Why did we create the Interdisciplinary Centre for Staff Development?

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In 2020, we created the Interdisciplinary Centre for Staff Development at the University of Silesia in Katowice and launched a research and implementation project, funded by the Ministry of Education and Science, called “ICRK – think tank for the development of key competencies of future personnel for Polish science.”

The aim of the project was to develop a concept for the development of key competencies of research staff and administrative support staff of the science and higher education sector in Poland, which can contribute to strengthening the position of domestic universities on the international arena.

On the one hand, the development of research excellence of scientists should be supported by good management practices of the science and higher education sector and related staff. On the other – the development of new solutions in this area must be based on an understanding of the needs of scientific staff and professional administrative services.

These two assumptions became the basis of the tools designed within the framework of the project, which deal with, among other things, monitoring the development of scientific staff and administrative support staff, taking into account the improvement of the recruitment process, evaluation design, issues related to motivation or the study of training needs.

We analyzed the functioning of research teams and the work of leaders, and effective tools will be disseminated to support the strengthening of the position of Polish universities in the world and the pursuit of research excellence in the broadest sense.

Cooperation with Polish and foreign universities and external experts was undertaken. 10 research universities participated in the project:

  • Warsaw University
  • Gdansk University of Technology
  • Stanisław Staszic University of Science and Technology in Cracow
  • Warsaw University of Technology
  • Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
  • Jagiellonian University
  • Medical University of Gdansk
  • Silesian University of Technology
  • Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
  • University of Wroclaw

represented by 190 research staff and 95 support staff.

As part of the project, we developed:

a model of key competencies of research staff and administrative support staff,

tools and indicators for measuring and analyzing competencies, including online tools,

recommendations for the development of key competencies of the cadres.

The project also included tools for researching the competencies of university employees and publications as research reports on the competencies of Polish scientists and support staff.

In future posts on this site we will present our achievements and research results, publications and speeches at conferences, interviews with specialists in competence management.

If you want to explore your research competencies, use the free and anonymous online tools. If you want to use our knowledge in managing your university with competencies, contact us.