• We had funding from Research England to buy-out 0.1 FTE of the postdocs contracted time
• We were simultaneously developing, co-creating, testing and adapting all our Prosper as we went
• We had set targets to recruit postdocs across all disciplines and EDI characteristics
• We had success measures around broadening postdocs career aspirations beyond academia

• Cohort 1 ran from April 2021 to March 2022, so due to COVID measures and social distancing almost all sessions were delivered virtually
• Cohort 2 ran from February 2022 to January 2023, across three institutions so almost all sessions were delivered virtually
• All live sessions had an analogous on-demand version
• We tracked the number of hours cohort members engaged with Prosper via pulse and end of cohort surveys (hours were self-reported)

We recruited postdocs into a total of two pilot cohorts, postdocs were recruited from all disciplines, with no requirement that they had a pre-determined idea of their career trajectory. Each cohort lasted 12 months. The first pilot cohort comprised 53 postdocs all employed at the University of Liverpool. The second pilot cohort comprised 75 postdocs from across Lancaster University, University of Liverpool and University of Manchester.

As we had funding from Research England to buy-out 0.1 FTE of their contracted time we required that postdocs had at least 6 months time left on their contracts at the start of the cohort (only for cohort 2). We found that the postdocs didn’t go appreciably above the time stated in the researcher development concordat even with the 0.1 FTE buy-out. The researcher development concordat states that researchers should have 'a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year’.  This equates to a minimum of 70 to 80 hours of professional development per year. Cohort 1 members spent on average 100 hours over 12 months on their Prosper career development, as self-reported in our evaluation surveys.

Drop-in sessions were informal sessions provided as an opportunity for the cohort to talk to a member of the Prosper team about any aspect of their career development journey.

Employer sessions were sessions where cohort postdocs directly interacted with employers. These sessions were things like employer panel/s, with multiple employers discussing a topic or ‘fireside chats’ with one employer giving an insight into their sector, company or role.

Development sessions were either created and delivered by the Prosper team or a commissioned external supplier. Development sessions were focussed around a specific topic and had a practical output or objective for the postdocs. Session topics included communication skills, creativity, and leadership skills.

Recap sessions were designed and run by the Prosper team, giving a rapid overview of session highlights from the prior few months. These recaps allowed postdocs to re-engage and orient themselves with sessions they’d missed and prioritise what resources they’d like to engage with.

Social sessions were virtual sessions with the expressed aim to encourage networking and social interaction between the postdoc cohort members. For more details on running social sessions see our page on how to run social sessions.