CEDARS

The Culture, Employment and Development in Academic Research Survey (CEDARS) has been developed to align with the Principles of the revised Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, commonly known as the Researcher Development Concordat.

CEDARS is a single, experience survey that is targeted at both researchers and managers of researchers and replaces the previous Careers Research Online Survey (CROS) and Principal Investigators & Research Leaders Survey (PIRLS).

CEDARS is managed and supported by Vitae, which is a programme to support the career development of researchers run by the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited.

Frequently Asked Questions

We’re keen to make sure that Researchers have the best possible experience while working at the University of Wolverhampton. To do that we need to know what you think we are doing well and what we can do better. If you’re thinking about taking part this year, these are the answers to some of the questions research staff often ask:

Who will receive the survey?

The primary audiences for CEDARS are research staff and managers of researchers. This includes research-only staff, staff with significant responsibility for research, Deans, ADs Research and Heads of School.

When does CEDARS run?   

CEDARS runs from 16 April - 25 June 2021.

How will CEDARS be carried out?

The national survey is carried out by the Research Policy Unit and the questionnaire hosted on the JISC Online surveys platform.

On 14 April, all eligible staff will receive a launch email from Jill Morgan, Research Integrity Manager that will contain the link to the survey.

This will be followed up by reminders throughout the survey period. Please note that due to data protection, and measures to ensure confidentiality & anonymity (see details) it is not possible to identify which staff have, or haven't completed the survey, so reminders will not be targeted.

How long does it take to complete the survey?

The survey is very simple to answer and will take about 20 minutes of your time.

What will be asked?

CEDARS includes questions relating to the three Concordat Principles and covers the research culture, working conditions and professional development.

Why should I take part?

CEDARS provides a valuable source of information for the University of Wolverhampton. In particular it:

  • informs policy and practice in researchers’ employment, management and career development
  • progress measures over time and confidential comparisons with national results
  • helps those concerned with researcher development to plan their interventions
  • provides benchmarking for measuring progress in implementation of the Concordat, achieving and maintaining the HR Excellence in Research Award and Athena SWAN, and submission of the REF Research Environment.
  • provides UoW with the opportunity to compare our institutional results with the UK aggregate.
Data protection and Freedom of Information (FoI)

Data and results from individual institutions, as well as overall data and results, will be stored securely by JISC. Under Data Protection Act 1998 JISC will meet Data Processor requirements. The University of Wolverhampton will be the Data Controller and data storage is in compliance with The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

How do we ensure anonymity and confidentiality?

The rights of the respondent for anonymity and confidentiality are critically important and therefore no names or individual identifiers will be collected. The individual responses are confidential to the Research Policy Unit and only aggregate data will be supplied to Faculties so no-one will be able to identify you from any results.

The survey asks that any comments you make should not identify yourself or any specific members of staff. The Research Policy Unit will screen qualitative comments prior to any dissemination or publication of the results to ensure they reveal neither the identity of respondents nor that of others, even by implication.

Data and results from individual institutions

No body, other than the University, JISC or the research and development function of CRAC, will have access to the University of Wolverhampton’s data or results, or is permitted to identify or publish those data or results, without our prior consent. Data from individual institutions will not be released by CRAC, Vitae, the Steering Group or its agents to any third party.

When will the data will be available?

The UK aggregate data for benchmarking will be available after all the surveys are closed and Online Surveys has pulled all the institutional datasets together. The analysis of the UK aggregate results is usually published in an annual report at the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference.

More information?

For more information about CEDARS please contact Jill Morgan, Research Policy Unit on 01902 518769 or by email: j.morgan4@wlv.ac.uk

Visit the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers webpage for more information about implementation at the University of Wolverhampton.