UKRSA Opportunities - Sept 2022

Are you passionate about empowering research staff at all stages of their career and improving working conditions for them. Then the UKRSA is the place to help achieve these goals. We are a volunteer organisation who's mission is to empower research staff to take control of their own careers and to represent Research Staff by providing a collective voice. We sit on committees and advisory boards to various issues so that the Researchers views are taken into consideration. Recently this has been on the concordat strategy group, involvement in REF21 consultation and involvement in HR excellence in research award panel, we also have a number of different exciting upcoming projects.

No experience needed, just a willingness to get involved in projects to support research staff at a national level. This is an opportunity to meet new people, make valuable connections, and add leadership skills to your CV. We welcome anyone who is actively engaged in their local research staff associations or would like to set one up, and this includes both research staff and research developers.

Meetings are every 3 months, and with only a small commitment, unless you decide to take on a project or become a representative. We have a number of fantastic different opportunities which are available and really allow you to have an input into the direction of supporting research staff, please feel free to contact us for more information at ukrsavitae@gmail.com

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES

UKRSA representative on the HR Excellence in Research award

UKRSA representative on the Researcher Development Concordat Steering Group and Executive Group

Regional UKRSA champions

National PostDoc Conference 2023 steering group

Collaboration with the ICoRSA with their projects such as

• The RAISE Project

• The OPUS Project

• The SECURE Project

HR Excellence in Research Award - This Award is to make sure that the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for Recruitment of Researchers is being met, and that they are supporting their researchers careers. As the UKRSA representative you will be involved in looking through UK institutes proposals and making sure that they are continuing activities or making changes that are beneficial to their researchers.

Researcher Development Concordat Steering Group and Executive Group - The Concordat Strategy Group is responsible for promoting the implementation of the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers across the UK, in line with its implementation strategy and in partnership with other bodies. There are lots of exciting new initiatives being planned such as tracking the careers of researchers so that they can be better supported to make transitions within and beyond academia. Enthusiastic and articulate researchers are sought to provide a voice for researchers and review plans for progress in a job share.”

Regional UKRSA champions - The Regional UKRSA champions are involved in keeping track of contacts within the local/institute RSAs within their region. And disseminating information, surveys and opportunities to these groups. They will also have the opportunity to represent UKRSA at local conferences covering policies, concordat and other issues (slides provided).

National PostDoc Conference 2023 steering group - Loughborough University and C-DICE are proud to announce that they have been selected by Vitae and the UKRSA to host the National PostDoc Conference 2023. It will take place on campus during Postdoc Appreciation Week on 19 September 2023 and ALL postdocs are welcome. This is a conference for postdocs by postdocs so we need YOUR help. We are recruiting postdocs from all disciplines to join the conference steering group. For more information see https://www.cdice.ac.uk/news/steering-group-call/

ICoRSA - ICoRSA stands for the International Consortium of Research Staff Associations. https://icorsa.org/

ICoRSA is an umbrella organisation for researchers and research staff associations, consisting and representing the interests of a variety of associations and organisations that in themselves represent the interests of their members.

ICoRSA represents early stage researchers, post-docs to senior researchers. They have a number of exciting projects at the moment and are looking for UKRSA representatives to feed back into these projects through surveys, steering groups and meetings.

• The RAISE Project - The RAISE project (theraise.eu) will develop a new and sustainable integrated support framework to foster start-up growth and scale-up across Europe in all its dimensions, from initial funding, research support to public incentives and internationalisation. This will result in promoting competitive business models, unconventional collaborations and solutions from all in Europe, and contributing to the establishment of a true EU startup ecosystem, not based on a single city or region, but linking all of them together. There will be a matchmaking between entrepreneurs and research & innovation talents.

• The OPUS Project - The OPUS project (opusproject.eu) will develop coordination and support measures to reform the assessment of research and researchers at Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) towards a system that incentivises and rewards researchers to take up Open Science practices. OPUS will set up, implement, and monitor the pilots’ open science practices in 3 RPOs and 2 RFOs, and conduct mutual learning exercises based on implementing the action plans. OPUS will develop and disseminate policy briefs on Open Science and a revised OS-CAM to assess research careers. The policy briefs will summarise the key findings of the project and link to the wider global context of Open Science.

• The SECURE Project - The SECURE project (start in January 2023) will develop coordination and support measures to create, trial, implement, and mainstream a common Research Career Framework (RCF) and tenure track like models that offer a suite of options to support organisations in the recruitment, employment, training, development, progression, and mobility of researchers with the aim of improving research careers and reducing career precarity. The RCF will recognise the research profession across sectors, provide a career development and progression structure for research careers, recognise both research and transferable skills and competences, facilitate intersectoral collaboration and mobility, and offer solutions to the precariousness of research careers in academia.