Principal Investigators and research leaders

Training and support for staff who act as Principal Investigators (PIs) and research leaders.

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We provide training and support for all University of Edinburgh Principal Investigators (PIs) and research leaders. Our offer focuses on helping you develop research leadership skills and competencies in areas such as managing yourself and your career, leading and managing people and teams, leading and managing in complexity, and your role in building positive research environments.

Explore the various research leadership development opportunities below.

To understand if this training and support is relevant to you, our working definition of who is a Principal Investigator (PI) is:

A Principal Investigator is a staff member who is responsible for the intellectual leadership and overall management of a research project, who may lead or manage individuals or teams.

This definition encompasses a wide range of people in research and focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the person rather than their career stage, funding status or formal titles.

To read more about how we define a PI, read our blog on “Who is a PI?” 


Research Leader Programme

For new Principal Investigators and research leaders at the University of Edinburgh who want to build positive cultures and support individuals and teams to develop.

Participative Leadership Training (Deep Democracy)

Training course for University of Edinburgh research and academic staff to increase research leaders' capacity to work within complex social systems by helping them understand relationship and group dynamics, by offering practical tools for working with differences in a group and making effective decisions, and by increasing their conflict literacy to lean into difficult conversations skillfully.

Self-paced leadership resources

Explore curated online resources to develop your research leadership at your own pace.

Other leadership and management programmes and resources

For an overview of other leadership and management programmes at the University, or other relevant self-paced online resources both internal and external, please visit our Research Staff Hub where all opportunities across the institution and more widely are listed.

Go to Research Staff Hub: Resources for managers of researchers

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