PRISM launches its new strategy
The UK network for Professional Research Investment and Strategy Managers (PRISM) has launched its 2026–30 strategy, setting out planned work on career progression, job security and recognition for those working in the delivery of large research investments.
The network has grown rapidly over the last few years – its strategy notes that by mid-2026 it had 1,250 members representing more than 140 research organisations in the UK.
Career development and progression is one of the main themes of the new strategy – a membership survey last year saw only 20 per cent of respondents say that they had opportunities to progress in their career via PRISM roles. The network is one of the co-leads of the Research Professional Futures project, the £4.5m Research England-funded initiative to improve the visibility, recognition, training and career pathways for those working in research professional roles.
PRISM’s objective, following the outcomes of the project which runs until 2029, is for more than 100 research-performing organisations in the UK to have adopted a national career framework relevant to its members and other research professionals.
Recognition and influence is another theme in the strategy – PRISM intends to work with funders, institutions and sector bodies to embed its members’ roles “explicitly and consistently in policy, funding processes and organisational practice.”
Its 2025 membership survey also saw 52 per cent of respondents report that they were employed on fixed-term contracts – PRISM observes that this appears to be a reduction compared to previous surveys, but is “concerned” that the figures masks an increase in recruitment to project-funded and other roles which “takes place to an open-ended permanent contract, where funding is only guaranteed to a certain date, but which may ultimately confer the same level of precarity as a fixed-term contract.”
It is suggested that a key means of reducing precarity in PRISM and other research professional roles could well be greater use of “pooled” approaches to staffing, where a central mechanism enables redeployment of staff to suitable new projects once funding ends.