Technician Commitment
Find out more about the 4 key areas of the Technician Commitment – visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability – and what other universities have done so far to address these.
Health and Safety for Technicians
Whatever your technical speciality, health and safety is a crucial aspect of your daily work. We want you to feel confident in the safety of your working environment and in your ability to take the right actions to keep yourself and others safe. Visit the Safety Office website for a range of information on various health and safety topics, including the arrangements and responsibilities for managing safety. Explore what training is available to you and check out examples of safety in action for practical ideas. All departments have a departmental safety officer, so do contact yours if you have any questions about your area.
National Technician Development Centre
The National Technician Development Centre offers expertise and tools to support the development of technical career pathways, to identify future skills gaps, and provide appropriate training and development opportunities for technicians.
UKRI People and Teams Plan
This document: (published March 2023) brings together UKRI’s action plan to support the Researcher Development Concordat and its Technician Commitment plan, since researchers and technicians face similar issues. The plan sets out what UKRI will do and what it expects the institutions it funds to do to support a greater diversity of staff to apply for funding and be recognised in research outputs. This includes involving more technicians as grant applicants; ensuring that technicians’ work is properly costed in applications; including more peer reviewers and assessors with technical expertise; and ensuring that grant applicants demonstrate how they will support the career development of their staff teams, including technicians.
MI Talent
Led by the Midlands Innovation (MI) consortium of eight universities in collaboration with key stakeholders and industry partners, TALENT is a major project that aims to improve the status of technicians in higher education and increase the opportunities available to them. This includes events and training courses, some of which are open to technicians beyond the Midlands consortium of universities.
UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS)
The UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy – launching on 1 August 2023 and hosted by the University of Nottingham, the institute aims to ensure that the UK has the technical capability and capacity across academia, research, education and innovation to enable the UK to be a global superpower in science, engineering and the creative industries. The institute will be the new home of the Technician Commitment from August 2023.
University of Oxford's Researcher Hub
The Researcher Hub includes information and resources that will be of use to technicians.