Capacity building in practice: how involving early career researchers in research awards can contribute to their development

Capacity building is a key objective of the UK Research Councils. Although poorly defined, capacity building is typically presented as enabling junior researchers to develop skills to facilitate future careers in research. Research Council documentation commonly discusses capacity building in principle, but it is often unclear how this is to be realised in practice. In this research note, junior researchers suggest several ways in which being associated with grant applications and awards can aid capacity building. They describe how the inclusion of junior researchers at all stages of the grant process can provide opportunities for gaining experience and learning through practice. While suggesting means of capacity building, challenging employment prospects in research should not be ignored, as is too often the case in Research Council literature. This note, therefore, concludes by asking how job creation relates to ideals of capacity building.