The University’s Academic Appointments and Promotions Framework was developed to provide well-defined progression pathways for academic staff that recognise and value individual achievement and contribution.

The framework is benchmarked against other leading Universities and describes four distinct, but inter-related, pathways for academic career progression from Lecturer (Grade 6) to Professor (Grades 8-10).

The four pathways – Research, Learning & Teaching, Professional Practice and Enterprise – share the underpinning principle that promoted staff should be at the leading edge of their academic disciplines and influencing relevant communities. All of the promotion pathways also have an expectation of active leadership and capacity building within the University.

In the second in our series of interviews with colleagues on the separate Academic Pathways, we talk to School of Applied Sciences’ Professor Mick Rae as he shares his experiences on the Research pathway.

Hi Mick! Tell us about your role at the University?
I teach on a number of programmes at the University, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In the main, my teaching is a blend of physiology, disease processes and the techniques utilised in diagnoses biomedical research.

I’m the principal investigator of a research group comprising two postdoctoral staff and one PhD student, too. My research field is the developmental origins of adult diseases – in other words, how the period of time we are developing in the womb, and the interactions between development and environment, can colour the risks of chronic diseases in later life.

For the last two years, I’ve also been the professorial lead for research degrees for the University and, in addition to convening the University’s Research Degrees Committee, with responsibility for oversight of all ENU research degree students, I also have responsibility for the development and implementation of research degrees practice. Related to this, I sit upon a number of other university level committees that have broad connections with research degrees. Externally, I have been a member of the committee of a learned society which encompasses my research area.

Why did you choose the Academic Pathway you’re on?
I chose the Research pathway as it was the one I felt I aligned with best. Whilst I remain very active in terms of teaching, I use research to ‘feed’ and underpin my teaching. So as a primary driver of my work activities, I felt that research was what I fitted best to, and it’s research that I wish to place the focus of my activities on. It was a close call, as I get a lot of satisfaction from teaching activities – but in terms of pathway alignment, research won out for me.

Tell us about your journey on this Research pathway so far?
It’s going as I had hoped it would. I’m very fortunate to have secured substantial funding, and even more fortunate to have recruited a really talented team. It’s a bit of a juggling act to keep all the balls in the air, but so far, so good. Having been facing in this direction prior to the development of the Academic Pathways and Promotions Framework, it’s not been so much of a change for me, but it’s been a route to applying for promotion based on what I have been doing and am currently engaged in.

How did you gather evidence for your application?
Over my career I’ve been securing funding, performing scientific studies and publishing findings.  Then, once the Academic Pathways were in use, this let me see where the ‘holes’ were in terms of activities I’d not been doing so much of. These were in the main activities I’d already begun to develop – management, external contributions to societies and other institutions. The pathways document crystallised these for me, and helped me spot that some of the ‘stuff’ that I had been doing for a long time was actually more than just ‘stuff’, and was actually valued as contributions. Evidence gathering was fairly straightforward, as the majority was already in a format in various applications made over the years. 

Worktribe can be used in these situations as a repository of my research career, and this is advantageous as I have a very poor memory! The additional information was in the form of not so much ‘what I have done’ and more ‘why did it matter’, which was relatively easy to pull together, though in some ways difficult to express. My difficulty was in describing my contributions, as it’s always a bit tricky to talk about yourself and say good things about yourself – or it is at least for me!

What feedback did you get from the panel? How did you use this feedback to develop your academic profile?
The feedback I received from the panel was to carry on as I was, but to seek opportunities to expand upon current activities. I’m using this feedback to shape my current role, and whilst this involves having to reduce some activities in order to pursue others, in general terms my ‘currency’ remains the same: Research>teaching>management.

What advice would you give someone considering the Research pathway for future career progression?
Ensure you don’t forget things you do – write them down, store them in Worktribe, do whatever you need to – but keep a record not only of the activity, but also of the outcomes from it.

Where do you see your academic career going in the future? How do you see it developing?
I hope to continue to have the support I have now in pursuing what I consider to be an incredibly interesting research field. Within this, I want to expand my internal and external network of collaborators – working with people is a lot more productive, and indeed fun, than working alone. To this end, I want to see our schools research profile continue to rise, and if I can contribute in a collaborative sense to this, I will take the opportunity to do so. 

I will also remain enthusiastic about my teaching, and would like to be able to contribute to widening access to higher education agendas in any way I can. I come from a background where I was the first of my family to undertake any form of higher education, and I strongly feel that there are no boundaries in terms of background for anyone, or at least there shouldn’t be.  

Having now developed experience of university level committee working, I’d like to make further contributions in this area in the future too.