Research Team Leaders
To be a really good research team leader is challenging; you need to be good at research, teaching, supervision, people management, resource management etc. – the list is endless! Hopefully some of the resources below will be of use, whether you are currently leading a research team or preparing for this role in the future.
Supervising Early career researchers
- Vitae, the national organisation championing the personal, professional and career development of researchers has a section of its website dedicated to those who supervise or manage researchers including pages on
- The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers sets out the expectations and responsibilities of researchers, their managers, employers and funders.
- You can find information about support for research staff at the University on the dedicated Research Staff website and for postgraduate researchers on the Careers service website.
Managing a team
Being a manager involves much more than leading the research in your group. The following resources are available to support you in this role:
- You can find guidance for managers on various topics on the Human Resources website.
- The Leadership and Management website contains information on training and other useful resources.
- You can download the manual (UoB access only) that accompanies the people management programme, Preparing to Manage Research Groups, which includes a series of personal accounts by research team leaders at the University with hints and tips on managing a team.
- Your HR manager can advise you on all sorts of things to do with employing staff.
General resources
- Navigating your academic career at Bristol. At the University of Bristol, we have academic pathways and academic role profiles. It is useful to have a look at these to see what skills and experience you need to acquire in order to progress. These will be similar to those that you will need whichever university you move to next. We are working on a tool to help you navigate these profiles and access more easily associated training and development.
- An appointment with a Career Coach could help you explore what you want to get out of your career and how you are going to achieve that.
- Staff Development runs training on a range of topics and can provide bespoke facilitation or training for your team.
- RED can provide you with advice to support your research, including grant applications, research policy and commercialisation.
- The Education Support Unit’s website has information about teaching at the University.
- Human Resources.