Researcher Education and Development Scholarship Conference

REDS is a free, open, online conference designed to encourage and share research and scholarship within researcher education and development disciplines. Abstract Submission Deadline: 5pm 27th October 2025

The conference takes place 12-6pm (GMT) on the 21^st January and 8.00am-1pm (GMT) on 22^nd January, 2026.

Call for abstracts on ‘Getting creative: shaping a culture of development’

Commonly, Researcher Developers now purposefully work to catalyse culture change and enhancement at the organisational level. An equitable and collegial research culture which prioritises professional learning, is now increasingly acknowledged as central to the effective engagement, development, and success of researchers (UKRI, 2025; The Royal Society, ND) Wellcome 2023; NHMRC, 2025). In the UK context, the shared responsibilities for researcher development that were lobbied for over a decade by groups of specialist development professionals, came into sector focus as the revised Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (2019) and, through community consultation, the revised Researcher Development Framework (2025) both of which place the success of individual researchers within the context of their direct relationships and as a part of their wider organisational culture.

Correspondingly, distributed learning models, networking, community-based learning, mentoring, and team approaches to research, have dominated the literatures on researcher development, and the practice of researcher development. A multi-(p)layer approach to enabling researcher success, a ‘whole culture’ strategy, is thus seen as key for both researcher participation in development activities, and the realisation of their career aspirations in practice.

The resulting rapid broadening of the remit of researcher developers to include provision for the supervisors and managers of researchers, staff in key leadership roles, and cross-community approaches has required considerable creative innovation on their part, individually and collectively. Through professional bodies, societies and sector organisations, formal and informal networks, and an inclination to share practice openly, researcher developers have demonstrated a high degree of adaptability and ingenuity.

Creative approaches to the development of researcher and research ecosystems are needed now more than ever as financial, moral and philosophical challenges sweep across the global Higher Education sector. Developers are asked to ‘do more with less’, to remain resilient, to resist, to advocate for the importance of professional development and to provide value for all. This conference asks:

1. How did/do researcher developers create and sustain a culture of development?
2. ⁠What are the sites and spaces through which Researcher Developers innovate?
3. What can we learn from the evolution of the Research Developer profession?
4. What are the defining features and essential components of a developmental research culture?
5. What creative approaches can universities apply to succeed despite established challenges?
6. What are the sector and institutional drivers that can be leveraged to support strong cultures for development?
7. What can the demonstrable adaptability of Researcher Developers in response to sector challenges teach us about how we support creativity and resilience in researchers?

To bring these themes together, REDS 2026 will explore how all those who make up the research ecosystem and community, including (but not limited to) funders, employers, senior leadership teams, PGRs, supervisors, principal investigators, research staff, researcher developers, careers advisors, directors of PGR programmes, culture specialists, research professional staff and HR colleagues can take collective and collaborative responsibility for the research culture.

We invite papers related to empirical or theoretical perspectives on our questions above, and the following:

• What does creativity in researcher development look like?
• Who is creativity open to, and who is excluded?
• How do creative approaches help us to overcome systematic barriers and inequalities?
• How do we recognise and value the different kinds of creativity operating within the research ecosystem?
• How does creativity support/enhance research culture?
• How can creative methods support a culture of development?
• What does creative leadership look like?
• How has creativity fostered culture change in your community?
• Any other topic related to the themes of creative shaping of the research culture would also be welcome.

The conference will be held on Zoom with concurrent presentations running throughout. Presentation format options are:

1. Scholarly Paper (15min live presentation plus 5min questions).
2. WIP (Work In Progress) Presentation (5min live presentation using only 2 slides)
3. Blog post. If you are not available to present at the conference, or prefer to share your work in writing, you can opt for a 1000-word blog article (see here for examples).

Find a detailed Abstract Submission Guide here.

Presenters and participants are supported by the REDS Conference Code of Practice to which all hosts, presenters and delegates agree to align their behaviour.

The REDS Conference Advisory Group will select presentations to be included at the conference and decisions will be communicated by the end of November 2025.

The original Call for Abstracts for REDS 2026 is now closed.

Timeline:

• Call for Abstracts opens: Friday 5th September 2025
• General conference registration for attendees opens: Monday 15th September 2025
• Abstract Submission Deadline: 5pm 27th October 2025
• Notification of abstract selection process outcomes: by end of November 2025.