Technicians and technical staff are fundamental to university life. They enable teaching, research and outreach activities.
As a partnership founded on supporting research excellence, Midlands Innovation recognises that ensuring recognition and opportunity for its technical community helps us to achieve our aims.
Championing the role of technicians
Midlands Innovation universities have more than 2100 technical staff working in their institutions. Since 2015 Midlands Innovation has embarked on a programme of activities designed to increase the visibility of our technical workforce, to recognise its excellence and think about collaboratively around supporting career development.
Technician Committment
The Technician Commitment is a sector-wide initiative led by the Science Council and supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s 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. All eight members of Midlands Innovation were founding signatories of the Technician Commitment in 2017.
TALENT Programme
In 2020, Midlands Innovation launched the TALENT programme in collaboration with key stakeholder and industry partners. TALENT is a project which leads and influences change to advance status and opportunity for technical skills, roles and careers in UK higher education and research.
