The Concordat and our Concordat Implementation Group

The Concordat sets out, in three clear principles: Environment and Culture, Employment and Professional and Career Development, the responsibilities of researchers, managers of researchers, institutions and funders.  It aims to increase the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers in the UK and to improve the quantity, quality and impact of research for the benefit of the UK society and its economy. 

The original Concordat was launched in summer 2008 and since then there has been many developments within the research environment.  In 2018, an independent review was undertaken and a revised Concordat was published in September 2019.  On 4 February 2020, The University of Edinburgh became a signatory to the Concordat. By signing this document, the University is demonstrating its continued commitment and ongoing support of research staff careers, but also to working in partnership with other institutions and funders to explore more systematic changes. 

The current Concordat can be downloaded from the research concordat website:

After becoming signatories the University of Edinburgh immediately started working on developing an action plan to outline our process in supporting and implementing the principles.  To meet our signatory responsibilities and to ensure our action plan covered the whole of the University, with actions and progress embedded within core practices and considered alongside other University initiatives, we developed an implementation group. The group allows us to work closely and collaboratively with relevant colleagues in support services, Schools and Colleges and active research staff members, and the committee’s broad representation will ensure we are continuing to support researchers at all stages of their careers.

The CIG was formed in March 2020 and continue to meet to contribute to writing and tracking progress of our action plan, and work to increase visibility and support implementation of the Concordat locally.  

Leading the University’s implementation of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, including reporting, developing action plans, will be managed by the Researcher Development team in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, and the CIG.  There will also be regular reporting to the Research Strategy Group.

If you are a researcher, research manager, or any other staff group with an interest in the Concordat, and you would like to give us feedback on what you think we should be doing, do get in touch with us.

The CIG is the main mechanism to provide feedback.  The focus of the CIG is implementing the Concordat at a University level, so we encourage our members to go back to their Schools/areas and update on developments and then feed back to the CIG; bring to the meetings and/or feed into requests for updates.

The Postdoc Champions/Research Staff Champions are also a really good way to find out what is happening and provide feedback.

Postdoc Champions