The Henry Royce Institute (Royce)
is pleased to announce that we have joined the Technician Commitment as a supporter. The Technician Commitment is a university and research institution initiative, led by a steering board of sector bodies, with support from the Science Council and the Technicians Make It Happen campaign.
The Commitment aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines. Universities and research institutes are invited to become signatories of the Technician Commitment and pledge action against the key challenges affecting their technical staff.
Professor Mark E. Smith, Chair of the Royce Strategic Advisory Board (SAB), which has oversight of the Royce Technician Commitment Action Plan, said:
“Signing-up to the Technician Commitment further strengthens Royce’s ambition to nurture and develop its technical workforce. Royce would not be able to pursue its vision for ‘advanced materials for a sustainable society’ without the associated expert, technical workforce and we look forward championing their contribution and ensuring they are supported to develop and provide the expertise which is so essential to advanced materials research and technology transfer.”
Technician Commitment Committee Chair and Royce CEO, Professor David Knowles said:
“Royce is delighted to become a signatory to the Technician Commitment and to set out an Action Plan aimed at strengthening our own commitment to ensuring all our technicians are supported, recognised and developed. It’s fantastic that we are joining forces with so many others in the HE and wider research sector to further elevate the status our technical workforce. All of our technicians, from facilities staff to our senior experimental officers and technical specialists, play a key role in the delivery of world-class research and innovation and we will work to ensure that we continue to develop and value their vital skills.”
Technician Commitment Committee member, Royce Technology Platform Lead, Dr Robert Deffley at Royce Partner Sheffield said:
“Our technicians are a highly valued and crucial part of the research and development that takes place across all Royce Partners and this commitment will help Royce to provide the visibility, recognition and career development they warrant. The expertise held by technical staff is unique, and importantly our teams make major contributions to important grant-funded projects by running experiments, offering insight and providing training to researchers.”
Kelly Vere MBE, Programme Director, The Technician Commitment said:
“We’re delighted to welcome the Henry Royce Institute to the Technician Commitment community. Becoming a supporter of the Commitment will help the Institute to champion the technical community across the nine institutions of the Royce Partnership and will really help to drive visibility, career development and sustainability for the technicians who help make the Royce’s world-leading UK materials research possible.”
Royce is launching an action plan that, over the next two years, will support their technical staff across the four key areas of the Technician Commitment: greater visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians across all disciplines.
