Professor Paul Allain and Dr Alison Charles, with Divisional and central colleagues, will be holding a webinar on ‘Responding to the challenge of the Researcher Development Concordat at Kent’, on 15 February from 2-3pm.

As a signatory of the Researcher Development Concordat since June 2020, the University supports its principles as part of our commitment to create the very best culture for our researchers.

The session will consist of a short overview of the context, progress to date and our current plans, followed by a discussion and Q&A about how we might implement the Concordat principles, including 10 days’ professional development pro rata per year for staff who research.

Dr Alison Charles, Researcher Developer (Academic), said:

“Please join us to learn about the wide-ranging work which is being undertaken to realise the Concordat aims. This is also an opportunity to contribute to the debate about how best to implement the Concordat principles across Kent.”

All academic and research staff and professional services staff who support them are very welcome.

There is no need to book – access the Microsoft Teams link via SharePoint (Kent staff login required.)

We look forward to seeing you there.

The Graduate and Researcher College (GRC) is pleased to publish expanded information about the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, which is available via our Concordat web page and new KentNet page (Kent staff login required).

The content includes a description of each Concordat principle, which is accompanied by:

• details of recent developments
• highlights of current work
• practical information and links for each one.

Dr Alison Charles, Researcher Developer (Academic), said:

“Our newly released information about each Concordat principle is one example of the wide-ranging work, which is being undertaken to realise the aspirational aims of the Researcher Development Concordat. We trust this new content will further demonstrate how we are responding to the challenge of the Concordat at Kent.”

To learn more about the Researcher Development Concordat, including how we are interpreting it at Kent, please join our Concordat webinar on 15 February 2022, from 2-3pm. This will include a discussion and Q&A about how we might implement the Concordat principles, including 10 days’ professional development pro rata per year for staff who research. All staff interested in researcher development are welcome – access the Microsoft Teams link via SharePoint (Kent staff login required).

This new Concordat material is being supplemented by guidance to support your professional and career development, and details will be communicated to academic and research staff shortly. Please email acresdev@kent.ac.uk with any queries in the meantime.

Examples of activities that might be supported include: specialised training, the presentation of papers at national or international conferences, fieldwork or data collection costs, or visits to archives. It is not designed to cover day to day costs or research consumables.

If you would like to apply, please complete the application form.

To be eligible to apply, you must have used up all other funding available, including divisional/school PGR allocation, any scholarship RTSG funding and/or additional Covid RTSG support (offered by divisions recently). Please complete the form in discussion with you supervisor before passing it onto the PGR divisional Professional Service team for confirmation that all available funding has been utilised. Once the PGR team has provided this confirmation, it will be passed directly onto the Dean of GRC for final review/approval.

Congratulations, once again to our winners of this year’s Graduate and Researcher College Prizes! The GRC prizes were created for our postgraduates and postgraduate staff members to spotlight the fantastic work that both groups undertake each year.

To celebrate our GRC Prize winners, we treated them to a ‘Winners Afternoon Tea’ hosted by Professor Paul Allain and Dr Tim Hopthrow. Meeting at the historic Falstaff Hotel in Canterbury, we certainly celebrated the success of our winners in style!

It was fantastic to see our GRC Prize Winners – thank you for joining us and for all your excellent work. We look forward to reopening the GRC Prizes next year, and to receiving your nominations.

Are you a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA), Research Assistant (RA) or Research Associate interested in developing your project and people management skills? Did you know you can apply to run your own independent project and win funding worth up to £2500 to work with an undergraduate intern for 4-7 weeks on your research?

The Summer Vacation Research Competition will run for the fifth time in 2022 with funding available for 9 different summer vacation research projects, each of which could be associated with a particular Division and/or Signature Research Theme.

The competition models grant writing and application processes, allowing you to design an independent research project, gain a mentor, receive training and be involved with shortlisting, interviewing and managing a RA, project and budget.

Feedback from postdoc participants is extremely positive with one commenting: “This experience has been invaluable and has made a massive contribution to my development as an early career researcher. I feel more confident in writing funding applications, recruitment, supervision, and leading research independently.” Learn more about the competition and hear from other winners by viewing the recording of our recent ‘Valuing, supporting and developing our postdocs’ event – please access the link via SharePoint (Kent staff login required) and scroll down – the SVRC element begins at 00:25.

Reflecting on the benefits of participation, Dr Jennifer Leigh, the event’s co-founder with Dr Helen Leech, said:

“The positive impact on successful applicants is self-evident and can include increased productivity and outputs, non-research skills acquisition and kick-started career planning. One PDRA told us “I got more work done on this project in 6 weeks than I would have done in a year of working in my own time” and many others have credited the competition with the opportunity, practice and support to make successful applications for funding and fellowships, and to apply for permanent roles.”

Details of how to apply, including the application form, are available via SharePoint (Kent staff login required). The closing date for applications is 11 February 2022.

An informal virtual Q&A session about the competition will take place on 03 February, 2022 from 1-2pm (further details in this blogpost) or please email svrc@kent.ac.uk with any queries in the meantime.

Good luck with your application!

On Wednesday 1 December the Graduate and Researcher College (GRC) and the Postgraduate Network invited students to a postgraduate coffee morning. Meeting in the Woolf College Common Room, postgraduates networked with their peers, mingled with the GRC team and our PG Network representatives whilst enjoying a warm drink and some cake! 

Thank you to all who attended and helped organise this fantastic event! It was excellent to catch up with (and meet!) so many of our postgraduate students. It was also great to hear all about what they are up to, and their experiences here at the University of Kent and on the Canterbury campus.

To stay in the loop about GRC events, follow us on social media:

Twitter @GRCKent

Instagram @GRC_Kent

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All future events will also be sent to your university mailboxes – so please keep an eye out.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon!