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The team behind the Digital Research Competencies (DIRECT) Framework has announced the release of version 2.0.0, a significant update to its open, community-driven framework designed to support skills development, career progression, and workforce planning in digital research.
This release also marks the third anniversary of the DIRECT project, which began at the Software Sustainability Institute’s Collaborations Workshop in 2023.
The DIRECT Framework provides a structured way to classify and describe both technical and non-technical skills used across a wide range of roles in research and academia, including Research Software Engineers (RSEs), data professionals, research leaders, and digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTP) and specialists.
While the project is largely a voluntary and community effort, we gratefully acknowledge support of UKRI’s DisCouRSE NetworkPlus and Software Sustainability Institute.
A Shared Language for Digital Research Skills
Version 2.0.0 strengthens the framework’s core mission: to create a shared language for skills, competencies, and professional development across the digital research ecosystem.
The framework organises:
- Skills as observable and assessable abilities
- Competencies as integrated sets of skills (knowledge, and behaviours)
- Competency domains as high-level thematic groupings
The framework also connects skills with tools, methodologies, and learning resources, helping users move from identifying skills to actively developing them.
This structure enables individuals and organisations to better understand capability, plan training, and align roles with required expertise.
Community-Driven and Open
The DIRECT Framework is an open and collaborative initiative, developed with input from the UK and global research software and digital research community. Contributions from workshops, conferences, and community engagement activities have shaped the framework’s evolution and ensured it reflects real-world practice.
The project welcomes contributions from researchers, RSEs, data professionals, and others interested in shaping the future of digital research skills.
Practical Applications
The framework can be used to:
- Support individual professional development and career planning
- Enable skills profiling and visualisation (e.g. competency or skill wheels)
- Inform training programmes and curriculum design
- Guide organisational workforce planning and role definition
A companion web application enables users to explore the framework, create skill profiles, and compare competencies across roles and teams.
Availability
Version 2.0.0 of the DIRECT Framework is now available for use at directframework.com.
The framework’s dataset is released under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) licence, enabling broad reuse and adaptation.
Contact
DIRECT Team: direct-framework@googlegroups.com
