Dr Iain Cameron

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Dr Iain Cameron Head of Research Careers
Tel [phone] Fax [phone]
iain.cameron_at_rcuk.ac.uk http//www.rcuk.ac.uk

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"In tomorrow's global economy, business
investment and job opportunities will be driven
by costs and talent. The UK cannot compete on
cost, so we must raise our game on skills,
training and knowledge. Richard Lambert DG
CBI
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• Accelerate the commercial exploitation of
  creativity and knowledge.
• Improve the skills of the population throughout
  their working lives.
• Build social and community cohesion.
• Pursue global excellence in research and
  knowledge.
• Promote the benefits of science in society.
• Deliver science, technology, engineering and
  mathematics skills in line with employer demand.
• Strengthen the capacity, quality and reputation
  of the Further and Higher Education systems and
  institutions.
• Encourage better use of science in Government.

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• RCUK investments in research staff and research
  training
• 15,500 Doctoral students
• 10,000 Research staff in Universities
• 4000 Research staff in RC Institutes
• 2000 Research fellows

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RCUK Delivery Plan Investing in training and
fellowships

• Attracting the best potential researchers into
  research careers
• Embedding transferable skills in research
  training (Roberts Skills Payments)

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RCUK Delivery Plan Strengthening the skills
base

• Improve retention of the best researchers
• Promote the movement of researchers to and from
  the UK
• Promote diversity within the research workforce

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RCUK Delivery PlanLeading and influencing the
skills agenda

• Demonstrate the economic impact of the PhD
  (Cohort Study).
• Influence the culture in research organisations
  in relation to support and training for early
  career researchers

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Key Drivers and Influences

• Roberts SET for success May 2002
• Investing in Innovation July 2002
• Greenfield SET FAIR Nov 2002
• Government Response April 2003
• Lambert Review of Business-University
  Co-operation December 2003
• Science Innovation Investment Framework
  2004-2014 July 2004
• Next Steps - March 2006
• Leitch Review of Skills December 2006
• Warry Report on Increasing the Economic Impact
  of the Research Councils

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Building Researcher Skills
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A virtuous circle for researcher training
Practice sharing Policy Forums Regional
hubs Monitoring and feedback e.g. PRES, CROS
etc.
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Beyond 2008-12 concept, vision and aims for
supporting researchers

• Creation of a new researcher development
  initiative
• fundamental realignment of support
• sector-led, developed with current Hubs and
  UKHERD
• Vision UK is world-class in supporting the
  personal, professional and career development of
  researchers
• Aims
• champion development and implementation of
  effective policy
• enhance HE provision through sharing practice and
  experience
• provide access to development opportunities and
  resources
• build an evidence base to support the researcher
  development agenda
• Transition activities during 2008
• Launch 2008 at national conference in September

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Collecting the Evidence

• Annual reporting
• innovative practices
• people engaged
• Major culture shifts
• Database of Practice
• Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)
• QAA Special Review

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A virtuous circle for researcher training
Practice sharing Policy Forums Regional
hubs Monitoring and feedback e.g. PRES, CROS
etc.
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Linking research experience to career destination
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What do PhDs do?
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A major Cohort study

• to establish the extent to which the training and
  support provided by the Research Councils and the
  Wellcome Trust helps to drive forward innovation
  and growth in the academic and non academic
  sectors.
• A preliminary options analysis will
• Review existing studies and data sources and
  establish the extent to which they can provide a
  systematic analysis of career development and
  impact
• Identify gaps in current data sources and assess
  the need for a major new data collection
  exercise
• Consider costed options for the design and
  delivery of a potential new survey.

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To maintain the UKs leading position over the
next 20 years, researchers currently at the start
of their careers must be effectively trained and
managed to become world class leaders and
scientists.
The revision of the concordat is an ideal time
to set out some changes
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CST Report proposes two key areas of reform

• the development of a national framework for
  research careers
• research staff must be allowed greater
  independence

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A Concordat to Support the Career Development of
Researchers
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Concordat Timetable

• Consultation closed 30 Sept 07
• Signatories consider draft concordat in internal
  processes.
• Working Group to consider comments and redraft by
  Jan 08
• Revised Concordat to be agreed by signatories Jan
  - Mar 08
• Launch of revised Concordat June 2008

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Concordat sections

• Recruitment, Selection
• Recognition and Value
• Support and Career Development
• Researchers Responsibilities
• Diversity and Equality
• Implementation and Review

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Issues raised in the consultation

• Does it cover different researcher career stages
  and aspirations?
• How can we ensure PI engagement?
• Good words but how will it all work? What is
  the implementation plan? How will we monitor and
  review?
• How to ensure continuity of career development
  between HEIs?
• A better understanding of career flows is
  important.

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Skills in the EconomyWarry and Leitch
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What impact do PhDs have?
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• economies like ours have no choice but to
  out-innovate and out-perform competitors by
• the excellence of our science and education,
• the quality of infrastructure and environment,
• our flexibility and our levels of creativity and
  entrepreneurship.
• the next challenge for Britain is to match
  strength in basic research with success all round
  in transforming knowledge into successful
  products and new jobs.
• We are determined that Britain be a world class
  location for future medical research, including
  stem cell. So that Britain leads the world in
  developing new treatments and new drugs
• Gordon Brown
• Pre-Budget Report December 2006

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How exactly does a PhD impact on the economy?
HM Treasury

• Longitudinal studies of careers and
  inter-sectoral mobility
• Skills for employability Entrepreneurship,
  Knowledge Transfer, Broader technical skills
  (e.g. quantitative methods), science into policy
• Skills for Interdisciplinary working
• Influencing career flows and public perceptions
  outreach to schools, public engagement

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Increasing the economic competitiveness of
Research Councils - Warry report 2006

• In particular Research Councils should
• Expand incentives for researchers to participate
  in knowledge transfer
• Foster the development of partnerships between
  research groups in the UK and overseas centres of
  excellence
• Encourage and reward two-way secondments between
  the research base and business
• Encourage the universities to make enterprise
  training widely available for researchers in all
  disciplines.

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• One of the most powerful levers for improving
  productivity will be higher level skills.
  Postgraduate, or Level 5 skills, such as MBAs and
  PhDs
• higher level skills are key drivers of
  innovation, entrepreneurship, management,
  leadership and research and development
• critical to a high skills, high performance
  economy
• increasingly in demand from high performance,
  global employers.
• important feature of greater employer
  collaboration with HE (Lambert Report)
• ..more attention should be given to monitoring
  the stock and flow of such level 5 skills in
  the economy.

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Entrepreneurship training

• Commercialisation of research
• Patenting
• Intellectual Property
• Bringing expertise from research managers,
  business/industry policy makers and those
  involved in science communication into the career
  development and skills training programme
• Building processes for placements which further
  the skills development of researchers (the
  placements themselves normally being funded
  through a different route)

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Thank you