Committed to researcher development

In adopting the Researcher Development Concordat we will ensure our researchers are working in healthy and supportive research environments, and build on our longstanding commitment to the concordats predecessors. Also, we commit to improve the way the output of scientific research is assessed through signing the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

The Researcher Development Concordat has three defining principles, which consider the environment and culture for our researchers, their professional and career development and how we recruit and employ them. We have an action plan of long-term support and development of our community of more than 2,000 researchers, from undergraduate level through to Senior Research Fellows and Professors. This includes the Exeter Academic development programme, which features a comprehensive range of development opportunities mapped and curated by our Exeter Academic initiative, and the support for our Postgraduate students and early career researchers via our Doctoral College.

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) recommends that research is assessed on its own merits rather than on the basis of the journal in which the research is published.  In signing the declaration the University commits, when assessing research, to consider the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to research publications, and consider a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice.

Professor Neil Gow, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact, said “We want to develop our researchers as they carry out their world-leading research and for Exeter to be a supportive and desirable place to work. These public commitments to support and develop our research community are particularly important at the moment as we consider the impact Covid-19 is having to our working conditions, career aspirations and development opportunities.”