A key commitment in the Concordat is that universities will provide opportunities, structured support, encouragement, and time for researchers to engage in a minimum of 10 days professional development, pro rata, per year.
This addition to the revised Concordat in 2019 was welcomed by the sector, but it also created some uncertainty around what it could mean for researchers and how to get them aware of and engaging in it.
The University of Edinburgh quickly developed a webpage on the Research Staff Hub with information and examples of what the 10 Days could be used on, which was positively received. However, after ongoing monitoring and gathering feedback on engagement of the 10 days, our Concordat Implementation Group decided more was needed to improve understanding and engagement.
In May 2023, a Short Life Working Group (SLWG) was convened to focus on supporting implementation of the 10 days professional development entitlement at Edinburgh.
The SLWG identified lots of things to consider around what we would like to happen vs the best way to proceed. It’s clear there is a high level of support and encouragement to do this from the University, and it was useful to research into what was happening at other universities, as a form of benchmarking what we currently had and where we wanted to get to. It was also helpful to identify the potential challenges for researchers in not only accessing the 10 days, but knowing and understanding what it means, and how to use it. Feedback that researchers felt pressure that this was something they had to do on top of everything else made us realise that we needed to improve our messaging around this entitlement, to be positive and encouraging. We also became aware of variations in messaging between central and local levels of the University and this emphasised the need to ensure that the same message was conveyed across the institution.
The main recommendation from the SLWG centred on the need to make the information on the 10 days more prominent and accessible. It should be incorporated in University-wide publications and communications, using standardised messaging. As a result, the group agreed on a standard statement to use in promotion across the University. From this, the 10 Days video was produced.
The video is purposely short (1m40s) to ensure that people engage with it, and can be found on the 10 Days webpage alongside the existing support and information. It conveys the importance of professional development to support long term career goals and emphasises that researchers should be taking ownership of their own career development, and that both researchers and PIs/Managers can benefit from routinely including this as part of their key conversations.
Links to the 10 Days webpage can now also be found on Annual Review section of the University’s new Annual Conversation Hub, which is a first step to ensuring it becomes a standard part of these conversations. The 10 Days webpage also has the steps required to log development and learning experiences on the University’s People and Money system, allowing researchers to keep a record of their learning and update and review skills and qualifications.
We would encourage researchers to view the video and look at the 10 Days webpage, to plan their development, and PIs/Managers to support and encourage this.
The 10 Days Professional Development Video can be found on this page: 10 Days Professional Development | RSH
