutions to report on the progress of their current action plan leading up to the renewal of their Award and the start of a new action plan. As the action plan is treated as a ‘living document’, which institutions can adjust during the period between award renewals, you should report on the most recent version of your action plan.

The previous 2020 and new 2022 action plan templates for implementing the 2019 Researcher Development Concordat already have dedicated columns provided for reporting information, progress updates and the next steps for individual actions.

Important: Please do not add, move or remove any rows, columns or individual cells in the action plan templates.

This document allows institutions to set out the activities, timelines and indicators of progress underpinning their implementation of the Researcher Development Concordat over the next three years. As the action plan is treated as a ‘living document’, you may keep it updated during the action plan period.

Action plan templates

Please refer to the action plan template for complete guidance and tips on how to complete it, as well as a guide to developing success measures found.

(Excel) HREiR Action Plan Template for Researcher Development Concordat – Templates, Guidance and Tips

(Word) HREiR Action Plan Template for Researcher Development Concordat – Guidance and Tips

(Word) HREiR Action Plan Template for Researcher Development Concordat Templates

Important: Please do not add, move or remove any rows, columns or individual cells in the action plan templates.

Generating an accessible action plan

To support institutions in generating an accessible version of the 2022 action plan template, please download these files which will help you to generate a document to help meet accessibility guidelines.

Important: Please note that publication of an accessible action plan is not a requirement of submission for applying for- or renewing your HREiR Award. The peer reviewers and panel will review action plans provided using the 2022 template grids provided above, which should still be published online (alongside your accessible version).

Please download this zip folder and save it locally on your computer (i.e., on the hard drive, NOT on a cloud or server like SharePoint or OneDrive). Open the manual entitled ‘READ FIRST_Manual_Producing a more accessible HREiR action plan’.

HREiR-accessible-action-plan

Reporting with 2020 template

• Provide a written summary of the progress to date for each specific action. Try to be concise but transparent, indicating whether progress has been sufficient and how you intend to adapt to any challenges.

1. Tip: peer reviewers are understanding of when success measures have not been met and it is much preferred to make an honest appraisal of your progress)

• Provide reporting information for each and every success measure set out in the action plan. If a target has been set, either quantitative or qualitative, you should include your measurements against this target.
• If the specific information being sought is not available, you may identify a proxy measurement that can help provide some indication of progress, or not provide a measurement of any kind.
• In either situation, you should include a brief explanation of why the specific data from the original success measure was not available and how you intend to adapt to this.

Reporting with 2022 template (with orange reporting columns)

‘Progress Update’ column

• Provide a written summary of the progress to date for each specific action. Try to be concise but transparent, indicating whether progress has been sufficient and how you intend to adapt to any challenges

1. Tip: peer reviewers are understanding of when success measures have not been met and it is much preferred to make an honest appraisal of your progress)

‘Actual impact of the action’ column

• Provide reporting information for each and every success measure set out in the action plan. If a target has been set, either quantitative or qualitative, you should include your measurements against this target
• If the specific information being sought is not available, you may identify a proxy measurement that can help provide some indication of progress, or not provide a measurement of any kind

In either situation, you should include a brief explanation of why the specific data from the original success measure was not available and how you intend to adapt to this.

Outcome’ column in either 2020 or 2022 templates

When completing the ‘Outcome’ column in either 2020 or 2022 templates, you should indicate the next steps for the action using one of the following responses:

• ‘No further action’, denoting instances where the action in question will not be carried forward into the next action plan;

1. You should provide a very brief explanation for this, e.g., “success measure reached” or “obligation deprioritised following internal evaluation”;

• ‘Carried forward’, for actions that were not concluded before the specified deadline, or when the success measure was not met and the institution still considers the obligation a priority;
• ‘Ongoing priority’, for actions that were scheduled beyond the end of the action plan period, and where the success measure(s) acted as a ‘milestone’ (e.g., for a long-term goal).