The Staff Development Forum aims to recognise and celebrate outstanding staff development individuals or teams.
The SDF Developing Excellent Practice Award reflects the 2025 Festival of Learning and Development’s overarching theme of Facing the Future, Shaping the Now.
We are delighted to announce that this year we have 5 finalists – University College London, Coleg, Coleg Sir Gâr Coleg Ceredigion, University of Cambridge, Institute of Cancer Research and University of Chester
Presentation to the winners will be made on Tuesday 11th November at 2:00 pm by AdvanceHE during Sarah Hubbard’s keynote at the SDF Festival of Learning and Development.
This year we received a total of 15 submissions for the Developing Excellent Practice Awards. We’d like to thank the nominated institutions for their submissions. Find out a bit more about them here.
Congratulations to:
University College London
- Project Name: Trailblazing Technical Excellence Establishing the ‘Technical Skills Development Hub – TSDH’ as a Sector Benchmark for Inclusive Development
- Name of nominee(s): Isabel Goncalves Cattuzzo – Technical Skills Development Hub Manager; Mike Brown – Executive Director of Research Technology Platforms and Institutional Lead; Our work is highly collaborative, drawing on the expertise of the Technical Managers Group (TMG) and dedicated People in the Research and Innovation Technology (PRIT) Group
Coleg Sir Gâr Coleg Ceredigion
- Project Name: AI Enhancement, Not Replacement Embedding Confidence, Curiosity, and Ethical AI Practice across our Workforce
- Name of nominee(s): Bryony Evett Hackfort – Director of Learning, Teaching, Technology; Amanda Daniels – Vice Principal for Curriculum and Quality; Jess Evans – Heading of Teaching, Learning and Education; Olivia Sills – Innovation Lead; there are many others that have played a part in this project and have been instrumental in making this cultural shift possible!
University of Cambridge
- Project Name: Communities of Practice – Unifying the University
- Name of nominee(s): Katherine Lawrence – Organisational Development Consultant; Rachel Machon – Head of Learning and Organisational Development; Freya Villis – Organisational Development Consultant
Institute of Cancer Research
- Project Name: IgnitePLUS – A cross organisational tailored development programme for service-oriented technical managers
- Name of nominee(s): Aline Tabib-Salazar – Programme Manager (Technician Career Pathways); Barbara Villarejo-Balcells – Research Development Coordinator; Neil Walford – Deputy Director of Organisational Development; Amelia Kowalewska – Science Training Advisor (The Francis Crick Institute); Isabel Goncalves Cattuzzo – Technical Skills Development Hub Manager (University College London); Gursimran Oberoi – Researcher Development Consultant (King’s College London)
University of Chester
- Project Name: An institution-wide approach to reimagining the curriculum
- Name of nominee(s): Dr. Claire Stocks – Head of Academic Practice and Development; Prof. Jackie Potter – Dean of CAID; Laura Milne – Head of Digital Education; Prof. Ruth Healey – University Innovation Fellow; Dr. Katharine Welsh – University Innovation Fellow; Dr. Michaela Borg – Senior Academic Development Advisor; Joan Martin – Human Resources; Designers of the process and the facilitation team also included colleagues from the Senior Leadership Team of the University (Academic Registrar, DVC, Dean of Quality), CAID, Academic Services, Library and Information Services (LIS), Academic Skills (ASK), Careers and Employability; Colleagues from the University of Hull; the University of South Wales and Southern Cross University
Kind regards
Dr Rossana Gent – Chair
Staff Development Forum (SDF)