The Vitae Researcher Development Framework (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.
The RDF plannerResearchers can use the RDF Planner for professional development, to identify strengths, action plan, review achievements and create a portfolio of evidence. Through the RDF Planner organisations can direct researchers to suitable courses and development opportunities linked to the RDF.
Researchers can also use Vitae’s PDP ROC (Professional Development Planning for Researchers Online Course), together with the RDF Planner and institutional provision, to help undertake and enhance their professional development planning activities.
The RDF Planner is available through organisation or individual subscription (Note: this is separate from Vitae membership).
“A brilliant idea to have an online app like this”
Researcher
“This will … mean that I do not overlook any skills which may be required.”
Researcher
“Good way to store evidence of your professional development as well as make clear targets with actions and deadlines.”
Researcher
“It would … improve my employability, because I can focus on what skills I have and market them accordingly.”
Researcher
“An excellent tool, it has enhanced my thinking.”
Researcher
How to get the best from the RDF Planner for your researchers
Evidence from our evaluation shows that researchers value face-to-face activities, one-on-one meetings, induction events, RDF workshops, training sessions incorporating the RDF and RDF Planner, lunchtime sessions, departmental contacts, and specifically targeted cohort groups.
Successful introduction
- Hold an event or workshop to launch the RDF Planner to ensure maximum engagement. Invite PIs, supervisors and research managers as well as researchers – their awareness and support can be influential on researcher behaviour. Included in your Planner package are a number of resources and activities for a launch event that you can use
- Ensure your organisation’s resources and courses are added to the RDF Planner before the launch if possible so you can demonstrate where they can be found
- Promote the Planner through online and other communications channels as a new opportunity and new resource available
- Highlight the Planner’s flexibility for researchers to use however they want to.
Maintaining engagement
- Provide regular informal contact opportunities, for example bulletins, buddy groups, meetings
- Emphasise the notion of ‘dipping in’ regularly rather than working with the RDF in its entirety.
- The RDF lenses and RDF cards are useful resources to encourage engagement
- Demonstrate quick ways to add evidence whilst on the move and how the Planner can be used as a storage area
- Ensure your organisational resources continue to be added to the Planner, and circulate updates
Tips for promoting the RDF Planner more widely
- Get senior management buy-in to provide visible high level support
- Evaluate usage regularly and make use of data for further planning
- Link the Planner with another requirement, e.g. preparation for review meetings
- Use personal relationships and networks to promote the Planner face-to-face
- Introduce the Planner to supervisors and research leaders
The RDF planner
For institutions
- use of the RDF Planner by your researchers
- option to upload institutional resources
- institutional management of Planner usage
- complementary resources
- a dedicated Vitae contact
- IT helpdesk support for technical queries
- evaluation materials.
Evidence from the evaluation of a large scale pilot study in the UK shows that using the RDF Planner encourages both research staff and doctoral researchers to think more about their professional development planning and to set aspirational goals. A number of specific other benefits include:
- Demonstrating your organisation’s commitment to researcher development
- Encouraging researchers to take responsibility for their own development and to record their achievements
- Enabling researchers to have better developmental conversations with their supervisors or research team leaders
- Providing a single storage space for researchers to record professional development
- A repository for evidence in a variety of formats
- Pointing researchers directly to your courses and resources
- Monitoring researcher activity levels through a straightforward interface
- Generating reports for benchmarking, training needs analysis and policy development
Once you have subscribed to the RDF Planner, there are two stages to maximising the benefits for your organisation; a carefully planned introduction followed by ongoing institutional support for Planner use. Visible senior management and support is important.
Information and practical strategies for successful introduction are included in our guidance materials, but there are a number of other ways in which institutions can make sure their investment in the RDF Planner, and their researchers’ time investment, has a significant effect:
- Linking to the professional development opportunities for researchers offered by you
- Branding the RDF Planner with your organisation’s logos
- Raising supervisor and PI awareness so RDF Planner use can be encouraged in face to face situations, e.g annual reviews
- Monitoring researchers’ engagement with professional development planning
- Embedding RDF Planner in Codes of Practice
- Promoting the RDF Planner as the institution’s preferred professional development tool
No technical set-up or maintenance work is required from organisations or their IT teams. Vitae (through its parent organisation CRAC) provides a full hosting service for the Vitae RDF Planner with all data being securely backed up on a regular basis in accordance with good practice.
The RDF Planner is an intuitive, easy to use tool, and within the RDF Planner package there are a number of resources, help guides, videos and screencasts available to both administrators and researchers to set up and use the Planner.
Subscribing organisations have access to the RDF Planner community of practice for sharing advice and practice, for example on how to engage researchers with professional development planning, to manage resources and to make best use of the RDF Planner.
There are a number of subscription models that can be explored with us when you are looking to subscribe to the RDF Planner. We want to find the model that best suits your needs. For example, some organisations have chosen to offer the Planner to all their researchers, whilst some have opted to subscribe only for a defined cohort, such as first year doctoral candidates or those on a particular programme. Others subscribe as part of a network of partnership organisations and some are offering the RDF Planner to include those in their international campuses. We would be delighted to have a conversation with you to ensure your needs are met. Please contact us to arrange a suitable time for a discussion.
An organisational subscription is based on the size of the cohort of researchers you wish to use the system. This allows you to align the use of the RDF Planner to your long-term researcher development strategy either by starting with all researchers, targetting specific cohorts, or increasing cohort size over time. You can increase and decease your subscription cohort at any point. In addition, all subscribing organisations pay a one-off charge in the first year to:
- set up the account for your organisation
- benefit from the dedicated support given to your Planner administrator(s) by the Vitae team.
The annual subscription then provides ongoing access to a help desk, system maintenance and updates, data hosting, storage and security.
As the examples below show, in most cases as the number of researchers in your cohort increases, the subscription rate per researcher decreases. A cohort can be any identifiable group of researchers, for example all researchers in the organisation, doctoral candidates by year or discipline, research staff, research groups and so on. The cohort may include users from a number of organisations, where there is, for instance, collaborative research or a doctoral training centre. Subscription rates are in bands according to the number of researchers in each cohort.
For individuals
- keep a record of all your professional development activities in one place
- identify your current expertise and capabilities
- print reports for discussions with mentors, supervisors, career advisors etc.
- record your learning and development goals and monitor progress
- upload files such as CVs, conference details, testimonials to record your achievements
- view the attributes of successful researchers through different “lenses”.
- insights into a range of attributes and competencies of successful researchers
- the opportunity to recognise, reflect upon and evidence current expertise, capabilities and achievements against career goals
- a place to store and organise evidence of achievements, in a variety of formats
- links to institutional and Vitae resources in one place
- an easy way to download reports, monitor milestones and celebrate progress
- a way to inform discussions with managers and supervisors
The RDF Planner is for researchers, from first-year doctoral candidates to research staff to principal investigators. It covers all aspects of their roles, for example research, teaching and learning, career development, impact and knowledge transfer. It allows individuals to take different routes through the Framework according to personal priorities and learning styles.
The RDF Planner enables you to record evidence to articulate your transferable experience to industrial and public sector employers, as well as to those in academia. The employers who contributed to the validation of the RDF recognised its value. Several noted a similarity between the RDF and their organisations’ own professional development frameworks. The lenses on the RDF can also help you explore particular transferable skills relating specific professional areas.
If you are a researcher and you wish to explore the RDF Planner please check with your institution, in the first instance, to see if they have taken up a subscription. Alternatively you can subscribe to the Planner by individual subscription for £24 per year.
Once you are subscribed, you will be able to log on to the Planner from any internet-connected device to access your own plans and records. The Planner provides options to identify your strengths and professional development priorities and create plans to meet them. You can store evidence of your activities and achievements and generate reports for yourself and others. Within you can access resources to guide your planning. The Planner has been designed to be clear and easy to use and includes a ‘walk-through’ video.