Staff that are in the SRP are long-service UCD research staff who are experienced and highly skilled, and who are currently unassigned and unfunded. As such, they must be considered first for any suitable externally funded position prior to any external advertising being approved.

There are many parties responsible for the effective operation of the SRP. These roles and their respective responsibilities are laid out in detail in the Skilled Resource Pool Policy. Each College will manage their own SRP locally with support from UCD HR.

The Principal Investigator (PI) managing the researcher at the time the CID was issued will retain responsibility for the management of the researcher throughout the Skilled Resource Pool process and onto other suitable research work. This responsibility will re-apply whenever the researcher returns to the SRP on completion of a funded assignment. The responsible PI will be supported by the Head of School, HR Partner, Finance Manager and College Principal in this process. When assigning Staff into and out of the SRP, the PI should use the SRP Form on the HR Forms page.

No. Each time the researcher comes to the end of an assignment the cycle will commence again and the responsible PI (who was managing the researcher when the CID was issued) will be responsible for their further successful assignment. This responsibility will continue indefinitely unless/until the researcher secures an alternative core-funded role through the normal competitive process, and could involve several re-assignment processes over a number of years.

Your primary responsibility is to have the staff member successfully assigned to a suitable externally-funded research project at the earliest possible time.

Your secondary responsibility is to ensure that they have an appropriate place to work and have agreed activities which they can undertake. These should be agreed with the Head of School and may include activities to support the School’s research objectives, the researcher’s own portfolio of research or to help with their re-assignment e.g. completion of papers, supporting grant applications.

You will be unable to advertise any similar vacancies until such time as this researcher is assigned to a suitable externally-funded project.

In accordance with university policy you will be unable to advertise any similar vacancies until such time as this researcher is assigned to a suitable externally-funded project.

You must first review the profiles of the research staff in the College SRP to assess their suitability in relation to your vacancy. This is done through the on line e-Recruit system on the Work at UCD site. If there is only one potential match you should contact that person directly to further discuss their suitability. If there are multiple potential candidates, then you should arrange to discuss the assignment with the potential staff. You will be required to complete an interview score sheet for each staff member to document the basis of your selection decision. Ideally an appointment will follow for the duration of the funding.( link to e-Recruit system)

You send an email to (opens in a new window)hrhelpesk@ucd.ie and access and related instructions will be sent to you within 4 hours.

The mechanism which has been put in place to provide access to the details of any staff in the SRP at any given time are designed to ensure that you can move swiftly to make an initial assessment and then on to a discussion or interview as appropriate.

If you have carried out an initial review of potential candidates within the SRP and this process has not provided a suitable candidate then you must confirm this fact on the Research Authorisation Form, and then forward it to UCD HR for advertising as per the normal guidelines. This form continues to require the approval/agreement of your Head of School.

Any shortfall between the existing salary of the researcher in the SRP and that available for a new post will be charged to the budget of the school that the researcher is permanently attached to. It is not possible to reduce the salary of the researcher and salary variations should not be a barrier to an otherwise suitable assignment.

In a small number of cases and where the salary differential is more than 10%, please arrange to discuss the matter with your HR Partner.

Yes, the staff member can move from the SRP onto an assignment with an increased salary if the funding has come about either through their own direct or indirect efforts i.e. they secure the funding directly themselves or are a named collaborator on a successful application. In such cases their salary may be increased in line with that provided for in the grant for the duration of their assignment to the project. A secondment contract will be issued and which they sign indicating their understanding of the temporary nature of the secondment and that they will automatically revert to their substantive (CID) terms, including salary, at the end of the secondment.

The researcher will remain on their employment terms and conditions that they were on when they received their contract of indefinite duration.

Staff that are in the SRP must be considered first when it comes to relevant vacancies in their college should be considered by hiring PIs before any external hiring can be considered.