Imperial is dedicated to creating a positive research culture and to providing sector-leading support and professional development to all its researchers. Following our ambition to equip and empower all researchers at Imperial to succeed in their chosen careers, Imperial became a signatory of the new Concordat to support the career development of researchers (pdf) in March 2020.
The Concordat is an agreement between funders and employers of researchers in the UK. It aims to set the “gold standard of researcher development” by committing funders, institutions, researchers and managers of researchers to create a healthy and supportive research environment and culture for researchers to realise their potential.
As part of Imperial’s commitment to the Concordat principles, we will continue to work closely with funders and other institutions to address all-important wider concerns around job security and other systemic issues.
2025-27 Concordat action plan
During 2024, a review was undertaken of the progress made against the 2023-25 Concordat Action Plan. Alongside the results of the 2024 Staff Survey and the new Imperial Strategy, this review informed the draft of the 2025-2027 Concordat action plan. This draft was then sent for consultation with the Postdoc and Fellows Reps Network and with the Postdoc and Fellows Champions and further refined by colleagues in the Concordat Implementation and Planning Group (CIPG). The final action plan was reviewed and approved by the Researcher Development Committee and submitted for approval to University Research and Enterprise Board (UREB).
This Concordat Action Plan complements other key initiatives, such as the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, Athena Swan action plan, Race Equality Charter action plan and other Imperial action plans, including the Imperial Strategy - Science for Humanity.
The associated actions Imperial takes to improve research culture can factor into REF Environment narratives. These actions are designed to contribute to both narrative and quantitative baseline and yearly results to support the REF People and Culture Environment (PCE) programme (full list of REF PCE indicators to be confirmed early 2026).
The 2025-27 action plan builds on the previous activities and continues to group actions under themes, to ensure that it creates the best culture for its researchers to thrive:
2025-27 action plan themes
- Concordat Awareness and Engagement
- Supporting Talent and Community Building
- Researcher Visibility, Recognition and Representation (new theme 2025-27)
- Researcher Induction and Contract Management (new theme 2025-27)
- Supporting PIs and Team Development
Actions will cover raising awareness of the Concordat and ensuring researchers and their line managers understand their roles and how they are supported by the Concordat.
Actions will cover support for peer-led networks and enhanced structures for networking and collaboration among research staff. We will develop new training sessions for interdisciplinary research and ensuring awareness of the 10 development days. Actions will cover support for career progression including research promotions, fellowship support, and increasing awareness of career moves between sectors.
Actions will enhance visibility, recognition, and representation of research staff at all levels within Imperial.
Actions will improve induction processes for new research staff and improve end-of-contract information, including information about open-ended contracts.
Actions will support managers in having meaningful career development conversations with their research staff and track their engagement with current and new development activities via Annual Review Conversations. Additionally, actions were designed to increase awareness among line managers about open-ended contracts and good contractual practices.
Completed Actions
Please note the actions below are from all sections across Imperial and go beyond the scope of ECRI. Most of the actions have been co-developed with staff across Imperial (including research staff):
- Creation of the 10 development days resources (>630 users in 2024 and 6% new users)
- Creation and implementation of Beyond Academia, a cohort programme for research staff in their last year of contract to explore careers beyond academic research.
- Creation of the Academic’s Success Guide (> 5700 users during 2024, with 16% new users).
- Establishment of the Peer Mentoring programme for Fellows, developed from Fellows Leadership Network feedback, combining leadership development and coaching.
- Concordat awareness embedded in Research Staff Induction and launch of the Concordat pulse survey in early 2024.
- Implementation of the Report and Support tool for reporting of bullying, harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct and monitoring of its data.
- New EDI training for managers and supervisors was introduced in 2024.
- New resource to support career conversations (Career Changes Conversations Project) included in the Academic’s Success guide.
- Creation of the Research Environment Toolkit to help all staff to implement change both as part of their grant applications and within their own research environment.
- The new inclusive recruitment webpages had an increase in engagement rate of 80%.
- The Annual Review Conversation (ARC) has been implemented and we have developed resources to support line managers conducting it.
- Creation of the Research Integrity e-learning module
- The reverse mentoring programme for senior leadership, launched in 2021, continues with 12 new mentoring pairs in the 2024 cohort.