Research and Engagement

Research careers

We are strongly committed to supporting our early career researchers (ECRs) in building the skills, research profile, and contacts they need to establish and consolidate successful research careers.

This commitment is more important than ever, given the particular challenges ECRs and those at critical junctures in their careers face in sustaining research activity and building research careers as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. CAHSS has been leading the University’s response to ECR support during and after Covid, developing a plan to support ECRs, focused on:

  • enhanced research support for those affected by the pandemic, including where caring responsibilities or health issues have disrupted research. This includes prioritised access to resources such as research leave, research in workload allocation, seed funding, access to grant support and training schemes.
  • developing a template to recognise the disruption to research caused by the pandemic, for inclusion in promotion, annual review and job application materials.
  • supporting employability for those on fixed-term contracts, including support for skills development, industry and government engagement, and relevant ECR/postdoctoral funding opportunities (such as UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships).
  • encouraging Schools to replace fixed-term contracts with open-ended positions where possible. One positive initiative in this area has been the use of Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Covid-related grant to fund 16 Chancellor’s Fellows posts in CAHSS, prioritising those already employed on fixed term contracts, and significantly exceeding the University targets of recruiting at least 50% female and 20% BAME Fellows.

We are now working with IAD, ERO and across College to deliver this support. Over the coming five years, we will the following main priorities:

  • Together with ERO, we will devise and launch a new scheme targeted at supporting ECRs and mid-career researchers whose research has been disrupted by Covid, with a particular emphasis on EDI considerations.
  • We will continue to work with IAD to establish a Postdoctoral College to coordinate and enhance support for research staff, including in the areas of skills and career development and employability.
  • We will continue to work with Schools to promote more secure forms of employment, including where new posts are created to ‘backfill’ grant buyouts.

 

Next: Research integrity