The Researcher Development Framework was launched in September 2010 and is a professional development framework for planning and supporting the personal, professional and career development of researchers. It articulates the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of successful researchers and encourages them to aspire to excellence through achieving higher levels of development. It was developed by and for researchers, in consultation with academic and non-academic employers.
Steered by our member-led RDF working group, the RDF has evolved from the 2010 framework into a new refreshed configuration that has been designed and led by researchers and practitioners. Co-developed with the sector through a series of workshops, focus groups and a survey, the revised version now reflects our shared current and future ambitions for the research environment.
RDF 2025 recognises the critical importance of connections between the professional and career development of productive and motivated researchers and initiatives to further knowledge exchange, research integrity, open research, and research culture.
The values, skills and behaviours of effective researchers are expressed in the RDF as ‘descriptors’. The descriptors are now structured into three domains. Each of the descriptors contains up to four phases, representing distinct stages of development or levels of progression within that descriptor.
- Researcher
- Research
- Research Communities