DIRECT, the Digital Research Competencies Framework, is a community-led initiative that provides a shared language for the skills, competencies, and career pathways of digital research professionals. It is designed to support individuals, teams, institutions, and funders in recognising, developing, and sustaining the digital expertise that underpins modern research. Digital research roles are increasingly central to research excellence, yet career pathways, training provision, and workforce planning remain fragmented. Existing skills frameworks often fail to reflect the realities of digital research work, particularly for research software engineers and the wider community of digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTPs). DIRECT addresses this gap by offering an open, evolving competency framework, supported by role profiles, mapped training resources, and an open-source web tool.
Use the skills and competencies framework in DIRECT Web tool.
The project is divided into two technical sub-projects with distinct set of activities:
- DIRECT skills and competencies framework schema and data definitions
- DIRECT Web application - Django webapp to enable practical use of the framework (the Web tool), browsing the skills and competencies, self-assessment and creation of individual skill profiles as “competency wheels”, comparing profiles across a team, defining template skills for different dRTP roles, etc.
Digital research is now fundamental to almost all areas of research, from data-intensive science to computational humanities. Alongside this growth has been the emergence of specialist roles such as research software engineers, data managers, stewards and scientists, research and digital technologists, and other digital Research Technical Professionals.
Despite their importance, these roles often lack:
- Shared language for skills and competencies
- Alignment between training provision and role expectations
- Existence within university and research institutions’ job structures
- Clear and consistent career pathways
- Recognition within institutional and funding structures
Existing skills and competency frameworks tend to be discipline-specific, academically focused, or designed for commercial engineering contexts. As a result, they often fail to capture the hybrid, collaborative, and evolving nature of digital research work. This creates challenges for individuals seeking progression, for managers supporting development, and for institutions planning strategically.
DIRECT exists to address this structural gap.
DIRECT is a competency framework designed specifically for digital research contexts.
At its core, DIRECT consists of:
- A structured set of digital research competencies, organised into thematic areas
- Scales that describe progression and depth of expertise
- Reference role profiles illustrating how competencies combine in practice
- Mappings to training and development resources
- An open-source web application that enables interaction with the framework
DIRECT is intended to support reflection, planning, and development. It is not designed as a performance management or accreditation system, although it may inform those processes where appropriate.
The framework is deliberately flexible. It can be used at individual, team, institutional, or sector level, and is designed to evolve as digital research practices change.
DIRECT sits within a complex ecosystem of skills frameworks, professional standards, and training initiatives spanning academia, research infrastructure, and professional bodies.
Rather than replacing existing frameworks, DIRECT is designed to complement them by:
- Focusing specifically on digital research roles and practices
- Bridging individual development and institutional strategy
- Providing a community-owned, adaptable structure
- Enabling mapping and interoperability with other frameworks
DIRECT aligns with national and international priorities around digital skills, research sustainability, and workforce development. It provides a practical layer that connects high-level policy ambitions with day-to-day research practice.
See our Code of Conduct.
See our vision statement.
See our short and longer-term roadmaps.
DIRECT supports a wide range of stakeholders.
- Reflect on current skills and experience
- Identify strengths and development areas
- Plan training and career progression
- Support appraisals and development conversations
- Identify skills gaps within teams
- Plan recruitment and role development
- Develop consistent role profiles and career pathways
- Inform workforce and training strategies
- Support equality, diversity, and inclusion through transparent expectations
- Align training provision with real-world needs
- Identify gaps in existing provision
- Support targeted investment in digital skills
DIRECT is governed through open, community-led working groups with clear remits and transparent decision-making processes. See our detailed governance process, including:
The DIRECT project produces different types of content which are all licensed differently. For details, see our LICENSE document.
See current and past project contributors.
See the contributing guidelines.
Read a more detailed history of the project and how it evolved.
- Internal Google drive folder with various documents, presentations, etc.
- Collaborations Workshop 23 Hack Day
If you'd like to get in touch with the project team - email us at direct-framework@googlegroups.com.
We also use #direct-framework channel under the RSE Community Slack (ukrse.slack.com).
The initial version of this project was created during the Software Sustainability Institute Collaborations Workshop 2023 (CW23) Hack Day. Subsequent development was guided by a number of unconference sessions and contributions by RSE and dRTP community members during RSECon23, RSECon24 and CW25 and various other community engagement events and workshops.
This work is in part supported by the DisCouRSE Network+, which received funding through the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure Programme.
We sometimes use AI tools to assist with our work, under the strict editorial control and factual verification of the human author. We are happy to discuss our use of AI technologies.
