The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers:

Implementation Summary and Action Plan - April 2011

The University of Huddersfield is committed to becoming a research intensive institution by 2020 and aims to have exemplary levels of support for researchers well before then. In support of these goals we have been implementing the principles of the Concordat as a framework of good practice for the management of all researchers and their careers, including research-only employees on short contracts, part-time staff, and all other research active academic staff. In support of the Research Strategy 2011-2020 a University-wide gap analysis has been conducted over a period of eighteen months with the support of the University Research Group, the Research and Enterprise Directorate and the Staff Development section of Human Resources. The meeting with these stakeholders has involved researchers, senior academic staff, service heads and research administrators, as well as support staff with expertise in skills development and training. Detailed information from 118 research staff has been collected through our participation in the Careers in Research Online Survey (CROS) 2011, which has also produced essential benchmarking data.

The University of Huddersfield is engaged with international initiatives to strengthen career support for research staff through participation in the EU-wide programme that allows UK HEIs to obtain the European Commission 'HR excellence in research' badge. The final version of this analysis and implementation plan will support our application to the Commission for acknowledgement of our objectives and award of the 'HR excellence in research' logo. Thereafter we will adhere to mandatory self-assessment at least every two years to test and update our action plan through our Concordat steering group, with the first internal review taking place in 2012/13. At least every four years we will engage in an external evaluation of our action plan, with the first external review taking place in 2014/15.

We believe that the University of Huddersfield provides an excellent environment in which staff can conduct research and achieve exceptional levels of career and personal development. However, we are continually working to improve and increase the resources available. In recent years several new initiatives have been launched to promote attainment in research and transferable skills and these will continue in the future through strategy-related measures such as reward and recognition schemes and provision of simulating new environments to promote world class excellence with grand challenge impacts. This will involve the creation and expansion of the Enterprise and Innovation Centre and a series of internationally recognised research institutes and centres such as the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology and the Institute for Next Generation Accelerators.

Useful Links

Concordat Website

Full Implementation Summary and Action Plan