RESEARCHERS PROGRAMME
KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUTURE
RESEARCHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
PASSING ON KNOWLEDGE TO THE FUTURE
The CIPF researcher development program: A guide for pre-doctoral researchers
OBJECTIVE
The CIPF Researcher Development Program is designed to support researchers while completing their research at the Centre and to allow them to develop and hone skills that will both help with their current research and enhance their future career prospects, in whichever direction they may lie.
- Improving research skills.
- Enhancing future employment prospects.
- Broadening researchers’ horizons.
THE FRAMEWORK OF CIPF'S RESEARCHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Our programme closely follows the Research Development Framework (RDF) published by Vitae. This approach to pre-doctoral researcher development, which originates in Britain, has been adopted by many major research funding agencies and is supported by a wide range of employers. Its remit is to provide professional support and to promote the personal, professional, and career development of researchers. It identifies the essential attributes and behaviours of highly skilled researchers that are required for success in a wide variety of careers.
The national RDF sets out the knowledge, behaviors, and attributes of effective and highly skilled researchers. It is structured into four domains:
- Knowledge and intellectual abilities.
- Personal effectiveness.
- Research governance and organization.
- Engagement, influence, and impact.
DURATION OF THE PROGRAM
Each pre-doctoral researcher comes to the Centre from a different background and with different skills. Therefore, each researcher will require bespoke training and development activities. Hence, as far as possible, we aim to be sufficiently flexible to address all these individual requirements. However, we do expect a minimum level of engagement in the program equating to five sessions in the first year and three sessions each in the second and third years. These are our minimum expectations, although pre-doctoral researchers are encouraged to engage in more sessions. Nonetheless, we advise against our students overloading themselves with too many commitments.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Sessions take place throughout the week and generally last two hours each. In addition, the sessions are repeated at different times throughout the year to accommodate researchers’ needs. Some of the available sessions may be of interest to all researchers, whatever their discipline, while others address the specific needs of individuals at different stages of their pre-doctoral programs.
LEARNING NEEDS ANALYSIS (LNA)
The LNA is no more than a reflection upon your own skills and those that pre-doctoral students will need to acquire for their field of research and ongoing career. With their director, pre-doctoral students should use the relevant RDF template to identify areas they will need to develop or strengthen. Students will then be personally responsible for pursuing those areas of skill development. Throughout the study course the students will be asked to comment upon the sessions they have attended, the extent to which these sessions had addressed their needs, and any further activities they may require. Each student’s LNA template travels with them throughout their training and should be continually updated and modified.
PROGRESS REVIEWS AT THE CIPF
Each year, while presenting their results, pre-doctoral students will be required to complete a written report including an assessment of the extent to which their training sessions addressed their needs, as originally identified in their LNA.
