Technician Commitment

LSTM is proud to be a signatory of the national Technician Commitment, championing visibility, recognition, career development, and sustainability of our technical staff.

At LSTM, technicians are defined as staff who are trained in techniques, equipment, or technologies that are necessary to deliver the aims of a research project. This includes roles that contribute to maintenance and development of the environment, resources, and facilities; as well as those working directly on the practical application of the research project

We support our LSTM technicians in accordance with the four key areas of the Technician Commitment. Read our Technician Commitment Action Plan 2024-2027.

  • Visibility: our objective is that ll technicians across LSTM are clearly identified and celebrated, online and in person. We will do this with up-to-date profiles and feature technician-led innovations on our website. Our technical staff are well-embedded in committees across LSTM, ensuring their voice is heard in strategic decisions. Beyond LSTM, we have strengthened ties with technical groups through the North West Technician Network to enable knowledge exchange and collaboration opportunities.
  • Recognition: LSTM has been sponsoring annual Technician Appreciation Day since 2022 as a way for the wider staff to understand the hard work and importance of technicians. We actively support technicians with external awards with success at the THE Awards and more recent success at the highly distinguished Papin awards.. Our inclusive publication and grant policies ensure technicians can be authors and presenters, and we encourage conference attendance, with budgets and mentoring to help them shine.
  • Career development: The number of senior technician roles at LSTM increased by 125% between 2019 and 2024. Our HR teams provide tailored guidance on regrading, and salary benchmarking, and we share case studies of technical career progression to inspire junior and senior technicians alike.
  • Sustainability: We are reviewing approaches toward building shared technical platforms to create career opportunities and improve the retention of technical staff and have an ambition to create a technical lead role.