GW4WARD

In line with our institutions’ pledge to the Technician Commitment, GW4 aims to support all our research technical professionals to gain recognition, visibility, and career development opportunities. GW4WARD was our initial initiative designed to drive forward the professional development of our technical staff across GW4.

Much of this work now falls under the X-CITED programme.

Technical staff play a critical role in helping to drive forward our research and innovation programmes. We have around 1300 technical staff across our four institutions, often acting as the linchpin in any University department, operating and maintaining facilities and providing valuable expertise and intellectual input to enable high quality teaching and research.

Our technical staff also played a key role in responding to the COVID-19 crisis, collaborating to provide vital supplies to key workers and the front-line NHS staff, plus maintaining crucial facilities during lockdown.

Our GW4WARD programme of support comprised of the following:

• GW4WARD Collaboration Fund: supported the development of technical staff across the partnership, offering awards up to £500 for collaborative activities across GW4. For example joint workshops, training on equipment, work shadowing, or visits.
• Support for Facilities Management: empowering research managers to develop sustainable management of resources, facilitate equipment sharing for researchers from across GW4, and beyond, and attract funding for new instrumentation to maintain and expand the portfolio in line with evolving research agendas.
• GW4 Technical Staff Webinar Series: GW4 encouraged collaboration and sharing of best practice across the region by bringing together technical staff and external speakers to discuss key topics in a webinar format. The webinar series launched in January 2021, with guest speakers covering topics such as digital skills, professional registration and the Technicians Commitment.