The Vitae Researcher Development Framework
The Vitae Researcher Development Framework describes the the knowledge, behaviour and attributes of successful researchers.
Note: The Vitae RDF is currently being updated and will be launched later in 2025.
The Vitae Researcher Development Framework
The Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is for you if you are doing a doctorate, are a member of research staff, pursuing an academic career or thinking about applying the skills developed during your PhD in another career.
The framework describes the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful researchers. It sets out the wide-ranging knowledge, intellectual abilities, techniques and professional standards expected to do research, as well as the personal qualities, knowledge and skills to work with others and ensure the wider impact of research.
The framework is structured into four domains, twelve sub-domains and 63 associated descriptors. You can explore the descriptors and associated resources below.
Download the Vitae RDF
The RDF domains and descriptors
The Vitae RDF 2010 is structured into four domains, twelve sub-domains and 63 descriptors.
The knowledge, intellectual abilities and techniques to do research.
A1: Knowledge base
A2: Cognitive abilities
A3: Creativity
- Inquiring mind
- Intellectual insight
- Innovation
- Argument construction
- Intellectual risk
The personal qualities and approach to be an effective researcher.
B1: Personal qualities
B2: Self-management
B3: Professional and career development
Knowledge of the professional standards and requirements to do research.
C1: Professional conduct
C2: Research management
C3: Finance, funding and resources
- Income and funding generation
- Financial management
- Infrastructure and resources
The knowledge and skills to work with others to ensure the wider impact of research.
D1: Working with others
D2: Communication and dissemination
D3: Engagement and impact
The phases of the Vitae RDF
Each of the sixty-three descriptors contains between three to five phases, representing distinct stages of development or levels of performance within that descriptor.
To explore the phases in detail, download the full Vitae RDF.
Download the Vitae RDF
Using the Vitae RDF
To support your own development:
- explore all the aspects of being a researcher
- identify your strengths
- prioritise areas for professional development
- write a plan, then monitor progress and success
- have productive discussions with others, e.g. your supervisor, PI, careers advisor or other professional development provider
- look for formal and informal development opportunities
- prepare for one-to-one progress reviews, appraisals or career development conversations with your research manager or mentor.
To support others with their development:
- structure conversations about professional development to provide clear well-focused guidance
- provide a framework to analyse the capabilities of your team
- identify useful areas to consider when drafting training and development plans in funding applications
- 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
To support strategic decision making:
- propose using the Researcher Development Statement as a basis to align institutional strategy with relevant national or international policy
- actively recommend and champion 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
- articulate your researcher development provision internationally
- meet 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
Conditions of use
We want all researchers in the world to benefit from the RDF so we are making it available to use subject to Conditions of Use on a non commercial basis.
Lenses, documents and resources
Lenses on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) focus on knowledge, behaviours and attributes that are developed or acquired through, or used in, the broader contexts of being a researcher.
Researchers can use lenses to:
- Focus on a particular area of expertise they wish to develop
- Recognise how their knowledge, behaviours and attributes can be used in a variety of different contexts
- Provide evidence of the transferability of knowledge, behaviours and attributes in a CV, in job applications and at interviews
- Explore how the Vitae Researcher Development Framework relates to other professional frameworks and vice versa.
- Explore how the knowledge, behaviours and attributes developed as a researcher can help achieve recognition from professional bodies
Those responsible for professional development or supervision of researchers can use lenses to:
- encourage researchers to engage in activities such as enterprise, public engagement or teaching by illustrating how these contribute towards their professional development as a researcher
- develop leadership potential, help researchers get started in research or settle into a new research community
- enable researchers to recognise the learning they have acquired in other contexts and highlight the transferability of their knowledge, behaviours and attributes
- help researchers to consider personal goals in different contexts
- strategically align training and development towards different areas of expertise; for example improving levels of public engagement by researchers; supporting leadership development.
The lenses:
- Employability Lens
- Engineering Lens
- Enterprise Lens
- Getting Started in Research Lens
- Information Literacy Lens
- Intellectual Property lens
- Intrapreneurship Lens
- Lens for Progression Pathways to Chartership in Biology, Chemistry and Physics
- Leadership Lens
- Knowledge Exchange lens
- Public Engagement Lens
- Teaching Lens
- Researcher mobility lens
- Wellbeing and mental health lens
These graphics are freely available to UK higher education institutions to reference the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) on institutional websites and in printed materials for internal use. Additional file types may be available.
International enquiries
The RDF is licensed for UK use only. However, Vitae welcomes enquiries about the Framework from organisations or individuals based outside the UK.
If you are a non-UK higher education institution or other organisation and have an interest in using or referencing the Framework we would welcome your enquiry.
Modifications
Modifications to graphics or associated text or use of graphics in derivative works or resources based on the RDF should be by prior agreement with Vitae. See our Conditions of Use.
RDF graphics for use on websites (standard resolution)
RDF domains graphic (jpg)
RDF subdomains graphic (jpg)
RDF full content graphic (jpg)
The Vitae logo may only be used with the express permission of Vitae. If you wish to incorporate the Vitae logo into the information about the Researcher Development Framework on your website, please contact us.
The Researcher Development Statement (RDS) sets out the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of effective and highly skilled researchers appropriate for a wide range of careers.
The RDS is for policy makers and research organisations that provide personal, professional and career development for researchers in higher education.
It is derived from the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF), an approach to researcher development which aims to enhance our capacity to build the UK workforce, develop world-class researchers and build our research base.
The RDS and RDF contribute to researcher training and development in the UK by providing a strategic statement (RDS) and operational framework (RDF) to support the implementation of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, the QAA Quality Code – Chapter B11: Research Degrees and ‘Roberts’ recommendations for postgraduate researchers and research staff.
More than 30 organisations have endorsed the Researcher Development Statement (RDS) as a strategic overview of the RDF and to underpin the training and development of researchers for a range of careers. Endorsers include policymakers, funders of
researchers and other stakeholders such as Research Councils UK and Universities UK.
Methodology report: Understanding the experience of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) using the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) at UK Universities
This project focused on themes around the RDF structure and language, and the overall experience of users such as how PGRs were introduced to the RDF; to what extent they were benefitting from using it; and the nature and scope of institutional support they received.
Following the key findings, the report outlines recommendations for doctoral researchers, institutions and for the wider sector.
A series of in-depth interviews with PGRs also took place, examining the experiences and perceptions of RDF users, from which a set of case studies will be produced.
The outcomes of the report will not only help Vitae’s ongoing RDF refresh project but will also help inform UK HE policy and the development of PGR training within institutions.
This project was funded through the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE), Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP).
The Vitae RDF Planner
The Vitae RDF Planner is a web based application which organisations and individuals can use to map professional development using the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF).
A unique and innovative application for researchers who want to manage their professional development: online – personalised – flexible.
Read more about the Vitae RDF Planner.