3 minutes

Prosper Practice-Exchange: Collaborating to enhance the career development of postdocs

Prosper Practice Exchange 2025 highlights:

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We are at the Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel in Manchester

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for the Prosper Practice Exchange event,

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which is an opportunity for colleagues from across the

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sector who are utilizing the Prosper model to come along,

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share, practice, learn from each other, and collaborate.

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We know that our postdocs are really neglected component

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part of our workforce, and so really having that emphasis on

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how we support their development,

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but how we do it in a way which removes the idea

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that a career out with academia is a failure.

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One of the main benefits for us is around that it is there

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as a resource that people can tap into in their own space

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and, and in their own time.

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Something that someone said really is that they like having

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that independence in terms of their own development,

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but also that it’s a reliable source

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of information for them to explore.

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We also know from cohorts that, um, lots

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of the learnings done by talking to peers

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and having that wide group

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of individuals from across the region brings a lots

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of different perspectives and really gives ’em a sense

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of what’s unique to their institution

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and what might be actually something

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that’s common a across the sector.

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So what’s great about it’s,

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we’re actually giving up our postdocs a regional network,

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which they may not have been exposed to before.

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The fact that we’re bringing them to each location

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and we get them to see what it’s like on each campus

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and get a sense for it, what that journey’s like,

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which can be really helpful when they think about their

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career and the locations that

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they could have that career in.

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We have a huge number of talented staff who are often on,

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uh, very short programs of work,

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and so they are expending energy on trying to think about

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where their next job is coming from.

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This one accords value to their talent,

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but also equips them with career management skills,

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which they haven’t had before.

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We’re running our second Prosper cohort program this

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spring, and I think the benefits of it is having

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that dedicated time and space

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to focus on your career development

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and also having that space

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to really think about your values, your skills,

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and how they can be further developed

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and aligned to your future career.

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What’s been really interesting is here about

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how people who’ve used the resources

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and been through the cohorts of Prosper Researchers,

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they become kind of advocates for it

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and they spread the message so that you can build it up

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and develop it even further.

View highlights of the Prosper Practice Exchange 2025 to hear attendees and speakers talk about the event, the benefits of Prosper, and how Prosper is being used at a range of UK HEIs.

Featuring:

Frances Burstow (UKRI)
Alison Monkhouse (University of Huddersfield)
Karen Hinxman (White Rose University Consortium)
Curie Scott (University of Southampton)
Farhana Chowdhury (Newcastle University)
Peter O'Rourke (University of Exeter)
Andrew Moss (Durham University)

Prosper Practice Exchange 2025 short clip 1:

Prosper Practice Exchange 2025 short clip 2:

On 6^th February 2025 Prosper held its first annual Prosper Practice Exchange event at the iconic Kimpton Clock Tower in Manchester.

The Practice Exchange was created to provide an opportunity to showcase the diverse ways in which Prosper is being used by higher education institutions so far, share practice and connect with colleagues. Attendees included staff responsible for researcher development from 39 higher education institutions and senior representatives from sector bodies including the N8 Research Partnership, NCUB, UKRI, the British Academy and Vitae.

The agenda was designed to provide a platform for institutions already using Prosper to share insights into the various ways it is being used to support their postdocs’ career development and the impact it is having to date. These included University of Manchester, Durham University, Heriot-Watt University, University of Southampton, University of Huddersfield and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, to name a few.

Next year’s event will build on this momentum and reflect on progress made with Prosper’s framework for sustaining impact, which is currently in development. Plans are for this to centre on a model of reciprocation (The Reciprocation Framework – Prosper).

The idea behind the Reciprocation Framework is to formalise and encourage mutual exchange between institutions and Prosper. An early example can be seen in how Prosper provided support for the University of Southampton’s Prosper cohort, and in return the University of Southampton developed some Prosper resources for the Portal and hosted a PI Network session, open to managers of researchers across the sector.

We will release details of next year's event as they become available.

In the meantime, you can read a summary of 2024's event and the key themes over at the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) blog space: Prosper holds first Practice Exchange Event sharing use of resources across the UK