The Technician Commitment was set up by the Science Council and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in universities and research institutes.

The third Technician Commitment signatory event was held on 6^th November 2018 at the Tower of London to welcome the third round of universities to sign the commitment. An auspicious venue for an enlightening day. The morning sessions shared institutional best practice from Cranfield University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Imperial College London and MRC Harwell.  Describing the different approaches that institutions have for technical staff, including support for Professional Registration, finding the technical workforce and networking. The experiences of different institutions were varied but positive and it was interesting to hear lessons learnt on their journeys.

In the afternoon, Stephanie Richardson gave an overview of the self-assessment process and the move to a peer-review system for the Action Plans of the Technician Commitment. Natalie Kennerly talked about how the National Technician Development Centre is supporting the Technician Commitment. Julia Dickinson from UKRI discussed the MRC career framework of team scientists, Health Data Research UK career pathway for Technologists and how UKRI are continuing to place importance on recognising and supporting Team Science.

The day concluded with an early evening reception, where Lord Sainsbury of the Gatsby Foundation launched ‘The Technician Commitment: One Year In’ Report, explaining that ‘the technician commitment has exceeded all expectations’. A short film accompanied the launch, which included footage of technical staff at Edinburgh University alongside MRC Harwell, York University and University College London. Denise Mclean, technician from Nottingham University finished the evening with an inspiring speech.

Engaging technical staff in their careers, providing opportunities to contribute and lead, increasing visibility and rewarding for successes is so important for a sustainable technical community within higher education. The evidence that the Technician Commitment is having a genuine impact on careers and prospects of the technical workforce is so very encouraging.

Dr Natalie Homer manages the Mass Spectrometry Core within the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility. You can hear more news from Natalie via her Twitter pages: @EdMassSpecCore @zinghomer

Technician Commitment, 3rd Signatory Event – Dr Natalie Homer / University of Edinburgh Technicians by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0

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