To promote the interests of researchers within the university and in so doing to create a working environment which encourages excellence in research and serves to attract and retain high quality researchers.
Mission Statement
The South East Technological University Research Staff Forum advocates the creation of a working environment that encourages excellence in research and serves to attract and retain high quality researchers. The South East Technological University Research Staff Forum envisages being actively involved in further enhancing and strengthening research within the university and contributing to putting in place, a career structure for Career Researchers. It will also serve as a platform to allow the voice of Career Researchers to be heard in the university's policy-making process.
SETU Waterford's Research Staff Forum (RSF) is the representative staff forum for all research active staff across the university, from early stage postdoctoral researchers to long serving research staff. The SETU Waterford RSF upholds and promotes the interests of researchers at an individual and collective level. The primary function of the SETU Waterford RSF is to promote the interests of researchers within the university and in so doing to create a working environment which encourages excellence in research and serves to attract and retain high quality researchers.
The SETU Waterford RSF is a recognised staff forum within the university and is represented on the Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Committee. The Forum is a researcher-led group that represent the interests of the research community in a range of activities, such as interactions with institutional management and administration, informing institutional policy, facilitating the organisation of training activities or career development sessions for researchers and providing support for researchers.
The SETU Waterford RSF was established to represent a rapidly growing category of staff in the university, who previously had limited avenues by which to make their views known within the university. Career researchers in particular have a distinctive status, where employment and career development depend to a great extent on their own ability to secure research funding. In conjunction with the Human Resource Strategy for Researchers and SETU Waterford’s HRS4Rs Action Plan, the SETU Waterford RSF aims to enhance the employment conditions of research staff; remove traditional barriers restricting the potential of researchers within higher education institutions and integrate researchers fully within the wider academic community. All research active staff in SETU Waterford are encouraged to join the RSF.