In March 2020 the University of Edinburgh became a signatory to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and on the 1 April 2025, we published our third Concordat action plan.
The Concordat is an agreement between stakeholders to support the career development of researchers. The 2025-2028 action plan, developed through a process of consultation with colleagues across the institution, highlights what the University will be focusing on over the next three years.
All University of Edinburgh Concordat action plans and reports are available on the Research Staff Hub: Concordat Reporting
The first two action plans had a strong focus on improvement of communication and information for researchers, and much of the work has been around the creation of structures and mechanisms, alongside embedding and supporting Concordat implementation across different areas of the University. Some of the outputs from previous action plans include:
- Research Staff Hub – a website bringing together information from across the University to support research staff to undertake their role, develop themselves and progress in their career.
- 10 Days Professional Development – a webpage and video, created out of a short life working group, to allow this opportunity to be more visible and understandable to researchers and their managers.
- Careers support – two dedicated research staff careers consultants, based in the IAD, provide careers guidance and support to researchers; workshops, 1:1 consultations, panel events, running a ‘careers month‘ and developing careers resources and information
- Mentoring – mentoring resources and a group mentoring programme was launched in 2024
- Postdoc/Research Staff Champions – responsible for supporting and encouraging research staff to connect with their School and wider University initiatives
Other outputs are detailed in our annual reporting and for University of Edinburgh staff, in the ‘Focus on – Development and Initiatives’ section of the SharePoint Researcher Development Concordat Hub.
Actions over the next three years:
The obligations under the Concordat, are set out in three clear principles:
- Employment: Researchers are recruited, employed and managed under conditions that recognise and value their contributions
- Environment & Culture: Excellent research requires a supportive and inclusive research culture
- Professional and career development are integral to enabling researchers to develop their full potential
For each of these principles, there are responsibilities for Funders, Institutions, Researchers and Managers of Researchers.
The University of Edinburgh has 15 actions in the 2025-2028 Concordat Action Plan, 5 within each of these three principles. They include:
Details about each action can be found in the 2025-2028 Action Plan document, with a description and deliverables providing more information about what achieving the action will entail. University of Edinburgh staff can also track progress on our Researcher Development Concordat Hub SharePoint space, where our action plan document will be updated to highlight if actions are still planned, in progress or complete, and the space will be updated with initiatives and developments as they occur.
Achieving actions is a team effort!
Collaboration and coordination with colleagues across the University, via our Concordat Implementation Group (CIG), and other services linked to actions, will ensure success of the action plan. We also want to ensure that knowledge and understanding of the plan, our actions and the commitment required to ensure effective implementation across the University, is clearly communicated.
One action in the current plan – Proactively increase visibility of Concordat and initiatives – will be achieved in one way through our CIG members feeding back into their local areas on updates and development with the Concordat, so make sure you know who your CIG representative is. Members can be found on the following webpage – The Concordat and our Concordat Implementation Group.
We will also be posting on LinkedIn and blogging here regularly about developments, so make sure you follow us at The University of Edinburgh Institute for Academic Development LinkedIn or subscribe to the iad4researchers blog to be notified when new blogs are posted.
If you want to be involved with the Concordat at Edinburgh, either through supporting its promotion in your area and/or being on the Concordat Implementation Group, please contact the Researcher Development team at the Institute for Academic Development, who lead on the Concordat work at Edinburgh: iad.researchers@ed.ac.uk.
