National Research Infrastructure Workforce Survey

Importance of the Research Infrastructure Workforce

National research infrastructure (NRI) comprises a range of nationally significant assets, facilities and services that support leading-edge research and innovation. The 2021 NRI Roadmap emphasised that NRI is more than instruments and devices: it is also the highly skilled workforce that support both the equipment and the researchers that use it. NRI is underpinned by an increasingly specialised workforce that need job security and opportunities for career mobility and professional development. Without these opportunities, the ability to attract and retain technical staff is hindered, which adversely impacts the quality of research output in Australia. One of the key priorities of the NRI Advisory Group is the development of a NRI Workforce Strategy to support career pathways, address technical skills shortages and identify capability gaps.

Workforce was a prominent theme of the International Conference on Research Infrastructure 2024 (ICRI 2024), hosted by Australia. The conference culminated in the Brisbane Statement, which encourages all Research Infrastructure (RI) stakeholders to actively consider the role of RIs in addressing global challenges, and how strengthening international RI collaborations can help solve them. The statement highlighted the importance of RI staff and the need for RI workforce to be supported with career pathways, recognition of their achievements, and positive employment and workplace conditions. 

The 2022 Research Infrastructure Specialist Position Paper emphasised the need for the system to better recognise the important function of research infrastructure specialists, in order to continue to attract, retain and reward the talent required to maximise our national research infrastructure ecosystem. It outlined the opportunities and challenges in recognising research infrastructure specialists in traditional academic staffing classifications, and considered options for addressing these, with a particular focus on developing a new classification that recognised the unique skills and roles of these specialist positions. Several institutions, including major universities, have since created classifications or other tools to help address the issue, however this is not universal and there is more work to be done. 

What feedback are we asking for? 

We are looking for feedback from the research community to test our draft themes in NRI Workforce needs. We identified these draft themes and trends based on initial consultations with the research and innovation community and are now seeking to hear from a broad range of stakeholders whether these themes reflect the sector’s needs.    

The draft themes are listed below.  

How will we use your feedback?  

In the first instance, your feedback will inform the 2025 Investment Plan in response to the 2025 NCRIS guidelines.  The 2025 NRI Investment Plan will provide initial funding to address smaller-scale priority needs within the NRI workforce or larger-scale priority needs that may draw from the NDRI, TRI or ECRI step changes.  

The outcomes of this consultation may also inform:  

• the development of the 2026 NRI Roadmap  
• potential future investment in subsequent investment plans.  

Themes for the NRI Workforce

Academy for Collaborative Research Infrastructure  

The Academy for Collaborative Research Infrastructure (ACRI) is a not-for-profit company established to act as the principal voice of the RI workforce in Australia and the region. The purpose of ACRI is to educate, train and develop, and advocate for its members. It aims to achieve this by assisting the network of research organisations to collaborate, providing professional development opportunities, coordinating information resources, and advocating for systemic changes in the research infrastructure workforce ensuring that reward and recognition of the contributions made by technical staff translate into equitable and clear career paths.

ACRI was independently established in 2024 to address a critical gap in the support and recognition of RI specialists within the higher education and research sectors. These professionals, who blend technical expertise with essential business and customer service skills, are vital to advancing research. Yet, traditional career paths in academia sometimes fail to acknowledge their unique contributions, leading to challenges in career progression and talent retention. ACRI is the platform that can coordinate efforts to support the career progression of these individuals and create a culture change within institutions to support the NRI workforce.

The Technicians Commitment  

The Technician Commitment is an example of a whole of sector approach to improve support for technical staff working in higher education. It is a university and research institution initiative, led by a steering board of sector bodies, hosted by the UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy. The Commitment has had success in ensuring visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability of skills for technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines. This is a multi-faceted effort that involves coordination of the sector’s employers and funders to improve employment and support for technical staff.

The initiative acts as a conduit for organisations to share mentoring platforms, professional development pathways and highlight outstanding technicians. By signing on as a member, each institution pledges action against the challenges facing their technical staff. It is a requirement that each member institution nominates a lead that champions the commitment on the institution’s behalf. These individuals are supported with an online resource and national events where they can share experiences and best practice. This has created a network of technical staff in the UK and has unlocked significant investment into Technician Commitment activities.

A potential approach to addressing some of the workforce challenges is to establish the Technicians Commitment in Australia. This could include the recruitment of a dedicated team to work closely with the UK team to define the Technician Commitment in Australia, outline its scope, mission and messaging. The University of Sydney is already signed up to the UK Technician Commitment. 

Research Infrastructure Fellowships

Many stakeholders have expressed support for a potential fellowship scheme for NRI staff. Such a scheme could provide a mechanism to build and retain new skill sets within NCRIS projects, and facilitate career progression for staff. Similar schemes exist internationally, such as Global Bioimaging’s job shadowing program in Europe, which has just been refunded by the European Union due to its initial success. Global Bioimaging provides technical and managerial staff of imaging core facilities with the opportunity to experience life in a peer imaging facility abroad and learn from their peers. Some projects in Australia also provide similar staff exchange opportunities such as Microscopy Australia, the Australian National fabrication Facility, Nuclear Science Facilities, and Heavy Ion Accelerators.

An NRI Fellowship Scheme could be an opportunity for Australia to develop new capabilities in cutting edge techniques. It would provide time for staff to develop new capabilities by sending staff to other research infrastructure facilities in Australia, to facilities overseas to train on a new technique to bring back to Australia, or by attracting overseas staff to facilities in Australia. Another potential benefit of a fellowship program is increased retention of skilled staff by providing new and interesting opportunities. Consideration would need to be given to the length of fellowships and how to ensure that early and mid-career staff are competitive in securing these. Other considerations include:

• Who would administer the scheme
• What the scheme would fund (i.e. eligible expenses)
• Eligibility criteria
• Assessment criteria for selecting successful applications
• Levels of co-investment expected or required from employers 
• Sponsorships