This week Research Councils U.K. (RCUK) announced a new agreement that outlines the rights and responsibilities of researchers and employers in the development of research careers. At the same time, they announced the creation of a new organization whose mission is to support the research careers of doctoral students and postdocs.
In some respects, both the agreement and the organization are grown-up versions of existing entities. The "Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers" is an updated and revised version of a concordat created in 1996. The new document takes into account changes in the last decade, such as legislation that affects fixed-term contracts and changes in RCUK grant terms. Its principles include, for example, ensuring transparent pay scales, rewarding good research management, providing researchers with a career development strategy within their organization, evaluating researchers' performance regularly, and recognizing that researchers are responsible for maintaining and developing their own careers.
By signing the new concordat, the signatories, which include Research Councils U.K., Universities U.K., the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Wellcome Trust, and many others, also sign themselves up to the European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. Prior to this announcement, no U.K. organization had signed the charter.
The newly announced organization, called Vitae, is the New and Improved version of the UK GRAD program, whose charter expired last year. But rather than just promoting the careers of doctoral students, as UK GRAD did, Vitae will also incorporate career development for research staff (postdocs). Vitae will officially kick off in September at its first Researcher Development Conference, but the organization already has pooled some good resources on its Web site.
