Research culture and technicians
Research Culture Institutional Action Plan
Professional development is an important and integral part of your job, because it helps you to be successful in your current role, as well as to prepare for your future career. There are lots of ways for Cambridge technicians to do this, and you are encouraged to look for opportunities that suit you and your role, and ambitions for the future.
To help, the new Guidelines on Professional Development for Researchers explain the different types of learning and development activity and include lots of ideas. They were developed initially for early career researchers, but the principles and ideas apply equally well to most staff groups. You might find it useful to share this document with your line manager or mentor to support your conversations about your professional development and future career.
Additionally, the University now recommends that all research staff should look to undertake 10 days of training a year. A normal breakdown of this would look like 7 days of 'on the job' training, 2 days of conferences/workshops and 1 day of more formal teaching/courses.
Technician-focused projects 2025
Three proposals related to technical staff from the last round of funding from the Research Culture team were accepted and are now being coordinated by the technician team in Learning and Development. These three very different projects are designed to begin to break down some barriers and effectively give some agency to all technical professionals across the University.
Technician Development Fund
Although the vocational training fund has been updated and is accessible to technical staff, it can be very situation specific. A separate training fund is being proposed to cover other activities and will be based on a case and report based system which means there should be a lot more flexibility and will provide excellent examples for other technical professionals.
Fair Attribution for Technicians - Academic Engagement Project
The award-winning team behind the fair attribution and publishing workshop for technicians (see link for dates and information) are looking to engage our Academics in the issue. This transformative work will support the development and potential introduction and adoption of University-wide guidelines on publishing and attribution of technical staff and contribution. It will also inform understanding of local policies already in place and feed in to recommendations for the next REF project.
Technician Training Programme 2025
This programme of courses is designed to build confidence in technical staff, present training options and create agency for individuals as well as develop managers to showcase good practice and engage with their technical staff. Change takes time at the University but the content is designed to equip technical staff with the tools and skills to develop and to present options that they may not have been aware of due to the isolating nature of some of these roles. Sessions will run termly to create stability and offer the best chance for availability.