Resources for researcher developers – preview for non-members
Vitae has a comprehensive range of resources for researcher developers – join Vitae as a member to gain access to the below.
Vitae downloadable researcher development programmes
Effective Researcher
Join Vitae to access the Effective Researcher programme, which offers five tailored courses to support doctoral researchers at key stages of their PhD journey, from getting started to preparing for completion.
Each course focuses on developing essential skills like time management, communication, leadership, and career planning.
Early programmes help researchers build confidence and manage their doctorate effectively, while later ones focus on maintaining progress, engaging with impact, and preparing for career transitions. These flexible courses ensure researchers are well-equipped to succeed during their doctorate and beyond.
Part-Time Researcher
This one-day programme is designed for part-time doctoral researchers, offering a chance to connect with peers and academics outside their supervisory arrangements to discuss research and its quality. It includes six optional 90-minute skills workshops, providing focused training in key areas to support their doctoral journey.
Leadership in Action
This three-day course helps researchers (doctoral candidates and staff) develop leadership skills through hands-on activities, leadership theory, and personalised feedback. Participants gain insights into their strengths, values, and leadership styles while learning to influence others and achieve shared goals. Led by expert facilitators, the programme fosters collaboration among researchers from diverse backgrounds and provides resources for ongoing development. Institutions can run the course internally or access it directly through us.
Research Staff Futures
Vitae’s Research Staff Futures suite offers four flexible training programmes to support early-career researchers in developing key skills for career and professional growth. These programmes cover personal effectiveness, research impact, academic career progression, and broader career planning. With expert facilitation and interactive sessions, participants gain practical tools to manage responsibilities, communicate effectively, and plan strategically for future opportunities, whether in academia or beyond.
Created with the support of Research Councils UK, UK higher education funding bodies and Hub host universities.
Preparing for Leadership
Preparing for Leadership is a two-day programme designed for early-career researchers looking to take on leadership roles. Using experiential learning and coaching, it covers self-leadership, intellectual leadership, and team leadership. Participants assess their current position, identify future leadership goals, and create a plan to reach them. The programme helps researchers develop key competencies, such as team management, communication, and self-reflection, while fostering a peer network. It is suitable for all disciplines and encourages participants to understand their strengths, clarify leadership tasks, and develop strategies for success in leadership roles.
Collaborative Researcher
Collaborative Researcher is a two-day experiential training course designed for researchers from various disciplines and career stages, focusing on key aspects of collaborative research such as communication, cultural awareness, planning, and negotiation. Led by a diverse team of facilitators, participants will explore collaboration theory and its practical applications, while working with peers from different backgrounds. The programme offers a chance to step away from research, reflect on future steps, and develop the skills needed to collaborate effectively with others.
Engaging Researcher
This one-day experiential training course is designed for postgraduate researchers and research staff with little or no experience in public engagement. Participants work in small groups to build a public engagement activity based on case studies and reflect on how to apply these lessons to their own research. The course can be run as a standalone event or broken into smaller modules and adapted for use in other public engagement training. It provides hands-on experience in developing public engagement activities and helps researchers consider how they can engage with the public in their own field.
Discovering Innovation and Intrapreneurship
Discovering Innovation and Intrapreneurship is a suite of materials designed to help researchers develop intrapreneurial skills, which are crucial for driving innovation within organisations. The resource includes a research report, self-assessment, and development sessions focused on fostering intrapreneurial attributes, such as taking responsibility for creating innovation. This three-hour or 75-minute session introduces participants to the concepts of innovation and intrapreneurship, exploring how these skills enhance both academic and non-academic careers. The session aims to build confidence in researchers, helping them contribute to organisational innovation and growth.
Social Enterprise
The Social Enterprise programme, developed by Vitae and the University of the West of England, includes a 3-hour experiential learning activity and a 2-hour case study focused on social enterprise. The “Common Good” activity encourages participants to identify and develop solutions to societal or environmental issues within a social enterprise framework. The case study uses a real-life example to explore the practical aspects of creating and running a sustainable social enterprise. This resource, designed for doctoral candidates, can also be adapted for other audiences and delivered as standalone sessions or as part of a longer course.
Careers in Academia
Careers in Academia is a one-day career development event designed for doctoral candidates, offering insights into the roles and responsibilities within academia. Participants learn about the skills and strengths needed to succeed in a competitive academic environment and assess whether this career path is right for them. The event includes opportunities to meet current academics from various disciplines, explore how to market themselves for academic positions, and gain tips on writing successful grant applications and papers. It also provides a look at early career researcher life and encourages networking and sharing experiences with fellow researchers.
Managing your Academic Career
Managing Your Academic Career is a one-day interactive programme designed specifically for women in academia, particularly those in the early to mid-career stages or returning from a career break. Designed by WISE (formerly UKRC) and Vitae, the programme supports women in planning the next stages of their academic careers by assessing skills, setting personal goals, and addressing career development strategies. It encourages participants to explore work-life balance, reputation building, networking, and self-promotion, such as CV development. Additionally, it fosters a supportive environment for tackling career challenges and advancing gender equality in academia.
Vitae Every Researcher Counts: Train the Trainer Pack
This training programme is designed to help participants become familiar with manual layout and gain experience both as participants and facilitators. It encourages participants to consider alternative methods of delivery and the potential challenges involved in delivering ERC sessions.
Vitae Impact and Evaluation Framework
The aim of the toolkit is to provide researcher developers, policy and decision-makers with access to a range of useful evaluation resources including templates, case studies, papers, presentations and links.
These resources can help with focusing on what is important when planning and implementing researcher development evaluation projects.
Vitae membership
To access the above resources, sign up for Vitae membership at your institution.