Applying for the HR Excellence in Research (HREiR) Award – an overview of the process

In the first instance, please contact Vitae to register your intention to apply for the Award through the UK process and we will answer any queries you may have. Vitae is happy to provide support with your submission and we encourage you to send a draft to us for feedback, ideally at least one month before your chosen submission deadline. Institutions with the Award have found this useful in advance of final submission.

To submit for the Award using the UK process, organisations should send their documentation (described below) to concordat@vitae.ac.uk by one of the relevant deadlines. When sending this email, please supply a link to a publicly visible webpage housing this documentation; do not send the documentation as file attachments.

To submit for the Award using the UK process, you will need to:

• undertake a gap analysis
• develop a summary report
• develop a forward action plan
• publish online- and submit documentation to Vitae as described above.

Important: Both the summary report and forward action plan should address the groups identified in the gap analysis, particularly the Concordat’s priority group of research staff – postdoctoral researchers, research associates/fellows and research assistants (i.e., research-only).

Institutions using the UK process should undertake a gap analysis to compare their policies and practice against the obligations of the 2019 Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (‘Researcher Development Concordat’ or simply ‘the Concordat’) to create their strategy and subsequent action plan.

You may choose to publish your gap analysis, but this is not a requirement for submission. You do, however, need to provide details of how the gap analysis was undertaken, how stakeholders were engaged, and what the main findings/priorities were, as part of your (1) summary report and (2) incorporated into your forward action plan (described below).

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, the involvement of different stakeholders, and lastly, the strategy set out for the next three years.

No specific template exists for the summary report document but institutions should describe the following themes:

• 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, 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) Hint: It is recommended (though not required) to highlight the range of policies and practice that are already in place to implement the 2019 Concordat principles and to demonstrate any progress towards these principles that has been made over the last year.
• the governance structures coordinating and delivering work against the 2019 Researcher Development Concordat, in particular how you include 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 also how the institution connects its Concordat work with other accreditations, awards and quality assurance
• your strategic objectives and implementation plan to meet the obligations of the Concordat over the next two years

1. a brief summary of your Concordat/HREiR 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

When developing your action plan, you should identify, based on the findings of your gap analysis, what you wish to achieve in relation to the three principles of the Researcher Development Concordat and their associated obligations.

You can find full guidance and tips on how to complete the action plan in the action plan templates themselves, as well as advice on developing strong success measures.

As the highest decision-making body for the HREiR UK process, the ‘UK HREiR panel’ takes responsibility for overseeing peer review of institutions and the overall development of the Award on behalf of the European Commission. These individuals have strong experience of coordinating relevant activities at their host organisations, and almost always have extensive prior experience of leading on Researcher Development Concordat implementation.

If you have been successful in gaining the HR Excellence in Research Award, you will be sent a formal acknowledgement from Vitae on behalf of the UK Panel and European Commission. If the panel has minor comments after review, you will be given around two weeks to address these comments before receiving formal acknowledgement. If the panel does not approve your submission, Vitae will be in contact with you to discuss how your submission can be revised for resubmission.

Once you have gained the Award, you will be provided with the HR Excellence in Research Award logo and guidelines on how to display it on your website. You should ensure that you add the logo to the area of your site where your action plan is located and any other suitable locations as appropriate. See use of the HR Award logo.

The link that you provided for your final submission will be included in the list of acknowledged institutions on the EURAXESS website.

A formal announcement of all UK organisations who have achieved recognition at each submission deadline is made by Vitae. A press release is circulated in advance of the formal announcement.

UK institutions may also wish to make their own announcements on or after the date of the main announcement. Details on timing will be confirmed for each group of organisations to receive the Award.