University of Southampton is part of £1.5m investment in opportunities for technology specialists nationally

The University of Southampton is part of a £1.5m investment from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support opportunities and development activities for the national research technical professional (RTP) community. This was funded through a Strategic Technical Platform call, with £16m investment in 11 projects from EPSRC and the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) funds.

The project will enable training and development opportunities not currently available to RTPs nationally, advertised through the UK Technology Specialist Network (TSN). This will include the development of RTP talent pipelines, bespoke skills and training sessions, and work to increase knowledge exchange and visibility for RTPs.

The project will be truly collaborative, with project led by the University of Warwick, with co-leads at the University of Bath, University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, University of Newcastle, University of York and the Natural History Museum.

Dr Julie Herniman, RTP in Chemistry and co-lead, said: 'This is a great opportunity to share best practice, skills and knowledge across the whole TSN community, which has grown to over 300 members in its first year. Here in Southampton, we have many RTPs working across five faculties and the project will provide support for travel, accommodation and carer responsibility bursaries. This will ensure that opportunities are as inclusive as possible and benefit RTPs at all career stages.’

Dr Ian Hancox, at the University of Warwick and project lead, said: ‘It is fantastic to see such large investment from EPSRC in a staff group that is essential in enabling a broad range of research. This funding will provide opportunities for RTPs nationally that would otherwise not be possible, building on the complementary activities of TALENT and the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS). I look forward to working with our project partners to deliver opportunities that make a real difference to RTPs careers.’

You find out more about Technology Specialists Network and about the University of Southampton’s Technician Commitment. 

The UKRI press release on this call.