Our vision is for the Leicester BRC to be a beacon of biomedical research excellence that offers developmental opportunities to all staff.
We aim to build on our successed. Since 2017 we have acheived the following:
• The Leicester BRC-East Midlands Integrated Academic Training (IAT) Joint Programme – that has generated five university professors and three senior academics.
• The Diet and Activity Research Translation (DART) Collaboration, and its Nutrition Professionals Network.
• Academic Clinical Excellence Seminars (ACES) – to incorporate all themes and recordings made available to staff.
• Management Forums – to develop a cohort of BRC managers.
Our career development strategy has been revised and updated to reflect changing priorities nationally and locally.
Highlights include:
• A greater focus on Nursing and Allied Health Professional (AHP) careers
• Exciting opportunities for clinical research practitioners
• A new developmental mentoring network
• Local training and development opportunities, including the relaunch of the Academic Clinical Excellence Seminars programme and Managers’ Forum.
Career development for all
Leicester BRC has a multi-disciplinary workforce including clinical academics, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, dietitians, nutritionists, sports and exercise scientists, clinical research practitioners, statisticians, and basic scientists, as well as managers and administrators. We aspire to offer developmental opportunities to all staff.
We will introduce a Career Development Framework and a bespoke training plan for all new staff, to ensure they can progress to the next level when the opportunity arises.
Integrated offer
The BRC does not and should not operate as a silo organisation, but one that interacts seamlessly with other parts of research infrastructure and the host organisations within which it co-exists. The BRC strategy is aligned with both the Research Nursing and Midwifery strategy and Therapy research strategy at Leicester’s Hospitals. Both emphasise embedding career progression for non-medical clinical researchers. We aim to support more applications for NIHR awards from nurses and AHPs each year.
Clinical Research Practitioners (CRPs)
Now that the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has approved registration for CRPs as part of the Academy for Healthcare Science Accredited Register, we are focusing on this staff group by providing them an internal forum. A CRP developmental pathway and career development strategy is also in development.
Mentoring
The BRC aspires to offer mentoring for everyone. To achieve this we will build capacity by providing virtual Developmental Training workshops. Our model is based on the Academy of Medical Sciences programme, which has been adopted by the NIHR Academy for its own post-doctoral programme.
Peer-to-peer seminars
Academic Clinical Excellence Seminars (ACES) have been relaunched in a virtual format and offer an opportunity for new appointments to introduce themselves and their work, and for researchers to present their work to peers.
Clerical and administrative staff
The Managers’ Forum provides a developmental opportunity for new and aspiring managers and administrative staff, and is delivered by senior leaders from the research workforce in the BRC.
For the full strategy, please contact LeicesterBRC@uhl-tr.nhs.uk. Alternatively you can download this PDF if you intend to print the document: Career Development Strategy