How ResearchComp Can Enhance Researcher Training: CROSS Hosts First Community of Practice Focus Group

On 11 December 2025, the CROSS project hosted its first co-creation event within the emerging ResearchComp Community of Practice. The online focus group, titled “How can ResearchComp enhance researcher training in your institution?”, brought together professionals involved in researcher development, training, HR support, and PhD offices from various research-performing organisations across Europe. During a live demonstration of a prototype ResearchComp-based assessment tool for training programmes developed within the CROSS project, participants provided feedback on how it could support institutional strategy. 

The session provided a collaborative space to reflect on how the ResearchComp framework can be used as a practical tool to support the strategic development and improvement of transversal skills training programmes. Participants exchanged experiences on how competence frameworks are currently embedded in institutional training ecosystems and discussed opportunities and challenges for aligning existing programmes with ResearchComp.

A key message emerging from the discussion was that ResearchComp is most valuable as a shared reference and mapping tool. Participants highlighted its usefulness for making transversal skills visible, fostering dialogue across institutional roles, and supporting strategic reflection on training portfolios, gaps, and priorities. Several participants emphasized that the framework can help align course content with institutional priorities and support long-term planning of training portfolios.

At the same time, participants underlined several challenges related to implementation. These included the need for contextual adaptation across career stages and disciplines, questions around institutional buy-in, and concerns about overly prescriptive uses of the framework or its application as a checklist tool. Several participants also stressed that most competence development takes place through research practice and peer exchange rather than formal courses, reinforcing the importance of using ResearchComp flexibly and strategically.

Because ResearchComp is currently available only in English, some organisations noted difficulties in introducing it broadly among researchers. Participants also observed that especially early-career researchers may feel overwhelmed by the framework and could benefit from simplified, more user-friendly tools to help them reflect on and plan their skills development. Mentoring was suggested as a crucial mechanism supporting competence development alongside formal training.

The focus group confirmed strong interest in continuing this exchange through a Community of Practice and similar co-creation activities. Participants expressed a clear appetite for sharing concrete examples, partial implementations, and lessons learned, while remaining cautious about standardisation or benchmarking practices. The insights gathered will directly feed into the ResearchComp roadmap currently being developed within the project.

Further workshops in 2026 will build on these discussions, exploring institutional needs in more depth and supporting peer learning on how ResearchComp can be meaningfully translated into researcher training contexts.

If you’re passionate about developing researchers’ skills, join the growing ResearchComp Community of Practice and help shape its next steps together with us.

• Project acronym: CROSS
• Project name: Career Management Services for European Talents
• Coordinator of the project: UTC Prague
• Project number: 101216919
• Partners: The University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), EIT Food, Tamlink, Bantani Education (Bantani), The Heyrovský Institute (HIPC), Charles University (CU), FECYT, The Cyprus Institute (CyI)
• Associated partners: Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), University of Tampere (TAU), TU Dresden (TU Dresden)

Disclaimer: Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.