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. 2025 Mar 13:17449871241307139.
doi: 10.1177/17449871241307139. Online ahead of print.

Articulating your research focus via a capability statement: professional development for early career researchers

Amy-Louise Byrne  1 , Shannon Dhollande  2 , Pauline Calleja  3
Affiliations

Articulating your research focus via a capability statement: professional development for early career researchers

Amy-Louise Byrne et al. J Res Nurs. .

Abstract

Background: A programme of research (PoR) is a cohesive and succinct expression of a researcher's area of interest, capturing their passions and commitments, as well as their capabilities. A PoR takes the form of a series of related research projects with a specific focus on a knowledge gap, related to the researcher's discipline. One way in which a PoR can be supported is through the articulation of a clear research aim and capability statement.

Aims: This paper aims to provide early career researchers (ECRs) with a process to develop their own capability statements, providing examples from a professional development activity undertaken by the authors.

Results: This paper provides a five-step process for researchers to develop their own capability statement and gives examples and prompts to support this.

Conclusion and contribution to nursing: Reflections on the value of this process are provided, demonstrating a gap in current ECR processes in articulating their own capabilities.

Keywords: academic; early career researchers; professional development; research; research capability statement.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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