In this blog post Nicola Cuthbert, Researcher Development Manager at the IAD, provides an update on Concordat developments and plans for the next two years
The University of Edinburgh Concordat Action plan for 2023-2025 has now been published.
As part of our signatory responsibilities, the University of Edinburgh is required to produce an annual report to our governing body. Our second-year report and new two-year action plan was presented to our Research Strategy Group Committee on 18th April, who reviewed and approved for publication.
The report and action plan can be found on the following webpages: Concordat Reporting | SUPPORT FOR RESEARCHERS (ed.ac.uk)
This action plan builds on our first (published March 2021) which had a strong focus on improvement of communication and information for researchers and much of our work has been around the creation of structures and mechanisms to support this work. This was achieved through the development of our Research Staff Hub; a landing page drawing together the resources research staff might need during their employment at the University, while also increasing visibility of services that might be useful. Since its launch in June 2021, it has had 85,382 page views.
The second two-year action plan builds on this and aims to embed and support Concordat implementation across different areas of the University, with a continued focus on communication. In summary, this action plan will focus on:
- Collaboration, specifically with relevant groups, action plans and committees to ensure coordination of information and ensuring visibility of support.
- Enhancement of University-wide researcher networks and communities and promoting diversity and representation of our research staff population.
- Fair management of staff through inductions, work around contracts and redeployment, aligning closely with our Research Culture action plan and the Fixed Term working group.
- Focus on professional development, specifically the 10 Days professional development, further enhancement of career support and mentoring, and developing new training and resources for managers of researchers.
We are excited to get started with this new action plan, with a Short Life Working Group looking to explore and develop recommendations around the 10 professional day’s entitlement starting this month, then a short summer Concordat Implementation Group (CIG) meeting planned at the end of June to discuss the new plan and next steps!
We will update on progress and developments here as we go along.
