The Concordat and our Concordat Implementation Group

The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers

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 University signed the Concordat on 4th February 2020, in recognition of our continued commitment and ongoing support of our research staff and their careers.

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

The Researcher Development Concordat [external link]

The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers - University of Edinburgh

Concordat Implementation Group (CIG)

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 to allow us to work closely and collaboratively with relevant colleagues in support services, Schools and Colleges and active research staff members.

The Concordat Implementation Group (CIG) was formed in March 2020 and their immediate priority was to support the writing of our two year action plan. 

The action plan has now been published and sets out how we will embed our Concordat actions in core practices and consider them alongside other University initiatives.  The CIG continue to meet to track progress of our action plan and the Committee’s broad representation will ensure we are continuing to support researchers at all stages of their careers.

Action plan and progress monitor

Current members of Concordat Implementation Group:

Former Members

We are grateful to our former members for their valuable contributions:

Sophie Lowry, Edinburgh Research Office

Michael Guttman, former Postdoc Champion, School of Informatics

Olof Johansson, former Postdoc Champion, School of Chemistry

Gerben Van Ooijen, former Postdoc Champion, School of Biology

Rachel James, Daphne Jackson Trust Research Fellow, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences

Encarni Medina-Lopez, Chancellors Fellow and former Postdoc Champion, School of Engineering

Gillian Gray, Professor of Cardiovascular Pharmacology; Head of Early Career Researcher Experience, Edinburgh Medical School

Sara Shinton, Director, Future Leader Fellows Development Network

Ewa Luger, Personal Chair, ECA

Liz Hughes, Research Associate in Cell Biology, School of Engineering

Eve Equi, Head of Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation (RKEI) Office, Edinburgh College of Art

Kathryn Nash, Lecturer - Chancellors Fellow, School of Law

Vicky MacRae, Reader and Group Leader, The Roslin Institute

Do you have something to add?

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