Career Development and Transferable Skills Training
Payments for the career development and transferable skills training of researchers were introduced following the recommendations in SET for success - the supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills (Report from the Roberts Review, 2002). The purpose was outlined at recommendations 4.2 and 5.3 in this report.
A statement of expectations regarding researcher development has recently been released, and there is a link to this below, along with FAQs on this statement. The funding for the career development and transferable skills training of researchers will move from being distributed as ring-fenced payments to being incorporated into the normal funding mechanisms of the Councils. A letter outlining how this will happen for postgraduate researchers is below. Further information on how this will happen for research staff on grants will be released shortly.
The current system of payments will run until October 2010. There is a set of Frequently Asked Questions 
regarding the current method of payments and their use. Under the current system, letters regarding the level of payments for the coming academic year are sent out in Summer. The most recent version is available here .
An outline of the monitoring requirements and summaries of the main themes arising in reports from 2005 onwards are available below:
Members of the cross-Council Research Careers and Diversity Group recently undertook visits to the top five recipients of Roberts’ funding for transferable skills and career development of researchers. A summary of the visits is available here .
Related information
Research Councils fund Vitae, supporting training and development of the next generation of world-class researchers. The aims of Vitae are to:
- champion the development and implementation of effective policy
- enhance higher education provision through sharing practice and resource
- provide access to development opportunities and resources
- build an evidence base to support the researcher development agenda.
Vitae offers a range of information and resources for postgraduate researchers, research staff, policy-makers and staff supporting the development of researchers. To find out more, see the website at http://www.vitae.ac.uk/.
For further information and links to earlier letters and other documents:
Contacts
Iain Cameron is the head of the Research Careers and Diversity Unit of RCUK. Kate Reading is the contact for career development and transferable skills (Roberts) payments and Vitae.