Staff review
Staff review and development (SRD) is an essential part of the University’s commitment to developing staff and to delivering a high quality service, providing a way of balancing your personal needs and ambitions with the University’s overall objectives.
The review process should enhance work effectiveness and facilitate career development by encouraging staff to discuss their achievements, address challenges, set targets and consider their training and personal development requirements. it should ensure that members of staff are clear about their responsibilities and that they have a formal regular opportunity to discuss any help they may need in meeting them.
The reviewer is normally the line manager/supervisor. This process does not replace good management practice, nor is it used as a disciplinary tool or a means of determining pay. For contract research staff, the first review will be conducted 12 months after appointment and thereafter annually. Assistant staff reviews are usually every two years after the contract start date.
The University’s Staff Review and Development Scheme provides further guidance and is a useful source of information.
Assistant /Academic-related staff SRD forms can be found on the Staff Review Process pages.
Postdoc SRD forms can be found here.
For queries regarding SRD, you should speak with your line manager or contact Marita Walsh, Support Services Manager or Kathleen Pickett, Welfare, Training and Development Adviser.
Learning and development opportunities
The University offers many learning and development opportunities, as listed below:
Below is further information about the main University training providers:
University Computing Service (UCS)
Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
Personal and Professional Development (PPD)
Personal and Professional Calendar of Training January - March 2018
Researcher Development programmes
University Language Centre – The Language Centre offers members of staff language-learning and teaching services if their work requires them.
Lectures and Seminars - Staff and students may attend any of the University lectures and seminars organised by various internal institutions.
Concordat to support the career development of researchers - The Concordat is a statement of principles for the support and management of researchers' careers issued by Universities UK, the Research Councils, and other major research sponsors. It covers the responsibilities of research staff, your managers, employers, and funders. More detailed information can be found on the Concordat website: https://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy/vitae-concordat-vitae-2011.pdf
Career Management for Contract Research Staff- draws on the framework of the UK Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers. It sets out clear, fundamental standards and has been designed to be adaptable to the needs of researchers, principal investigators, supervisors of researchers, and departments, faculties, institutes and centres.
The Scheme describes full policy but shorter reference resources are available which may be sufficient information for your immediate purposes, including a career management tool which provides a practical guide for researchers to managing careers.
University Careers Service - The University has a dedicated careers advice service for post-docs and research staff covering academic, industry and other career options. The Careers Service offers regular appointments for career guidance discussions, application feedback and mock interviews as well as hosting and organising a range of events and workshop.
You are also encouraged to register with the post-doc careers advice service to receive information and updates that would be relevant to you and your career progression.
Job Opportunities - Job vacancies are advertised on the University’s Job Opportunities pages. In addition, some posts are advertised in the Cambridge University Reporter (the official journal of the University of Cambridge), the local and national press, specialist publications and job sites.
Consultancy Opportunities - Any member of University staff may undertake consultancy through Cambridge Enterprise, including academic, academic-related and assistant staff, as well as PhD students and post-doctoral researchers.
Intellectual Property Rights - The University has a policy on the ownership of intellectual property which includes a generous revenue share for inventors.
Contribution Reward and progression Schemes - the University offers a number of contribution reward and progression schemes for the various staff groups.
The University Training Booking System provides a central point for staff and students of the University and its Colleges to search for and book onto a variety of training courses run by participating University training providers: https://www.training.cam.ac.uk/.
