Successful promotion stories
First post Research Administrator [Grade 5] then applied for Research Assistant [Grade 6b] – job includes data collection / admin (70%) & data analysis / research outputs (30%)
2- If you have a ‘five year plan’ or simply a more general career goal, what is it?
Start & finish a PhD (Part Time, keeping salary and completing in 3 or 4 years) and apply for promotion to Grade 7 – working on this with line manager at monthly meetings
3- Is there anything you have liked to have known earlier in your path that you know about now?
To have been encouraged to look at the promotions framework earlier in career (in first year of role)
4- What two top tips would you pass on to those working at a lower or similar grade, looking to gain promotion?
Start thinking early. Tailor appraisal to promotions framework
5- How useful is the UCL Academic Careers Framework for you and why?
Fairly - broad overview, general tools... doesn't give the details wrt specific context to make clear and transparent
6- Do you feel the current promotion process is fair, transparent and clearly communicated? Why / why not?
- Fair - not really because level of support varies throughout department and it's not a core part of appraisals
- Transparent - specifics are lacking e.g. how the panel score the applications
- Communication - no, you have to search for this
The criteria for target grade. Practical steps / actions you need to take e.g. to supervise an MSc student. What departmental/grant budgetary considerations need to be made about viability of a promotion
I am currently a Senior Research Fellow (grade 8). My field is cell biology and I work at the ION. I was successfully promoted from Grade 7 to grade 8 a few years ago on the Research Track.
2- If you have a ‘five year plan’ or a more general career goal, what is it?
We are lucky to be in one of the best places in the world for my kind of research and I am keen to continue this for as long as possible. Over the next 5 years I would like to apply for further fellowships to transition to independence and build my own team.
3- Can you give examples of what went into your application in each domain? In your opinion, what was the most influential part of your application?
I am a researcher in cell biology with 6 years post doc experience.
- Research: 4 first author papers, 16 publications in total, Junior Fellowship, 1 small internal grant, supervision of students
- Education: Lecturing on MSc courses (1-2 hours per year)
- Enterprise & External Engagement: Science Museum Lates/ Campaign for UCL / Lab tours for patient support groups
- Institutional Citizenship: Committee membership at both institutional and faculty levels, tutored Msc Students/ ION mentoring scheme.
The most important activity was the fellowship grant which I got just before applying for the promotion. In fact, I held off applying the year before as this part of my application was not as strong.
4- What aspects of the promotion process concerned you at the time. What information didn’t you have?
I was unclear where the money comes from? Often post docs are employed on fixed/ research budgets. I was worried that if get a promotion it would shorten my post. I’ve heard of PIs saying to post docs not to apply because there is no funding. Also the scoring criteria weren’t easy to find and it wasn’t clear at the time that promotions were linked to the UCL Academic Careers Framework.
5- Is there anything you have liked to have known earlier in your path that you know about now?
I wasn’t clear on what was needed for each domain. For example, ‘Education’ is a big section on the promotion and although you don’t need anything in that section for a ‘Research Track’ promotion, it does help if you can do some marking etc. Also I understand better that individual applications can be very variable: some have fellowships and some don’t, some have more papers and some less, some have more post doc experience and some less.
*NOTE: It is not true that you don't need to demonstrate any Education actyivity if you are under the Research Track. Please refer to guidance on the UCL Academic Careers Framework and review our past ECR Promotion Workshops.6- What top tips would you pass on to those working at a lower or similar grade, looking to gain promotion?
Structure your application according to 4 domains and keep an open mind on activity outside of grants and publications - you are scored on lots of different criteria. Start early and get your PI/ line manager on board. It is good to bring this up at your annual appraisals each year.
7- How useful is the UCL Academic Careers Framework for you and why?
It is a useful way to survey the broad scope of activities that can be used to include in your promotion and also to make sure you’re not missing any areas. The Academic Careers Framework wasn’t that well publicised a few years ago. I found the promotion workshops were really useful.
8- Do you feel the current promotion process is fair, transparent and clearly communicated? Why / why not?
It is going in the right direction. Three years ago it was difficult to determine the exact scoring criteria but this is improving. I think it seems fair but probably more people should be put forward – I wonder if the self-confidence of applicants is holding them back.
9- What two things do you feel you need to know now to help you progress to the next stage of your career (to Grade 9)?
I haven’t really thought about this yet.
10- Is there anything else you wish to add that these questions haven’t covered?
No
I am currently a Senior Research Fellow (grade 8). I work with clinical biomarkers of disease progression. I was successfully promoted from Grade 7 to grade 8 recently on the Research Track.
2- If you have a ‘five year plan’ or a more general career goal, what is it?
Over the next 5 years I would like to get a fellowship and become independent. I have developed a program of research separate from my supervisor’s area which I am excited to pursue.
3- Can you give examples of what went into your application in each domain? In your opinion, what was the most influential part of your application?
My work involves obtaining and analysing clinical biomarkers. When I applied for promotion I had just been awarded my PhD (1 year prior to promotion application), but I had been working at post doc level for 2.5 years.
- Research: 5 first author papers (1 very high impact), 17 journal article publications in total, 1 Post doc Fellowship award, 2 external grants (as PI/ co-PI), 5-10 international invited talks.
- Education: supervision of a few masters students (including as primary supervisor), a few external undergraduate students, 2 hours per year lecturing in Summer School
- Enterprise & External Engagement: On two charity boards, set up a global patient advocacy registry, set-up a research committee, on the working groups of international academic networks, paid consultancy for pharma (e.g. advisory board), media outreach for pharma (science communications), regular talks in patient events (science communication)
- Institutional Citizenship: Part of the EDI committee and Athena Swan subgroup. QS Student committee. Mentee in ION mentoring scheme.
Although I do a lot of external engagement, in my opinion, the most important activity in my application (for the purposes of promotion to grade 8) was the post doc fellowship award i.e. independent funding.
4- What aspects of the promotion process concerned you at the time. What information didn’t you have?
I had everything I needed in place because I had previous experience of applying for promotion (from Grade 6 to 7 a few years ago). I just had to update documents such as my case for support because they were already in the same format.
5- Is there anything you have liked to have known earlier in your path that you know about now?
I benefitted from advice from outside my line manager. Remember that your line managers are learning too and that they may not be up-to-date with the most current advice. Getting external information and bringing this to my supervisor really helped. I would suggest that you find out who will present your case at the internal promotions meeting (in my case it was the ION ECR representative) and speak to them too before applying. You also need to know if there is money to fund your pay increases which may impact your length of contract.
6- What top tips would you pass on to those working at a lower or similar grade, looking to gain promotion?
Make sure every sentence on your application points towards a domain (I used subscripts to make this very clear). Don’t be afraid to include things from a higher grade if you have those abilities/can demonstrate that are achieving those points – again I used subscripts to highlight this). Make sure you use words and phrases from the UCL Academic Careers Framework. Make sure you have had an appraisal in the last 6 months prior to application – an essential requirement. I would also recommend going to the promotion workshops. Getting a mentor from outside your department/research group really helped as well.
7- How useful is the UCL Academic Careers Framework for you and why?
If you know how to use it, it is very useful.
8- Do you feel the current promotion process is fair, transparent and clearly communicated? Why / why not?
Yes, the process is fair. Although I think it can be hard to find information - you have to really look for it but it is all there. What is difficult is if you don’t have support or attention of the line manager. They are busy, so don’t expect them/ rely on them to know everything. One other thing that could be improved is that it would be nice to get feedback from an application particularly if it is unsuccessful.
9- What two things do you feel you need to know now to help you progress to the next stage of your career (to Grade 9)?
I know what to do – I need to get more grant-funding. I’ve already talked to people at higher grades and that is what they said. Senior promotions seem to be less transparent. Perhaps the most mysterious aspect is how you get on the academic track i.e professorial level. I am told that you just get ‘a tap on the shoulder’ and invited to apply when you have got enough get funding (e.g. 10 years continuous funding) etc, but I have not looked into this properly yet.
10- Is there anything else you wish to add that these questions haven’t covered?
No
After having been at UCL for quite a while without actively seeking promotion, I flipped from Research to Teaching as a lifestyle choice and because I like teaching.
2- If you have a ‘five year plan’ or simply a more general career goal, what is it?I’d like to become an Associate Professor but I would also like to return to Research in some form in parallel.
3- Can you give examples of what went into your application in each domain? In your opinion, what was the most influential part of your application?Most of my examples were from Education as this is the Career Track I am following.
- Research: I listed publications & continued involvement in research, supervising postgrad students
- Education: I listed roles on committee including outcomes that have been implemented e.g. introducing peer-peer opportunities for students to discuss work resulted in positive feedback & increased PTES results; Role supporting other members of staff re-tooling for teaching during move to online teaching & staff new to roles such as personal tutors; Quote from a colleague & a student about my performance; SFHEA qualification & Faculty education award; Successfully securing funding from UCL schemes such as ChangeMakers and Connects Learning Studentships obtaining funding to pay students to help to drive programme changes to improve student experience
- Enterprise & External Engagement: None
- Institutional Citizenship: Being a personal tutor for MSc students, IoN mentor for PhD students and ARENA mentor for staff applying for HEA qualifications
As an Early Career Researcher, I should have had my eye on promotion earlier, and not been put off it due to my time out on e.g. maternity leave.
5- What two top tips would you pass on to those working at a lower or similar grade, looking to gain promotion?I really benefitted from engaging in the Arena courses, in particular implementing improvements and measuring impact - these could be included in both my promotion and Arena Fellowship applications. Also, ask colleagues for their examples, use the framework sub-headings to collate your activities and look at the other career streams
6- How useful is the UCL Academic Careers Framework for you and why?Really useful - saw it as a tick-box list to include in an active, working document. It is my tool to get promoted, since activities appear to be additional to my normal role.
7- Do you feel the current promotion process is fair, transparent and clearly communicated? Why / why not?- It would be fairer if there were more indicators of what the "Pass" level, or the decision time was shorter so that there was more time to apply again, with improvements, in the next cycle.
- Departmental and Faculty deadlines were different and this wasn’t clearly communicated. This is improving.
- It's not so clear how many of the criteria must be met, nor which are the most important ones.
- It's not clear why, and seems slightly unfair that the decision process is so long when already promotion appears to lag behind the higher level activities. And the implementation of the promotion lags behind a further three months.
One thing I know now, after having attended IoN training is about having external referees going to Grade 9 who know me for my Teaching - how do I get them. How do I broaden my impact to affect a wider network, not just the department in terms of education and research.
After completing a two year contract at UCL as a post-doc, I was recruited as a Teaching Fellow (Grade 7) in 2008, to be a Course Co-Director for a new MSc programme at 0.5 FTE. I applied for promotion to Senior Teaching Fellow (Grade 8) in 2014 and, in 2016 my hours increased to 0.8 FTE after launching MRes and Distance Learning versions of my programme. In 2020, my role was renamed Lecturer (Teaching) and in the same year I applied for promotion to Associate Professor (Teaching) (Grade 9).
2 - If you have a ‘five year plan’ or simply a more general career goal, what is it?
I enjoy Education, both the practice of it, the design and training and mentoring others who are happy to talk about their research but perhaps have less experience of teaching practice
3 - Can you give examples of what went into your application in each domain? In your opinion, what was the most influential part of your application?
- Research: Optional for Teaching Fellows but I included my Research Activities from before I switched to the Teaching track. As a Senior Teaching Fellow, I contributed to one discipline-specific publication, but am no longer formally attached to a research department.
- Education: As Course Co-Director, I led Curriculum changes and designed new modules and assessment approaches. I won the Provosts Teaching Award (2016) and gained UCL Arena Senior Fellowship (2020)
- Enterprise & External Engagement: I didn’t have anything for this
- Institutional Citizenship: I helped to establish a UCL Queen Square IoN Teaching Fellows Forum as a support network for my colleagues and myself and accepted a number of invitations to join departmental and faculty committees as an active member e.g. Athena SWAN and Faculty Extenuating Circumstances Panel.
4- What aspects of the promotion process concerned you at the time. What information didn’t you have?
I didn’t have a feel for how close my application was in relation to the threshold for success.
5- Is there anything you have liked to have known earlier in your path that you know about now?
Activities at the target level are effectively unseen unless you submit an application – to a large degree, promotion is self-promotion. That putting together a Fellowship or Promotion application is valid work activity and it’s OK to protect time to do this.
6- What two top tips would you pass on to those working at a lower or similar grade, looking to gain promotion?
Attend Arena Fellowship Writing workshops and Promotion workshops and look at other people’s applications for promotion or Arena Fellowship to see how they frame their activities and measure impact. You appear to need a “Pass”, not a “Distinction” in this application so don’t wait until you feel you’re at Distinction level.
7- How useful is the UCL Academic Careers Framework for you and why?
It makes a lot of sense and was helpful as a framework for appraisals in the lead up to promotion application.
8- Do you feel the current promotion process is fair, transparent and clearly communicated? Why / why not?
It would be good if the decision and implementation times were shorter and if there was more clarity about how an applicant’s subsequent spine point related to the strength of their application.
9- What two things do you feel you need to know now to help you progress to the next stage of your career (Grade 10)?
How to design studies in educational research. How to widen my sphere of influence in order to meet criteria for promotion to Grade 10
I am currently a Principal Research Fellow (Grade 9). My work involves using gene therapy in rodents. I was successfully promoted from Grade 8 to grade 9 recently on the Research Track. I will also transfer to the academic track soon at the same grade to Associate Professor as part of a separate promotions process.
2- If you have a ‘five-year plan’ or a more general career goal, what is it?
Over the next 5 years I would like to be a full Professor on the academic track.
3- Can you give examples of what went into your application in each domain? In your opinion, what was the most influential part of your application?
My work involves experiments on rodent models of neurological disease. When I applied for a promotion, I had 8 years of post doc experience (including 2 years as a PI).
- Research & Leadership: 8 senior author papers, 27 publications in total. I had 2 recent very high-impact articles using novel and very generalisable molecular methods in disease. I also completed a UCL senior leadership programme which the Institute nominated me for.
- Grants & Collaboration: In the last 4 years I have been awarded >4M in funding (>2M as PI). This includes intermediate fellowships and an MRC new investigator award (UCL pays half of the salary of the later). I had given >20 international talks in the last 4-5 years. I had many international and national research collaborations.
- Education: I am the module leader of two UCL Masters courses (a lot of hours) and give lectures across a range of courses for the institute (5-6 hours per year). I am a member of the Masters Committee at ION and tutor to 3 MSc students per year. I have been a primary MSc student supervisor for ~15 students over the last 4 years. At the time of application, I employed 4 PhD students, 3 technicians and 4 post docs. I am also involved in numerous other ways including on thesis committees for internal candidates, internal and external mentoring of students.
- Enterprise & External Engagement: I won translational funding from UCL and (~1M) in collaboration with industry. I have done consultancy for industry. I have 1 patent and have helped to set-up a spin out company. In terms of engagement I have written blog articles, helped with fundraising, done interviews, given talks at ‘Pint of Science’ and participated in patient-facing events. I have co-ordinated visiting students from schools.
- Institutional Citizenship: I am part of a UCL-level scientific committee and a board member of the Research Ethics Committee of University Of London. I was heavily involved in Athena Swan activities. I have been a departmental safety officer and have been involved in many interview panels.
The most important part of my application was the grant money! Especially for transferring from the research to the academic track, I had to show that I could bring in money and that I was fundamental for the development of the Institute.
4- What aspects of the promotion process concerned you at the time. What information didn’t you have?
I was not sure how to write the personal statement. I asked other staff that had recently been promoted to help me. There are no real guidelines for this statement – they just say not to repeat what is in your CV.
5- Is there anything you have liked to have known earlier in your path that you know about now?
I was lucky because that I was surrounded by people who were supportive and understood the process. I think it would be easier if the criteria for promotion were clearer and this information was available for all.
6- What top tips would you pass on to those working at a lower or similar grade, looking to gain promotion?
Do a lot of things! You need to show a full rounded and balanced experience in different domains (not just publications for example). You need to have supervised students and be involved in institutional-level activities (committees and courses – show interest in helping your institution). Also, get your department seniors should check your application to make sure you are ready.
7- How useful is the UCL Academic Careers Framework for you and why?
Not so useful because it is not clear, there aren’t many examples. The thresholds between grades aren’t clear either. The document is poorly organised too.
8- Do you feel the current promotion process is fair, transparent and clearly communicated? Why / why not?
Yes, the process is fair if you understand it. Once you apply it is very tough but fair. Probably the most ‘unfair’ part is that many don’t apply because they lack the appropriate information.
9- What two things do you feel you need to know now to help you progress to the next stage of your career (to Grade 10)?
After getting to Grade 9, I have a better understanding of what is needed to get to grade 10. I think, however, reading some examples of applications promoted to Grade 10 would be helpful. Not to compare exactly but just to get the overall gist of what is needed.
10- Is there anything else you wish to add that these questions haven’t covered?
It is very important to speak with senior people in your department – not just your line manager or head of department. They will hopefully look at your application and help you identify what areas you need to work on and when you are ready to apply.