Researcher Education and Development Scholarship Conference

Dr Stefania Silvestri, Researcher Developer, University of Liverpool, UK, and Dr Fiona McBride, Senior Researcher Developer, University of Liverpool, UK.

Within academia, it is understood that a Principal Investigator (PI) is someone leading a project, often funded by an external grant. Depending on disciplines, fields, and type of project, PIs might have responsibilities as supervisors of postgraduate researchers, and managers of a group of research staff and administrative staff (Charlwood & McBride 2020). This single term ‘PI’ often hides the complexity and variety of responsibilities the role entails.

In terms of career stage, PIs can sit anywhere between immediately post-PhD and professors nearing retirement. Newly appointed Research Fellows, for example, will be PIs of their own research project, but often will have little to no management or supervisory responsibilities at the start of their contract. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those with extensive experience as researchers, those who may have served in academic roles with teaching and/or research responsibilities, and various levels of administrative-related functions. With levels of people management experience so varied, responsibilities so blurred, and a strong focus on research, career development of PIs can be haphazard at best, and at worst, absent.

Don’t you (forget about me)

PIs are aware of this gap in career development provision. The RAIL report (Pickard-Smith & Bonsall 2023) indicates that of the over 250 academic respondents, the majority feel there is a lack of support, both in terms of training and in terms of career development, for the mid-career stage, which (albeit badly defined) can include PIs, managers of researchers, administrative leads, supervisors, Heads of Departments and so on (Brambley 2023).

Simultaneously, there is a sector-wide push (REF 2029 enhanced focus on people, culture and environment – REF PCE) to bring the role of research culture to the forefront in the assessment of research excellence and the allocation of grant funding. PIs, who are deeply embedded in the research ecosystem and interact with it daily, can play a pivotal role in transforming the currently stagnant (characterised by failure to innovate and promote positive change) and often toxic academic culture (Watermeyer, 2024; Sang et al. 2015). Hence PIs are the ones who need the most support to drive this positive change (Howard & McBride, 2024).

PIs have the additional responsibility of supporting their research staff in their career, including in their career development (see the responsibilities placed on PIs by the Concordat, 2019). Supporting research staff career development is much broader than just ensuring a pipeline of future academics. It can, and increasingly needs to, include fostering mobility between sectors and promoting more permeable boundaries between academia and beyond, particularly for early-career researchers (NCUB 2023 and 2024). However, PIs often lack awareness of wider career opportunities, and the knowledge needed to support such career transitions, due to their own typically linear academic careers. Additionally, within academia persists the narrative that gaining an academic role is deemed to be superior to other career options (Ganguli 2022): finding ways to highlight other options and hold all career choices in esteem is crucial to fostering a positive research culture.

The Prosper PI Network launched in 2020, with the specific aim of creating a space for PIs to come together, broaden their perspectives and share best practice around empowering postdoc career development. It was (and continues to be) open to PIs from any career stage, without disciplinary or institutional boundaries to share practice on how they support and inspire their postdocs in their career development. Originally the network was only open to PIs from the three project partner institutions, the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester, and Lancaster University (pilot phase). Since 2024, the network has expanded and is now open to all PIs in the UK and beyond, with registrations from over 30 institutions.

Whilst the decision was taken to call it a ‘network’, as it was deemed to be a more widely understood term for the target audience, the Prosper PI Network is a community of practice in its own right, in which PIs can learn and develop their skills. So, it balances aspects of being both a community of practice and also a space for PIs to connect, gather information and gain a professional advantage, and it is thus also and more than anything a network for PIs (Oxford Dictionary).

Build it better

Working with PIs was essential to the development of Prosper, aiming to both encourage them to promote career development among their postdocs and to empower them as managers of researchers. Peer-to-peer learning was a top priority for this group. Through focus groups and feedback, PIs expressed how much they valued learning from each other’s experiences, and thus this became an essential element of all PI Network sessions (Boud et al. 2001). PIs reported that “it was really refreshing to speak with somebody from a very different discipline who clearly thinks visually the way I do” and “that it [the session] was very cross-disciplinary, and so it was helpful to hear from people I would not normally network with, and hear about different ways of working”.

Co-creation of learning is a further element that needed and needs to be taken into consideration when facilitating sessions for PIs (Bovill 2020). Since the inception of the PI Network, this co-creation has evolved. During the pilot phase co-creation happened before sessions and during them. The topics for the sessions were selected from discussions with PIs and a small PI network steering group of PIs. During this time frame this included the rapid and unprecedented challenges the Covid pandemic brought to managing research and researchers that PIs faced.

During the sessions, guest speakers and attendees played a fundamental role in the co-creation process, through directing the conversations and enabling facilitators to identify lessons learned around the topics addressed – see for example Creating a working environment that lets you and your postdoc grow – Skills for PIs and postdocs. Over the PI Network sessions held in 2024 we had registrations from a total of 163 PIs, representing 29 different institutions. We had a good distribution of registrants across the broad disciplinary areas; 27% biomedical and biological sciences, 29% physical and environmental sciences and engineering, 30% arts, humanities and social science, 6% professional services and 9% ‘other’. In terms of impact of the sessions, of all attendees who completed post session feedback, 100% reported an increase in confidence and knowledge of the topic addressed.

In order to maintain our breadth, relevance and impact to the sector cocreation continues to be essential, and it is still used during the roll-out phase of Prosper and of the PI Network (see Welcome to the panic room resources). This co-created knowledge is then shared more broadly through the Prosper portal, on the PI Network pages, which serve as a form of repository for anyone to access the resources.

Let’s stay together

Co-creation has recently been taken a step further, with a close collaboration with HEIs. One of the key aims for Prosper is to facilitate a community of practice, both with colleagues interested in postdoctoral career development, and with those working on PI development and support.

The benefits of communities of practice – ‘groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise’ (Wenger & Snyder 2000) – have been shown to be numerous, especially in an academic context (Aarnikoivu & Le 2024). And it is in this space that Prosper endeavours to bring together practitioners of development, and to put the wealth of knowledge and expertise of its members to use. The PI Network has been transformed into a distributed effort and colleagues across the sector can take ownership of a network session in terms of content and delivery. This co-creation with both PIs and (typically) professional services staff focused on PI and postdoc career development, allows for a richness of sharing practice and staying topical a single institution (or lone PI) would struggle to do so alone.

Post-scriptum: the PI Network was originally established by Dr Fiona McBride and Dr Catherine Charlwood (2020-2021), and later led by Dr Andrew Holmes (2021-2023). During the current roll-out phase of Prosper (2024-2026), Kerry McElroy (supported by Dr Stefania Silvestri and Dr Fiona McBride) is leading on the collaboration and organisation of the PI Network.