Who we are and what we do

This page is aimed at current and future research-intensive staff in the school. Generally, these staff are those whose…

• …job is to carry out or facilitate research but are not ‘academic’ members of staff with posts underwritten by the university
• …salary comes from a grant (typically from research councils, but perhaps through institutions such as NCAS or NCEO)
• …employment is by fixed-term contracts (such as post-docs) although more senior research staff may have open-ended contracts.

There are two fora:

• Postdoctoral Research Assistants’ Forum (PDRAF) (aimed at early career scientists, often but not exclusively Grade 6)
• Senior Researchers’ Forum (SRF) (generally aimed at more senior research scientists, often but not exclusively Grade 7+, usually project investigators or supervisors).

Each forum meets ~three times a year to discuss issues relevant to research-intensive staff. The purpose of having two separate fora is to ensure that the topics relevant to the career stage can be covered, and that line managers and PDRAs have separate spaces to offer feedback.

Typical subjects that might be covered by the SRF include support for research grant proposal submission, open-ended contracts and bridging funds, staff survey results and travel/sustainability policy updates.

Typical subjects that might be covered by the PDRAF include pay awards, mentoring schemes, staff survey results, travel/sustainability policy updates, and Wellbeing, Inclusion, Diversity & Equality and IT issues.

If you are a research-intensive member of staff, we would love you to join whichever forum is appropriate for you. Please get in contact using the email addresses below for the chairs of the groups.

The current positions

SRF Chair: Claire Bulgin (c.e.bulgin@reading.ac.uk)

PDRAF Chair: Brian Lo (chunhaybrian.lo@reading.ac.uk)

Buddy Coordinator (PDRAF): Mark Muetzelfeldt

Duties of the committee members

SRF and PDRAF Chairs:

• Coordinate the school’s SRF/PDRAF meetings that occur ~three times a year
• Deliver feedback at the School Executive Board meetings after each forum meeting
• Attend the Semester Staff Meeting as SRF/PDRAF representative
• Deal with ad-hoc questions or issues highlighted by fora members
• Average time involved: 6-8 hours per semester.

Buddy Coordinator:

• Maintain a current list of PDRA staff who are employed within the school
• When a new PDRA is ‘onboarded’ the buddy coordinator is contacted by the school administration team and asked to assign a buddy for the new starter
• The buddy coordinator liaises with current PDRA staff to find a suitable buddy for the new starter. That buddy will meet the new starter on several occasions during their first few weeks at the university, take them to lunch and help them to settle in.