S U P P O R T I N G P R O F E S S I O N A L I S M

SUM IT UP

Evaluation is not exactly everyone's cup

of tea but changes are afoot and new

methods could signal fewer headaches

BRIGHT S IDE

The industrial strategy has credible

prospects for the humanities and,

delivered carefully, may provide

salvation in several areas of research

LOST IN SPAIN

Research management doesn't always

have an equivalent profession in other

countries as our Spanish correspondent

explains

ISSUE 9 Spring 2 0 1 9

NEVER MIND BREXIT

HERE’S SOME

rESearCh oPtim

ism

The

The PR

OTA

GO

NIS

T Supporting Professionalism

ISSN

2397-1665Issue 9 Spring 20

19 www.arm

a.ac.uk

NO

emeraldrealimpact.comrealworldimpact@emeraldgroup.com

YES

YES

NO

IMPACT HEALTHY?Are you

IMPACT HEALTHY?

@emeraldglobal EmeraldPublishing EmeraldPublishing emeraldpublishing

Whatever your answer is, we have a range of tools and resources available that

can help you and your institution make a difference in the real world.

Visit stand 16 at ARMA 2019 to find out more.

NOT SURE

I THINK

SO

No 1

T H E P R O TA G O N I S TT H E P R O TA G O N I S T

W E L C O M ET O T H E 9 T H I S S U E O F

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T !

As I enter my final furlong as chair of ARMA I have been reflecting on what

we have achieved, what else we can deliver and how I will be supporting the chair elect. I officially step down in June 2020, but the new incumbent will be announced in June 2019, enabling them to shadow me in preparation for their ‘term in office’.

Looking back, it’s fair to say we have made massive strides in the last few years. Behind the scenes we have realised financial sustainability, restructured the executive office, implemented a governance framework and created a fresh web presence.

The real member benefits, however, included the fantastic international congress – INORMS 2018 – our qualifications reboot, training and development programme update, free research policy forum and new mentoring programme. In addition, this year the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) were provided with extra support and funds to run events for their own specialist communities and we relaunched ARMA study tours. Indeed, the Wellcome event sold out in record time, crashing our systems in the process! We will reveal the latest study tour series at our annual conference in Belfast.

Soon I will be leading two initiatives that I hope will have significant member benefit. The first will invite members to join a working group on Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) to consider how we can better support

ARMA communities and ensure EDI principles are embedded in our governance, operations and initiatives. I will also be launching a study project into research office structures, size and functions, allowing the findings to be shared with members in 2020 and used to inform your own business cases for investment or restructures.

As ever, the success of these initiatives has been down to the hard work and participation of members, SIGs, Committees, the board and our executive office, so thank you to everyone involved.

I hope to see you in Northern Ireland!

st eph ba l esCh a ir of A R M A

C O N T E N T SeditorJohn Pinching

commissioning editorHamish Macandrew hamish.macandrew@arma.ac.uk

contributorsSteph BalesAlicen NicksonRachael Sara-KennedyMarta TufetAndrew JacksonEllen PruyneJohn-Paul WilsonChloe JeffriesJulie BayleyPhil WardKerry GarfittPilar Pousada SoliñoDeryn EvansYvonne MorganKosta TabakakisElizabeth GaddJenni StergiouEmma HewettYvonne McMeel designPaul Martin

C O V E R S T O R Y

K N O W L E D G E E X C H A N G E F R A M E W O R K

S T U D Y T O U R S

Brexit chat is chucked out with the trash as experts convene to look on the bright side of research

Knowledge exchange framework pilot institutions are amid a game-changing experiment – here are their findings

Study tours are back and a great way of discovering more about research institutions and their main funders

F E A T U R E S

6

10

16

No 2

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

R E G U L A R S

4The Bulletin: ARMA news, announcements and curiosities

2 0Coffee and cake: The first of a new series of gloriously relaxed interviews with ARMA members sees Editor John Pinching chat with application guru, Deryn Evans

3 0A mile in my shoes: We find out what it’s like to be someone else, as Emma Hewett takes us on a magical mystery tour of her professional life

3 2Where I came from: Another new series looks at unorthodox and fascinating career routes into research management

A R M A

6Cover story: Brexit chat is chucked out with the trash as experts convene to look on the bright side of research 14

It’s a big hello from new ARMA director Julie Bayley as she adds her wealth of research management majesty to the team 2 2

As the journey to the ARMA Conference begins this special report looks at one of our industry's biggest challenges 2 4

Hamish Macandrew explains why the ARMA learning ethos is so rewarding, in contrast with his own rather upsetting educational experiences

I N D U S T R Y

10Knowledge exchange framework pilot institutions are amid a game-changing experiment – here are their findings

12A second glance at the industrial strategy reveals some hitherto hidden strategies with the potential to spark positive change

15Acronyms can be bewildering and induce panic – here’s our guide to surviving them and moving on with your life

18What would it be like to describe research management in a country with no such industry? One of our Spanish members explains

2 5A guide to the most compelling and inspirational research management blogs

2 6New research evaluation trends and techniques could result in a better, more dynamic and less frustrating experience

2 8ARMA Bites are the new short videos which educate and enlighten about all aspects of research management life

F U N D I N G A N D M A N A G E M E N T

16Study tours are back and a great way of discovering more about research institutions and their main funders

Produced by

emerald publishing

In association with arma

Printed by

Philtone Litho Limited

www.philtone.co.uk

Extracts may only be reproduced with the permission of ARMA. Please contact Hamish Macandrew at enquiries@arma.ac.uk.

No 3

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

I N T R O D U C I N G T H E N E W A R M A E D I T O R I A L W O R K I N G G R O U PThis March saw the inaugural meeting of the new Editorial Working Group (EWG), which has been established by ARMA to develop The Protagonist, ARMA’s member magazine. We were delighted to receive a wide range of applications from ARMA members to join the EWG and, as a result, the group draws on a broad range of experience and expertise from across the profession.

The objective of the group is to curate a magazine that is readable, incisive, innovative, instructive and, at times, entertaining. We aim to ensure that the publication will appeal across the full reach of the research services profession, and that each issue will feature a mix of external and ARMA writers, while covering the major topics and issues affecting our profession.

In addition, we would like to give ARMA members the opportunity to help drive the development of the profession by contributing ‘think pieces’ that challenge how we reflect on research management, enact our profession and inform policy development within the sector.

If you have any suggestions for features or articles for future editions of The Protagonist, please do get in touch with any member of the EWG or submit your thoughts via The Protagonist ideas form which you can request from Hamish Macandrew (email address below).

H O O K E DThe Researchfish 2019 Strategy of Impact Conference has been announced!

Following the success of the 2018 and 2017 events, Researchfish are pleased to reveal that the 2019 international Strategy of Impact Conference will be held on Tuesday 12 November 2019 at the British Library, London.

With the theme of 'Building the Community’, this one-day international conference for anyone involved in the impact of funded research, consists of high-profile speakers followed by breakouts and workshops.

Confirmed speakers include Dr Jim Smith, Director of Science, Wellcome; Dr Bev Holmes, President & CEO, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and Sir Alan Wilson, Director, Special Projects, The Alan Turing Institute.

Full details, including agenda and registration, can be found on the event web page. researchfish.net/conference2019

t h e B U L L E T I N

Alicen Nickson alicen.nickson@rhul.ac.uk

John Pinching jpinching@emeraldgroup.com

Hamish Macandrew hamish.macandrew@arma.ac.uk

Matt McCallum matthew.mcCallum@newcastle.ac.uk

Chloe Jeffries chloe.jeffries@manchester.ac.uk

Rachel Persad rachel.persad@guildhe.ac.uk

Pilar Pousada Soliño ppousadaSolino@lincoln.ac.uk

Tracey Duncombe t.e.duncombe@reading.ac.uk

Phil Ward p.ward@kent.ac.uk

Yvonne Morgan yvonne.morgan@swansea.ac.uk

Deryn Evans deryn.s.evans@cranfield.ac.uk

Antagonists: The Editorial Working Group

Catch up with happenings across the ARMA universe

No 4

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

A L I C E N P O N D E R L A N D : S O M E T H I N G T O T H I N K A B O U T

need to engage with markets, public opinion and deliver impact from the knowledge we have generated. Although this is not new, it is an increasingly acute duality as we lead up to REF 2021, the first KEF (which will measure our knowledge exchange outputs and require a new concordat) and the consequences for research funding that will emerge as we (probably!) exit the European Union.

How do we balance the desire for research excellence with the pragmatic need to fund research activity? Armstrong suggests that “Our epochal task is to make our best ideals powerful in the world we happen to have. We must not be Jacobites: devotees of a gracious but lost cause. To avoid that fate we have to think about love and money at the same time.”

We must indeed recognise the challenges of the world in which we find ourselves and that requires our research communities to be increasingly effective at ‘the interface’ between enabling excellent research and ensuring its sustainability. This interface is multi-faceted, where excellent research interfaces with a variety of motivations, including those related to policy, politics and public opinion.

As a professional body of research managers, how do we help to navigate these, often blurred, boundaries? A literature review (Derrick & Nickson, 2014) suggested that there had been little research on the role of research management, although the literature did suggest that, when implemented well, research management was an essential component of the research process.

In an article which appeared in The Conversation, philosopher John Armstrong suggests that universities need to answer the question ‘why do we research?' He suggests two core motivations. Firstly, intellectual ambition and the pursuit of knowledge and, secondly, problem solving – that is, what other people experience as problems.

The first relates to our intellectual ambition and a drive for research excellence and knowledge generation, while the second relates to research outside the boundaries of academia, where we

An evidence-based understanding of the strategies available for successful research management, however, was found to be limited. The review suggested the need for new research that empirically analyses the characteristics of successful research management, identifying successful strategies and structures, and how these might vary between different types of research organisations.

As a highly skilled group of professionals, we have an opportunity to drive this research agenda, not only as part of our professional development, but also through our own explorations as we operate at the interface between research and professional practice. A new evidence base may well help us all to navigate between the love of doing research, and the need to fund it.

Ref: Derrick, G. & Nickson, A. (2014) Invisible Intermediaries: A systematic review into the role of research management in university and institutional research process. Journal of Research Administration, (45)2.

A L I C E N N I C K S O N is EWG Chair and Director of Research & Enterprise, Royal Holloway, University of London. She is also an ARMA Stakeholder Engagement Committee Member.

profile

No 5

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

No 6

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

The great British public have entered a strange state of suspended animation

in which 24-hour news coverage churns out continuous Brexit banalities – with none of us watching or caring. It begs the question, does a

falling tree, in a forest empty of people, make any sound? Meanwhile, the great universe of research marches on, unabated by wider national embarrassments, untethered by ‘special handshakes’ and fuelled by its own

desire to make a difference. Two expert industry commentators suggest why we do have reason to feel optimistic about the post-EU ecosystem – how very refreshing!

Despite apocalyptic reports emerging from the relentlessly boring EU stalemate, there are

plenty of opportunities for research to thrive on a global scale.

N E V E R M I N D B R E X I T

No 7

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

With no end in sight to Brexit-related uncertainty that the UK higher

education sector faces, it’s no wonder that the ambition of ‘diversifying research income’ seems to be rising higher on the priority lists of senior management teams across the country, as institutions look to counter a potential reduction in access to EU research funding.

On this front though, there is perhaps a mildly comforting fact – according to 2017/18 HESA research and grant income records, the UK received 15% of its funding from EU programmes. While that is still a sizeable chunk, it does mean that the vast majority of UK research income comes from non-EU sources, which will – in theory – be unchanged come what may. With this in mind, let’s identify some of the less usual funding suspects…

OTHERS WELLCOMEWe all know of the Wellcome Trust, a foundation which will no doubt continue to be a steadfast friend to biomedical researchers in the coming years, however, Wellcome isn’t the only foundation in town.

Denmark has several major foundations which fund scientific research, with funding accessible to overseas researchers. A favourite is the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which regularly operates calls for international research collaboration, such as their ‘interdisciplinary synergy programme’. This option encourages the formation of international and interdisciplinary consortiums of researchers to apply for grants of up to DKK 15 million (£1.7million) in pursuit of novel or high-risk research ideas. Similarly, the Lundbeck Foundation – another of Denmark’s largest commercial foundations – awards research grants of around DKK 500 million each year. Many of these are focussed on encouraging postdoctoral mobility and academic exchange between Denmark and other countries.

BEYOND EU STREAMSIn the same way that several UK research councils have a mechanism for including international co-investigators in proposals on their standard research grant routes (big thumbs up to ESRC, AHRC and MRC), so too do other countries. In some cases, international collaboration is a prerequisite for accessing funds.

Take the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange’s (NAWA) International Academic Partnerships Programme – although applications do need to be led by Polish universities, access to the money requires a minimum of three international partners (UK enters stage centre left!). ‘Actions’ that can be funded through this framework are very broad, with grants available up to the value of £200,000. If you have Polish collaborators, it’s certainly worth considering.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) is another striking example. In recent years, it has implemented various policies across its funding infrastructure to increase international collaboration. Indeed, most of its calls are open to, and actively support, international collaboration. This is largely thanks to its transnational ‘money follows researcher’ or ‘money follows cooperation’ policies.

The two Internationalisation instruments that can be incorporated into funding proposals to NWO allow for the inclusion of an overseas researcher in project proposals, up to the value of €25,000, or inclusion of overseas researchers where expertise is not available in the Netherlands at the desired level for the project. In this instance there is no financial limit.

CONTINUED COLL ABORATIONThere are, of course, several non-EU related funding schemes which have emerged in the last few years to support UK-international collaboration and which will continue to do so until at least 2021. These include the Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund which are BEIS Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) research programmes. Both have a collective 2019/20 budget of a little over half a billion pounds, providing funding through a variety of different formats to enable UK-LMIC research partnerships.

Complementary to this is the newly-launched UKRI Fund for International Collaboration, which will see new bilateral and multilateral programmes of research with countries identified as key priorities for UK research, including research powerhouses of the US, Canada, Israel and South Korea.

While we love a good trawl through overseas funding agencies websites here at Universities UK International UUKi, we realise this isn’t everyone’s favourite pastime. With this in mind, the UUKi partnerships team maintains a 'Gateway to International Opportunities' web page, highlighting both well and lesser known funding opportunities for international collaborations which are open to UK researchers.

There are undeniably many funding unknowns for the UK research sector at present, but this is balanced by a variety of funding certainties. Along with opportunities available through overseas schemes, and an ever-expanding portfolio of UK government research funding programmes, there are – and will continue to be – opportunities for extensive international collaboration.

T H E G R E AT E S C A P E

profile

R AC H A E L S A R A - K E N N E DY leads on the design and implementation of partnership agreements with UK and overseas funding agencies, increasing UK sector access to international funding opportunities. She is also the strategic lead for UUKi's International Research Development Network.

Rachael Sara-Kennedy is Head of Strategic Partnerships at Universities UK International

The vast majority of UK

research income comes from

non-EU sources“ “

No 8

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

It hardly needs to be said that lately there has been palpable sense of doom and gloom

amid the uncertainty over the UK's future international research funding with the EU. Understandably, there are a lot of fears and concerns among the research community about what impact Brexit will have on funding, Horizon 2020 and beyond. And, yet, hope springs!

The UK has long been a global leader in international development research. UK-funded science, technology and innovation for and with low and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been instrumental in contributing to remarkable achievements in global development. Over the last 50 years UK-led research has contributed to significant global advances, including the dramatic reduction of child mortality from malaria and eradication of rinderpest, a devastating livestock disease.

SE IZE THE DAYNow is the time for the UK to seize a crucial and timely opportunity to strengthen our position at the forefront of international development research on the global stage, by looking at funding opportunities that exist for researchers outside of the EU and building strategic partnerships.

Development challenges are increasingly global, interconnected and complex, from climate change and infectious diseases to the impacts of conflict and food security. The UK has a key contribution to make if we are to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals set by global leaders. These are some of the most intellectually challenging issues the world faces and to tackle them we need to bring together international collaborations, world-class research and input across multiple disciplines.

Recognising the value of this, in 2015 the UK government made a dramatic shift in ODA funding; to set a yearly incremental rise in aid spend, specifically for research, from under £400 million in 2015 to over £1.2 billion in 2021.

Following this shift, diverse initiatives have emerged offering new opportunities for UK academics to forge research collaborations that have the potential to elevate global development research to a level it has never reached before. Among these are the £735 million Newton Fund and £1.5 billion Global Challenges Research Fund, both of which have a wide geographical

footprint in LMICs and emerging economies.

FORCE FOR GOODFor those new to the international development sector, DFID continues to actively support research and has committed £1.5bn until 2021 to support high-quality research, innovation, science and technology to end extreme poverty. The £450 million National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Programme funded by the Department for Health and Social Care offers opportunities to improve global public health outcomes through applied research. Meanwhile, The Darwin Initiative, funded by the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, awards research grants to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally based projects worldwide.

Furthermore, funders are working collaboratively with UK national academies and societies, the UK Space Agency and other bodies to ensure grants provide opportunities for researchers from a wide spectrum of disciplines, building communities of practice and developing new collaborations.

At The UK Collaborative for Development Research (UKCDR), governed by the Strategic Coherence for ODA-funded Research (SCOR) Board, we aim to add value to international development research through coherence, partnerships and action among these funders. We are, however, also a source of information on the funding landscape and latest opportunities across major funders.

These opportunities have already increased the number of higher education institutes – not traditionally involved in this field – engaging in international development research. For example, thanks to a new international focus of NIHR’s funding, the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre aims to use ground-breaking UK-led research for new treatments suited to developing country contexts. These diverse new research programmes also bring UK researchers new partnership opportunities.

FOUNDATION OF TRUSTRecent reports suggest that international collaborative research gains more attention and is more highly-cited than national research. In 2016, over 50% of the UK’s total research publications were borne from international

collaborations, with a far higher share for some leading universities. Our global reach is a huge strength to widen our talent pool and build on our outstanding national research base.

It’s crucial, however, that as we pursue international research collaborations we set a high standard of fair, trustworthy and equitable research partnerships from the outset. Finding and building effective and financially viable research partnerships is essential to strengthening research capacity and long-term sustainability. UKCDR provides several resources on this important aspect.

Our universities must invest in building international partnerships and commit time and resources to establish, nurture and sustain relationships at individual and institutional level. Universities can draw on their individual strengths and ambitions to further their research agenda, while strengthening research networks and ecosystems in low and middle-countries. With strategic investments and a greater understanding of the current ODA funding landscape, UK institutions will be ready to successfully respond to relevant research opportunities as they emerge.

By setting a clear tone of equitable partnerships and supporting our researchers to adapt to new contexts and opportunities, we are optimistic that the UK academic sector will continue to provide global leadership for future generations of researchers, both at home and overseas.

A N E W H O P E

profile

M A R TA T U F E T is the Executive Director of UKCDR, which ensures strategic coherence across UK government departments and research funders of international development. She has a research background in malaria with a BSc in biology and a PhD in parasitology from Imperial College London.

Dr Marta Tufet is Executive Director for The UK Collaborative for Development Research

No 9

T H E P R O T A G O N I S TT H E P R O T A G O N I S T

The dimension of

‘exchange’ is significant as it

reflects the mutually beneficial,

problem-solving and creative

relationships that universities

can develop

“

“KEF pilot universities have been tasked with highlighting their institutions

through culture and character, rather than rankings and results. Three

participants share their experiences of being involved.

C U L T U R E C L U B

The Knowledge Exchange Framework is a promising – if challenging – new

area of policy development in HE. Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) is one of the 21 HEIs invited by Research England to contribute to a pilot group exercise as part of a broader KEF consultation, and I have been a keen and interested attendee at the five workshops that took place from February to May this year.

The framework aims to highlight difference and diversity – and the wide range of economic and cultural contributions that universities make to their localities and regions – rather than following the more established emphasis on national and global performance, position and ranking. This makes it particularly interesting to small and specialist HEIs, like BGU. The dimension of ‘exchange’ is especially significant as it reflects the mutually beneficial, problem-solving and creative relationships that universities can develop, join and sustain within the places they occupy.

The workshops have been exploring the seven proposed KEF perspectives including

external research partnerships, engaging with businesses, working with the public and third sectors, cultivating public and community engagement, promoting skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship, stimulating local growth and regeneration and developing intellectual property and commercial products and services.

Various problem areas are also attracting attention, such as the clustering of universities by KE activity profile, supplementing metric-based evidence with a more qualitatively framed narrative and measuring societal impact and benefit. Meanwhile, input and investment, developing the existing HE-BCI survey, presenting and visualising KE for those outside HE and containing administrative complexity and burden have also been scrutinised.

It has been a rewarding opportunity to represent the important KE work undertaken by BGU, and other institutions which are alike in type, identity and purpose, including GuildHE Research members, Cathedral Group members and those located in relatively remote, rural, provincial and small city locations.

W E N E E D T O TA L K A B O U T K E FDr Andrew Jackson is Head of Research at Bishop Grosseteste University

No 10

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

1. Knowledge exchange is the 'wild west' of academia – there don't seem to be many hard and fast rules about how to pan for gold, stake your claim or exploit expertise-rich areas.

2. People working on knowledge exchange in HEIs cover the entire map. If you have 'research', 'knowledge', 'impact', 'partnerships', 'collaborations', 'commercialisation', 'licensing', 'IP' or any such words in your job title, you qualify for membership in the KE club.

3. This explains why the differences in opinion during the KEF pilot workshops have been at quite a fundamental level – around defining categories and their contents – in effect, agreeing on a sector-wide taxonomy of knowledge exchange.

4. Benchmarking has been one of the biggest payoffs from engaging in the KEF workshops, which have provided information about, and insight into, the KE activities and operations of other institutions that are normally not so accessible or transparent. As LSE Impact Manager and workshop participant Rachel Middlemass noted, “the KEF/KE Concordat has potential to highlight some really amazing best practice across the sector.”

5. It's been surprising and gratifying to find that – although small – the specialist institutions are just as rich and diverse in terms of their knowledge exchange activities and outputs as the larger (and often much better-financed) ones.

6. The pilot exercise is a veritable paradise if you're a thief looking for high-quality knowledge exchange ideas. I certainly am – and I’ve already accumulated quite a stash!

7. It’s become clear, however, that the sector needs to up its game in terms of consulting with potential external KEF users and incorporating the voices of non-academic partners into the process. It’s also evident that we’re not quite there yet on collecting and presenting KE evidence or evaluating our activities in ways that meet standards of rigour and relevance.

8. A note of caution – think carefully before you volunteer for something like this. No matter how exciting, interesting or career-enhancing, such exercises always end up taking more time than you anticipated.

9. The biggest surprise in the process was discovering Hamish McAlpine, Head of KE Data and Evidence, and his Research England team. These are the sort of people you would enjoy meeting down the pub (even if he is, as Hamish keeps emphasising, “an engineer”).

10. I’ve also learned that Hamish and company are already making substantial changes to the KEF design based on our input. They’re not a government posse patrolling the KE territory and eliminating undesirable elements, but ‘sheriffs’ trying to bring some ‘law and order’ into the HE community. Will they succeed? Too soon to say, I reckon.

1 0 T H I N G S I L E A R N E D F R O M T H E K E F P I L O T E X E R C I S EDr Ellen Pruyne is the Impact Manager at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

No 11

T H E P R O T A G O N I S TT H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Involvement in the pilot

has been enlightening and there

is a strong sense that Research

England is interested in what we

have to say

“ “

When, in October 2017, Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities,

Science, Research and Innovation, presented his plan to develop a KEF to sit alongside the REF and TEF, reaction was mixed. Some saw this as another layer of bureaucracy to distract universities from their actual business; others as a necessary “evil” – the sector needed to be able to justify the continued and growing investment by government in the Higher Education Innovation Fund and related funding streams.

Yet many welcomed the opportunity to highlight rich and, sometimes, underrepresented and undervalued areas of university activity in a world where the benefits of higher education are under closer scrutiny.

Some 15 months – and two university ministers – later, the worked-up proposals for a KEF were published for consultation. These present an annual, institutional-level assessment underpinned primarily by existing metrics, although it is proposed that these will be supplemented by narrative where metrics are insufficiently robust.

The KEF proposals invited HEIs to participate in a pilot that would run beyond the consultation period. It was a simple decision for our institution to volunteer to participate – we have consistently engaged with pilots in the REF and TEF and saw no reason not to do so in this case. It is better to be involved in actively shaping a process rather than focusing only on making a

consultation response, while involvement in a pilot can also place you in a stronger position to engage with the actual exercise.

It is also important that the voice of smaller institutions is reflected in such pilots. As lead for the KE agenda, I also felt participation would bring external and internal benefits, raising the profile of KE at Worcester and helping to focus strategic direction. Worcester engages in some exciting and innovative Knowledge Exchange activity. For example, the Hive – a joint university and community library at the heart of the city developed in conjunction with Worcestershire County Council.

The Hive has won numerous community and architectural awards, is the 8th most visited library in the UK (in a city ranked 81st in terms of population) and is a designated tourist destination alongside the city’s magnificent cathedral and the site of the Battle of Worcester. It houses a range of touring exhibitions, performances and festivals as well being an ideal site for university-engagement with the community. And yet the range of KE activity that flows from the Hive will be only very partially captured in the KEF metrics.

Involvement in the pilot has been enlightening and there is a strong sense that Research England is interested in what we have to say. It also emphasised that, while we are not a collective decision-making body, we will influence how the KEF progresses. There is a

robust message, however, that the proposed metrics only tell a partial story about KE activity – that the proposed KEF is overly-focused on inputs and not outcomes; that some disciplines are badly reflected in the metrics (the creative arts, for instance); that the multiple ways of grouping metrics might tell a different story and that much relevant data is already being collected through other sources, such as case studies.

Furthermore, there is an interesting drive from participants to add narrative to the KEF. Although there is no doubt that contextualising the metrics with information about the university’s strategy, mission and place in the region would be valuable, the KEF does not drive funding and it would be difficult to justify this extra workload.

H O U S E I N O R D E R ?John-Paul Wilson is Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor Research at University of Worcester

No 12

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Humanities and the industrial strategy: is it worth a second look?

S E E I N G I S B E L I E V I N G

No 13

T H E P R O T A G O N I S TT H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Are you a ‘Brenda from Bristol’? Upon the announcement of the industrial

strategy, did you roll your eyes and groan ‘not another one’? If so, you may have a role supporting humanities and social science (HSS) researchers – a disparate group, often ambivalent about new funding initiatives. Such schemes are at best ‘not for them’; at worst, the antithesis of why they went into research.

These misgivings have some grounds. Industrial strategy is complex, with features that do not look like other calls. Historically, UK governments have shied away from such interventions and few universities have prioritised R&D. Humanities researchers feel more comfortable working with the public sector than collaborating with private enterprise.

There is, nevertheless, more to industrial strategy than first meets the eye – and HSS researchers can view it through a critical lens. On my current secondment to the AHRC Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), funded through the industrial strategy, as well as my humanities research development role at the University of Manchester, I have a vantage point on the increasing opportunities for HSS involvement.

FELLOW ADVOC ATES Research managers are not the first to explain why industrial strategy needs HSS input to succeed. Subject associations and research councils have made strong cases, but early government papers on industrial strategy in 2017 were greeted with criticism: ‘too STEM’. Lobbying from HSS advocates, however, shifted the focus and the British Academy’s response to the green paper offered a strident articulation of why new challenges demand solutions drawn from a wide range of disciplines. ESRC and AHRC officials became confident of possibilities for HSS because they were in the negotiating room when new deals were done.

FLEXIBLE DEALOne sign of success has emerged from the sector deal for the creative industries. The AHRC Creative Economy programme represents an unprecedented investment, with the eight R&D creative clusters and PEC indicating its largest outlays. Yet researchers whose bids were unsuccessful should not assume the door has now shut.

The PEC is a platform for wider creative industries research and – over its remaining years – will offer routes in for those researchers not currently involved. The PEC must also demonstrate the value of arts and humanities

methods to creative industries, with implications for future projects. The centre aims to develop different models for how researchers within the AHRC’s remit can work with industry and policymakers. Meanwhile, the wide-ranging network of PEC ‘industry champions’ that I am currently recruiting will offer one such mechanism and more diverse advisory boards is an idea I aim to bring back to research management practice.

HUM AN IN HUM ANIT I ESConsidering less likely suspects among the industrial strategy challenges will be vital for HSS research to make its mark. The ESRC’s blogs are a good read here, outlining the potential for social science contributions to mobility, AI and beyond. The effectiveness of much innovation hinges on the human. Focusing, not just on the engineering fix or technological breakthrough, but on adoption, requires an understanding of social and cultural phenomenon. If the industrial strategy is to in any way deliver on social justice, we need HSS expertise to influence the forces that shape people, culture and society, and how they might be realigned.

PL ACE M AT TERSThe Industrial Strategy’s focus on place – sympathetic to the different needs of different locations – has been widely welcomed. A place-based approach should also be good news for research managers. Through impact, KE or social responsibility initiatives we have developed strong relations with local stakeholders. The results of the ‘Strength in Places’ competition will be an early indicator of how this plays out in funding decisions.

In Manchester, a Local Industrial Strategy pilot, we hope that the more devolved industrial strategy that looks likely in the coming years will present opportunities that fit with our long-standing partnerships. HEIs should act as anchor institutions in the deepest sense, rooted in their communities. Furthermore, many convincing arguments for the ‘civic mission’ of the university come from the humanities.

LOOK OVERSEASThe UK may not have a rich tradition of intervening in industrial policy, but other countries have long taken a muscular approach. I recently carried out two placements at German universities – Freie Universität Berlin and Ludwig Maximilian University Munich. Both institutions possess strengths in the humanities as well as a long history of industry collaboration. At FU Berlin, even such simple steps as establishing a directory of humanities-industry co-operation has increased appetite among HSS staff.

At a time when many UK institutions are striking bilateral agreements with European universities, I encourage colleagues to take up any international opportunities available. In addition to all the benefits that come with cross-cultural dialogue, you may gain fresh thinking on how to engage with enterprise.

ROLE PL AYApplying for funds tied to the industrial strategy will never be for all HSS researchers. Building a small but plausible cohort in your institution may prove a better approach than packing out a room at an initial fanfare event, only for interest to fall away. Burnout is a problem. New funding initiatives tend to be ‘addressed’ with a flurry of local events which introduce the scheme.

Do we need more research support at the mid-way point? ARMA Good Practice Exchanges offer one option, with the focus on lessons learned and cases studied. Ultimately, an industrial strategy challenge fund may not be the best home for a project, but a bid sparked by an industrial strategy call that ends up as a KTP is no bad thing – especially in the humanities fields, which could make better use of KTPs for their large pool of PhDs.

We must inform researchers, not just about the headline industrial strategy calls, but of smaller spin-off opportunities, such as early career highlight notices linked to the national productivity fund. Starting out this way will build a critical mass of researchers who prick up their ears, rather than sigh, when hearing the words ‘industry’ and ‘challenge’.

profile

C H L O E J E F F R I E S is Head of Partnerships at the AHRC Creative Industries Policy and Evidence centre. She joins the centre on secondment from the University of Manchester, where she supports grant applications in faculty of humanities. Prior to this she worked in the research development at Brunel University London and undertook doctoral research at the University of Oxford.

No 14

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

CAREER After an ill-fated plan to become a professional musician, I spent the first decade of my career as a health psychology researcher. I stepped formally into research management in 2012,

and since then have been a ‘hybrid’, balancing research with impact. As an academic, I appreciate the opportunities of exploration, but feel the weight of REF and income generation. As an impact lead, I believe in

the importance of driving social benefit, but experience the pressure of sector level accountability. It is this combined experience, which will prove most useful in my new role.

RESPONSIBILITIES The ARMA offering has grown substantially in recent years, as has the wealth of expertise within the sector. Qualifications reflect not only the opportunity for individuals to build their knowledge and skills, but also the visible professionalisation of research management itself. I’m particularly looking forward to driving both of these goals and working with the other members of the board to keep evolving benefits for members.

INSPIRATION ARMA is a community of practice. While the board and various committees add structure to ARMA’s activities, the membership is the heart of the organisation. As the research landscape shifts, and assessment, funding and delivery agendas dominate so much of our day-to-day work, it is ever more vital that there is an opportunity to engage across the profession and strengthen practice. Through its suite of ARMA activities – stakeholder engagement, training and development, qualifications, the conference and more - ARMA continues to support members and amplify the voice of research management within the sector.

EVOLUTION ARMA has always been a proud flag-waver for the research management community, but in today’s pressurised and changing environment its work is ever more crucial. By developing skills, connecting peers, representing the profession and supporting new and established colleagues alike, ARMA is a key partner in helping the community to become more informed, adaptable and resilient.

CHALLENGES Having been involved with ARMA for several years, I’ve been privileged to see the growth of the organisation in terms of its membership, strategy and scale of activity. As it continues

to evolve and meet the changing needs of its membership, this brings new challenges for supporting an increasingly professionalised community in changing times. For qualifications this means refreshing course content and innovating delivery methods, alongside the ambition of adapting to changing sector needs.

SONG After far too many blood clots, I’ll go with Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’.

A C A S U A L I N T R O D U C T I O N

Let’s find out what makes new ARMA Director, industry luminary and 70’s disco connoisseur Julie Bayley tick.

ARMA has always

been a proud flag-waver for

the research management

community, but in today’s

pressurised and changing

environment its work is ever

more crucial

“

“

No 15

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Asure sign of having ‘gone native’ in any profession is when you start talking

in acronyms. ‘Yeah, I’ve been helping a PI on a GCRF application,’ you might casually explain to colleagues round the water cooler, ‘but it turns out they’re not paying fEC. Worse still, it breaks all GDPR requirements, and it’s not even ODA-compliant! Nightmare!’

Everyone nods in sympathy. Some make a mental note to avoid either GCRF or water coolers in the future. Possibly both. Others, however, go back to their desks and feverishly Google the terms. Federal Election Commission? Are they responsible for the Geocentric Celestial Reference Frame? If so, how the hell did the Oregon Department of Agriculture get involved? And isn’t π pronounced pi rather than PI?

It’s all hopelessly confusing. So here’s The Protagonist’s cut out and keep guide to surviving in the acronym-rich world of RMA.

Acronyms and abbreviations seep into our lingo and cause relatives to wonder what we have become. For new

recruits or job starters they induce panic and confusion. Here’s Phil with an essential guide to survival – read ASAP.

1 Moving between sectors can be embarrassing – or hilarious. If you come from the world of retail, RMAs will always be ‘returned merchandise authorisations’. If you work in ‘research management and administration’, however, it’s beyond comprehension that it can be anything but shorthand for your own profession.

2 It’s okay to ask. Surprisingly, not everyone was born with EPSRC tattooed across their forehead. We’ve all had to learn what they mean, and people won’t sneer if you ask whether an ORCID really is just a misspelt flower. Well, if they do that’s their problem, not yours.

3 3 letters good, 4+ better. It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a phrase, in want of a good acronym, must be in search of one with three letters. It might be true, but it doesn’t help you. The longer the acronym, the more likely it is to mean just one thing. That makes it easier for you to work it out if there’s no one around to ask. According to Wikipedia, ERC can mean 28 other things apart from European Research Council! For GCRF you’re down to four. For BBSRC there’s only one candidate, and it’s not the Baltimore Ballistics and Security Resilience Centre.

4 Spell it out. Once you’re familiar with the alphabet soup of the sector’s acronyms, don’t assume everyone else is. If you’re talking to, or writing for, a mixed audience of RMA professionals and others, always spell out an acronym – or even explain it – the first time you use it.

5 Be careful if you want to invent your own. When you’ve mastered the trickiest of RMA TLAs (three letter acronyms), it may be tempting to start forging your own. Before you do, make sure that it’s not already taken. Having a hub for enterprise and innovation might just mean you are constantly having to explain that no, you aren’t responsible for the whole higher education institution, and no, you can’t sign off that multi-million pound bid on behalf of the university. Unless that was your cunning plan all along. In which case I salute you and you clearly no longer need my help in mastering acronyms.

T H E F I N E A R T O F A C R O M A N C Y

profile

P H I L WA R D is Deputy Director of Research Services at the University of Kent. He manages the Research Development Team, responsible for helping academics find funding and craft applications, as well as the wider strategic development of the university’s research culture. He writes an award-winning blog, Research Fundermentals and tweets as @frootle. C U T O U T A N D K E E P (C O A K )

C U T O U T A N D K E E P (C O A K )

No 16

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Before I took on my current role at ARMA, I had been a member for more years than

I would care to admit. The time has flown by and many of my memories from those formative years have been filed away in the ever-increasing area of my brain marked ‘restricted – do not enter’. The memories that do endure from those early days – indeed, they shine like a beacon – are the study tours!

We last offered study tours about three years ago. Since then, we have had a continuous string of correspondence from members asking when we are going to bring them back. So, as you can imagine, this was one of the top priorities in our strategic planning exercise for Stephanie Maloney and her Stakeholder Engagement Committee. It took a little while to get there, but we’ve made it happen and our study tours are back, with the Wellcome Trust kicking off our new programme in May, and The Royal Academy of Engineering close on their heels at the end of June.

For those new to ARMA, I feel duty-bound to explain what study tours actually are. The name is something

of a misnomer because there is no tour, as such – reassuring, given my legendary lack of geographical awareness – and the word ‘study’ misleadingly formal, as the conversations involved are relaxed and friendly.

In a nutshell, what we’re talking about is ‘funder visits’ – opportunities for our members to check out the headquarters of the UK’s main research funders; research councils, government departments, and learned societies, and meet people who set the strategy, create funding programmes and provide day-to-day support over the telephone. Opportunities for our members to hear the latest plans, be informed of the newest funding schemes and, above all, find out just what makes a winning funding application!

D E F I N I T I O N I S T H I SHamish Macandrew is ARMA UK’s Chief Operating Officer

Study tours are back and represent some of the best ways to engage with institutions, meet

influential people and pick up the latest research management gossip – straight from the mill.

T O U R D E F O R C E

In a nutshell, what we’re talking about is

‘funder visits’ – opportunities for our members

to check out the headquarters of the UK’s

main research funders

“ “

No 17

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

We had so many ideas that

I’d be surprised if anyone had

time to experience the dreaded

post-lunch slump

“ “We were delighted to be asked to run the first in ARMA’s new

series of study tours at Wellcome in May.

We leapt at the chance because there is no better opportunity to get research management professionals from all over the UK and Ireland into one room and talking openly about key developments in grant funding at Wellcome. An indication that this is well overdue came when interest in the event crashed ARMA’s website. This is when we really started to feel the pressure – could our event meet such high expectations?!

We had so many ideas that I’d be surprised if anyone had time to experience the dreaded post-lunch slump, with drop-in sessions about post-award finance, external training and ResearchFish running through the lunch break, followed by an afternoon carousel covering open access, research culture and costing a grant to keep energy levels high. We also made time for people to see our latest exhibition, ‘Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic’, as no visit to Wellcome is complete without a chance to see our amazing collection.

As part of the team planning the event, I’ve been really struck by how keen colleagues were to be involved, get feedback from the

research management community and feed this into a range of different projects we’re currently working on. In addition, our ‘What can Wellcome do better?’ suggestion box captured feedback on any aspect of Wellcome the attendees wanted to provide. As you read this, there’s a good chance that I am mining my way through this rich seam of information.

If you didn’t get a chance to join the Wellcome study tour, or the day has whetted your appetite for this kind of funder-focused learning, then the good news is that ARMA are working with several other funders – including Research Councils and other large charities – to put on further study tours.

Next up, we’ve got the Royal Academy of Engineers, in June. At Wellcome we will be making sure we capture every last iota of learning from the day, while basking in the warm glow that you get from knowing expectations have been met and, who knows, maybe even exceeded.

E V E R Y B O D Y ’ S W E L L C O M EKerry Garfitt is the Wellcome Trust’s Grants Policies and Liaison Officer

profile

K E R RY G A R F I T T joined the Wellcome Trust in November 2017. Prior to this she worked in a variety of grant-making fields, including poverty reduction, supporting education and improving health. She is a massive fan of parkrun and is currently reading her way through this year’s Wellcome Book Prize shortlist.

No 18

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

ARMA’s Pilar Pousada Soliño explains what it’s like to be a Spaniard navigating the maze of

research management and why the profession in Spain still has a long, long way to go.

T H E V I E W F R O M S PA I N

No 19

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

I’m sure I’m not exaggerating when I say that all of us find it difficult to explain REF to

our families and friends at the dinner table. Units of assessment, outputs, impact... these are not exactly everyday terms! When someone asks what I do, I find myself inadequately summarising what my job entails by saying, “I work in research services at the University of Lincoln”. Often, however, ‘research services’ means absolutely nothing to people. They are left in the dark and bewildered. Quite simply, they have no idea what my job is. This is exactly what happens when I go home to Spain…

I didn’t work in research services before I moved to the UK. I did something quite unrelated. I have a degree in journalism and worked as a journalist for ten years on a daily newspaper, before I came to this country. After a spell in human resources at the University of Oxford, I moved to the University of Lincoln to take on my first role in research services, as Project Manager for a big European grant.

I now know that it would have been quite difficult to find a job like mine – Research Environment Manager – back at home. Support

for research at Spanish universities varies enormously but, as a rule, it is rather limited. In response to the situation, Professor Santiago Castellanos, from the University of León, is thinking of giving up applying for grants altogether.

Currently he gets little support from the administration

teams at his university and receives no advice at pre or post-award stages. He is involved in preparing his own budgets, writing the

proposals, finding his own partners and

preparing his

deliverables reports, including financial reporting. Understandably, the strain of it all is wearing him down.

LOST IN SPA INAnxo Moreira, Research and Development Officer, from the Universidad de Vigo, has witnessed the challenges of getting research management off the ground at first hand. He explains: “I don’t think we can talk of a profession in Spain. We talk of firefighters, scientists, accountants, but there is certainly no talk about professionals who support research.”

“There are a few professionals working in research support, but there is no recognition, not only at social level, but even within our own universities. We are very far from being recognised at all, and there is nothing akin to a professional association. The reality is that we are lost among the banner of University administration”, adds Anxo, who has more than 15 years’ experience in the sector.

This opinion is shared by Estíbaliz García Gómez, from the firm, Acreditaciones y Sexenios. “There is no distinction between research services and the more general university administration”, she observes.

The situation is not helped by the fact that many universities do not have their own research services teams. This is a good thing for Estíbaliz, whose firm offers support for all administrative aspects of research projects. It is a lonely job, however, with no networking opportunities among professionals who work in the sector.

L AS COSAS ESTÁN MEJORANDO Some attempts to bring together professionals in the sector are appearing here and there. Thus, Redtransfer has emerged as an association for research support staff in both the public and private sectors. Crue Universidades Españolas also has a group for ‘oficinas de transferencia de resultados de investigación’ whose mission is to highlight the role of universities as an essential player in the innovation sector in Spain. Additionally, Crue has a group for those who support European grants. The management of grants from the EU seems to have galvanised support for research in Spain over the last few years.

It is because of this that María Jesús Legaz Mellado, from the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, is a bit more optimistic when talking about recent changes in research services in Spain. María Jesús leads the European Office at her university and is involved in improving the training on offer for both research support

colleagues and academics. Her office deals with grant development and budgeting, finding partners, info-days and project management – this sounds familiar to me.

Both María Jesús and Anxo admit that the landscape in Spain is varied. Traditional universities do not seem to have caught up with the need to implement research support, but those of us who work in the UK would now start to find research support jobs that we would recognise in Spain, most of which are in newer institutions, such as technological institutes.

Ana María Rodríguez López, researcher from the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), thinks that there have also been positive signs in the last ten years, especially with regards to specialised support for European projects. This does not necessarily mean that support for research is growing in the University sector. Increasingly, Spanish academics outsource support for pre and post-award grants to small specialist firms. For Rodríguez López, the support academics get in Spain is years behind the kind of structures that support researchers in the UK.

Mind you, the research sector functions very differently in all sorts of ways in Spain; for instance, nothing like REF exists there. Perhaps it is not so strange after all that my family and friends back at home don’t know what my job really involves! Here’s hoping that in ten years’ time research services will be better established in Spain, and my professional life becomes less of a mystery.

profile

P I L A R P O U S A DA S O L I Ñ O is the Research Environment Manager at the University of Lincoln with responsibility for REF, research systems and data, the Doctoral School and the Lincoln Institute for Advanced Studies. She has experience in journalism, HR and project management and is a member of the ARMA Editorial Working Group.

No 20

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO L ATELY, DERYN?Juggling many different responsibilities as always! I work in pre-award grants support, so attending lots of meetings and workshops to develop ideas for future grant proposals or discussing funding options and career plans with researchers.

I am also doing the ARMA Advanced Certificate in Research Management, so the last few months has been dominated by webinars and reading, as I start to prepare my first assignments. And if that wasn’t enough, I then joined the ARMA Editorial Working Group to produce The Protagonist. I like to be very busy.

VERY FOOL ISH . TELL ME ABOUT YOUR INCRED IBLE JOURNEY INTO RESEARCH M ANAGEMENT?I’m from a family of engineers and tradespeople, so I liked practical things and wanted to know how they worked. I had a passion for human biology and physiology, so I started off wanting to be a physiotherapist, but having worked as

In the first of a new series of interviews, The Protagonist Editor, John Pinching, has a chat with one of ARMA’s

brightest lights about their illustrious life and career. On this occasion, he meets up with Deryn Evans, who relishes

the challenge of helping the seeds of research blossom into stark, fully-funded realities. Oh, and she’s studying too.

C O F F E E A N D C A K E W I T H . . . D E R Y N E VA N S

No 21

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

an assistant to one, after leaving school, I found it wasn’t going to hold my attention. I went off to do a BSc in Applied Biology, instead. I knew I wanted to do something more fundamental but wasn’t sure exactly what! Consequently, I have had several careers on my journey of self-discovery. I’ve worked in a research lab, on the information line for a neurological charity and travelled internationally as a market analyst. My first steps into research management, however, were at the Wellcome Trust, as a grants advisor.

WHAT FIRST TRIGGERED YOUR INTEREST IN RESEARCH M ANAGEMENT?The opportunity to meet new and interesting people. I had carried out a lot of customer service focused roles before, and I like talking to and helping others. It gives you the opportunity to work with so many different people and assist in progressing their ideas.

WHAT IS I T ABOUT WORKING ON RESEARCH GRANT APPL IC AT IONS THAT IGNITES YOUR PASSION AND CREAT IV IT Y?The variety. No day is the same, even when you think you have a day planned out, surprising things pop up and you learn something new. It keeps it fresh and interesting, so you can try out new, creative ways of working. I like to read and learn, but I also have a pedantic streak – so it’s the perfect fit for me and keeps me interested.

WHAT IS THE WEIRDEST APPL IC AT ION YOU HAVE EVER SUPPORTED?One of the first applications I supported, and still my favourite, was the use of waste products from tequila production to make new bioplastic materials.

WHICH APPL IC AT IONS HAVE G IVEN YOU THE MOST SAT ISFACT ION?It is probably a cliché, but I love working with our early career researchers. Helping them develop and win their first grant funding, and starting their research groups, is really satisfying. I am also our team lead for GCRF applications, so by their very nature, these are always very rewarding to work on.

WHAT IS THE KEY TO M AKING AN APPL IC AT ION FLY?Readability. You need to write an application that is understandable and engaging to a wide variety of readers, as not everyone will be an expert in your area. The enthusiasm for your subject should be clear on the page and concise in terms of what you will be doing and why it is new and important. You need to infect the reader with excitement for the project, so they champion you. If it is like wading through technical treacle, your poor reader has their work cut out, and will not thank you for it.

YOU ARE OFTEN THE D IFFERENCE BET WEEN A GREEN OR RED L IGHT FOR RESEARCH – HOW DO YOU M ANAGE THAT PRESSURE?In the moment, it is important to stay calm and confidently stick to the evidence. There are many reasons to show an application the red light – it might be out of scope, not meet the assessment criteria or the person isn’t eligible. Building your own personal resilience and verve is important in handling this situation. When someone has already put a lot of work into something, it is obviously going to be upsetting to be faced with rejection. Therefore, it is important to be constructive and sensitive, to show people solutions and empower them to get the green light next time.

WITH THE ALL- ENCOMPASSING NATURE OF D IG ITAL , HOW WILL RESEARCH M ANAGEMENT EVOLVE?I hope that with the increasing sophistication of AI, we could get some software developed that would do some more of the mundane labour-intensive aspects of grant review, leaving the research managers free for more strategic review and added-value activities.

HOW HELPFUL HAS IT BEEN TO BE AN ARM A MEMBER?We are quite a small central grants team, so it has been invaluable to meet and learn from others in the profession. The opportunities to hear about best practice and gain support from members have been really helpful, especially in

developing what I do and how I do it. I was also a member of the ARMA Research Management Team of the Year 2017, which was a great honour.

HOW IMPORTANT IS ARM A’S ROLE IN SUPPORTING RESEARCH M ANAGEMENT?Most of us work in our little silos and if it wasn’t for the work of ARMA we wouldn’t know what might work better or what is going on in the other areas. It enables us to become more rounded and competent research managers.

IN TEN YEARS WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?Somewhere surprising. The last 20 years have taught me that even if you have a vision and plan, other opportunities and obstacles pop up along the way, so you end up taking a path you never even knew existed.

I T ’S YOUR L AST SUPPER , DERYN , WHAT ARE YOU HAVING?My main food passions are cheese and chocolate. So, I would have to start with deep fried, breaded brie and accompanying cranberry dip, along with baked camembert and crusty bread. I would then skip straight to a dessert – probably a chocolate fondant, all washed down with a refreshing gin and tonic.

ERM…COMING RIGHT UP. ON THE SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR L I FE WHICH S INGLE SONG WOULD YOU CHOOSE?I love music, so it is difficult to only pick one and not a mixtape! ‘The Chain’, by Fleetwood Mac. Rumours is a masterpiece and remains one of my go-to albums. My chosen song particularly reminds me of watching Formula 1 with my Dad.

GOODBYE DERYN .Bye John.

One of the first applications I supported was the use of waste products

from tequila production to make new bioplastic materials“

“

No 22

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

As the turbulence of the outside world rumbles on, the ambitions of research continue – almost

on another dimension. ARMA’s conference rolls into Belfast full of optimism, but with a host of

issues, questions and conversations to take on. Resilience, and how we maintain it,

will be among the hottest topics.

F I R E S TA R T E R

No 23

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

This year’s ARMA conference will focus on the themes of prosperity and resilience and,

as I eagerly await the details of the workshops and plenary talks, I’ve taken some time to reflect on what this means for our profession. How can we – as research managers and administrators – ensure we prosper and maintain resilience, while also continuing to provide support to academic staff?

I emphasise the word 'support' here, as it is such a fundamental element of what we do. You only need to look at the job descriptions of most roles in research management and administration to realise that support – whether individual or institutional – is a fundamental feature of our remit.

Supporting academic staff involves being responsive, helpful and guiding them through all the various processes and procedures – unblocking as many roadblocks along the way as we can. We support them to submit grant applications; on what to write in their pathways to impact statements and case studies; on when to submit reports to funders; or advise them on contractual terms, ethics, governance, REF, commercialisation route – the list goes on. We are, put simply, the helpers and the fixers.

SUPPORT SYSTEMProviding support, fixing or helping can be very rewarding and keeps many of us in the profession. I have, however, an ongoing concern that our roles often come with a lack of authority, empowerment and control over this process of support. We are often at the beck and call of others, providing support no matter what and usually with limited control or authority to say “no”, “too much” or “too late”. Furthermore, we frequently find ourselves in tense stalemates where expectations of the support we provide do not match the actual remits of our roles.

The more I reflect on this the more worrying it becomes. Suddenly this notion of being responsible for support and help – but without control or authority – raises questions about how pressurised this working environment is. Yet, we accept that responsibility and only question it when things get completely out of control. Is it possible that this continuous pressure to

support, in quite stressful situations, could be having a negative impact on us?

In October 2018, Kosta Tabakakis and Kate Sloane from the University of Otago, Janice Besch from the NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research, and Quyen To from Queensland University of Technology, rolled out an international survey across four research administration associations – ARMA (UK), ARMS (Australia, NZ, Singapore), CARA (Canada) and NCURA (United States). The survey aims to identify the magnitude of burnout among research administrators, in support of their international study uncovering the ‘prevalence of burnout and its association with psychosocial workplace risk factors in research administrators/managers’.

This is an international study looking into burnout in our profession; it seems I am not alone in being concerned about the current status quo.

FEEL ING THE HEATBurnout is a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained and unable to meet constant demands. Kosta et al’s study focuses on the psychosocial workplace risk factors and these can include excessive workloads, conflicting demands and lack of role clarity, lack of involvement in making decisions that affect the worker and lack of influence over the way the job is done.

The project is on-going and their intention is to submit a paper for publication in July 2019. For many of us, the results and subsequent sector deliberations of this work will be of considerable interest, and doubtless ARMA will be considering the ramifications for the UK research management community.

In the meantime, it is important that we do not become complacent to this risk – finding and exploring ways to both mitigate against possible burnout and become more resilient to this threat. The conference is one place where we can build the networks and share learning to strengthen our professional resilience. It is

essential that we understand what burnout is, how we can recognise some of the signs and intervene for ourselves, our colleagues and staff members before reaching that state.

I will offer one final thought. Go home on time and switch off from work. It might not be possible every single working day, but make sure you do it as often as you can. It can make a big difference – putting work into perspective and making you feel human again.

profile

Y VO N N E M O RG A N is the Life Science Research Hub Manager at Swansea University. She has worked at three other Universities; as the Senior Research Support Officer at University of Southampton, Research Funding Consultant at Coventry University and Knowledge Transfer Officer at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

We are often at the beck

and call of others, providing

support no matter what and

usually with limited control

or authority

“ “

No 24

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Z O M B I E A P O C A L Y P S E

Exams are often placed on the same popularity list as dentists, slugs and food poisoning – but ARMA wants

qualifications to be an experience that its members savour. Hamish Macandrew describes how the Association’s

pioneering approach to learning is finally injecting excitement into examinations.

My experience of learning

had been boiled down like a

school cabbage – no colour, no

flavour, no fun

“ “

Istill have nightmares about exams – will the topic I’ve revised come up? Will I remember

all those quotes? Will that weird mnemonic I created resurface? (will I be able to spell ‘mnemonic’?). And all those holidays ruined by revision. Days of staring at notes, trying to write essays from memory, while the clock ticked ever louder, heralding the arrival of the first exam.

Somehow, I survived, and I received a few pieces of paper with passable grades. On my graduation day, I remember relishing the thought of never doing another exam in my life. Why would I go through that hell again? I had aligned exams with something horrific.

My experience of learning had been boiled down like a school cabbage – no colour, no flavour, no fun. Just stuff to contribute to my essential life forces. It wasn’t all ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays’, but let’s face it, the learning experience was a bit grim.

Fast-forward 35 years to my handover with Jo – our former COO – on a summer's day in 2017. I had just started the role and we were talking about ARMA qualifications. Jo was about to begin a major programme to reimagine our Certificates in Research Administration and

Research Management. She spoke about these qualifications with barely-contained excitement. 'Qualifications', I thought. Seriously!? She could see doubt and confusion flashing across my face as my buried past stirred like a zombie in the tomb.

‘It’s not about the piece of paper, Hamish’, she said. ‘It’s about the learning’. My zombie started to retreat.

It quickly became clear that she was right, ARMA qualifications are all about the learning, structuring what you already know and investigating areas you don’t. They also invite you to demonstrate your knowledge in an assignment format that you’re comfortable with, which you can reuse in your job.

Furthermore, there is no looming ‘deadline of doom’. You can take a couple of years, or have the whole thing done in six months. You can also submit one or several assignments at the same time – we now have four submission dates per year, so there’s a lot more flexibility. If your assignment doesn’t quite hit the mark, we’ll even invite you to amend your script and resubmit. Meanwhile, our assessors will provide helpful and constructive suggestions.

With our new CRM-Foundation and CRM-Advanced programmes, you can join a cohort of students – either a virtual online community, or face-to-face, in the case of our workshop-based programme. Everyone covers the learning content in the same order, with webinars or workshops offering the chance to get together with your fellow students and our helpful tutors to discuss how you will take on the assignments.

There are lots of new resources too on our website, including recordings of our webinars. If you get stuck our new Delivery Officer, Katherine Carlyon, is here to help. Our next cohort starts in October 2019. Can you repel your 'inner zombie'?

No 25

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Istarted writing my blog, Research Fundermentals, a decade ago. I wanted a way

to share information, notes and thoughts across the University of Kent, but also to reach out to other research managers and administrators. In effect, I wanted to ask, ‘is it just me, or…?’

I was inspired by the University of Lincoln’s blog, which is a great example of how to use an online platform effectively when communicating with the wider academic community.

Since then I’ve discovered a whole host of compelling online resources that help me in my work but, just as importantly, make me realise I’m not alone.

C ASH FOR QUEST IONSWritten by Adam Golberg of University of Nottingham, this is a really useful, thoughtful and funny resource for those supporting colleagues in the social sciences. Many of the posts, however, are just as relevant to those in other disciplines, such as avoiding cut and paste text in applications, or the more existential questions of whether it’s worth going for research funding at all.

RESEARCH WHISPERERCovering a similar sort of beat on the other side of the world are the magnificent Jonathan O’Donnell and Tseen Khoo (RMIT University), self-styled researcher whisperers. They offer advice on a broad range of subjects, from the specifics of applying, to developing your career. They may be in the southern hemisphere, but the advice is just as relevant to us in the north.

LSE IMPACT BLOG & WONKHEBoth of these bigger, multi-contributor platforms offer commentary and analysis on broader issues in higher education. Worth reading, particularly when a new strategy or roadmap is introduced

by government. They cover everything, from Plan S and metrics, to student recruitment and grade inflation. As an extra perk, Wonkhe hosts 'Registrarism', a wonderful sideways looking at crazy league tables and true crime on campus. Delicious!

ATHENE DONALD, DOROTHY B ISHOP & PAT THOMSONAt the other end of the blogging spectrum are three very personal takes on life as a jobbing academic. Athene Donald (University of Cambridge), Dorothy Bishop (University of Oxford) and Pat Thomson (University of Nottingham) speak with disarming candour about the challenges they’ve faced. Athene, for instance, recently wrote about the problems of interdisciplinarity, and ‘how incompetent one can feel when setting out into the unknown territory of a new field.’ Of the three, Pat offers the most practical advice, writing recently about ‘finding the gap’ in your field, or ‘giving feedback’.

Once you’ve dipped your toe in the water with these, drift out into the deeper waters and swirling currents of thought, analysis and advice. Blogs come and go, but each will help to inform and deepen your own knowledge. And that can only be a good thing.

These days opinions, musings and commentary are

strewn across the internet like cyber confetti. Here’s

Phil Ward’s ultimate guide to navigating the research

management blog labyrinth.

B L O G R O L L

RESEARCH FUNDERMENTALS

UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN BLOG

CASH FOR QUESTIONS

RESEARCH WHISPERER

LSE IMPACT BLOG

WONKHE

REGISTRARISM

ATHENE DONALD

DOROTHY BISHOP

PAT THOMSON

FURTHER READING

WE'RE IN THIS THING TOGETHER

RESEARCH MANAGEMENT TIMES

No 26

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

Research England are already consulting on how research assessment could be

rethought but, REF aside, we must still contend with many other external and internal attempts at ranking, rating, assessing and evaluating the research performed by our organisations. So, what are the new trends, practices, tech and directions for research evaluation?

FALL AND RISEHaving been held up for decades as the ‘gold standard’ of research assessment, peer review has fallen from grace in recent years. We’ve seen an increase in retractions from journals that supposedly offer the very highest standards of peer review, suspicion around the increase in soundness-only peer reviews and an increasing number of studies demonstrating some level of bias.

In wider society we’re also seeing people who are ‘sick of experts’, and within academia there is growing cynicism about whether REF peer reviewers really possess the time and expertise to fairly assess all their allocated outputs. A recent paper from the Centre for Science and Technology Studies called on Research England to release output peer review scores, thereby allowing the level of agreement between reviewers to be scrutinised.

The sector, however, is not ready to give up on peer review, and one of the obvious ripostes to some of the worst excesses of lazy or biased reviews is to open them up. Reviewers will then get credit for their efforts, and the quality is

likely to be higher in the public domain. Another obvious remedy is a commitment to double-blind peer review. Indeed, the University of Nottingham has recently experimented with anonymised recruitment to their engineering faculty, with great success.

Elsewhere we’re seeing new forms of peer review replacing formerly metrics-based exercises. Biosketches – a written narrative about a selection of outputs – are replacing publication metrics in some quarters. Meanwhile, Netherlands-based universities are committed to moving away from metrics in their faculty assessments and the UT Southwestern Medical Centre has introduced interview-only recruitment. Small moves, but perhaps the start of a trend.

RISE OF THE M ACHINES The irresistible draw of technology continues to exert its influence on the world of research assessment. Despite the REF sticking rigidly to its belief in peer review, other national research assessment systems are relying evermore on big data.

In the UK, some have reproduced REF 2014 outcomes at UoA-level using citation data, suggesting there are short-cuts to be had. Professor Marcus Munafo and his team demonstrated that prediction market technology – where individuals trade ‘bets’ on whether a certain outcome will happen or not – also stood a pretty good chance of predicting outcomes.

With REF preparations ramping up, most of us are getting a bit sick of

research evaluation! Changes may be afoot, but will the shake up signal a

positive future?

J U D G E M E N T D AY S

No 27

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

Meanwhile, companies like Meta Bibliometric Intelligence have introduced artificial intelligence (AI) services that mine existing journal literature to predict highly-cited articles and AI technologies are now being developed to assist the peer review process. The problem is that any biases towards topics/researchers/organisations in the past will simply get reproduced in future. While the developers of these technologies are keen to point out that the final decisions rest with humans, the urge to go with the numbers, especially when faced with hundreds of submissions, may prove too tempting.

NEXT GEN With peer review concerns on the one hand and cynicism towards tech on the other, our best bet for sensible research evaluation is a blend of the two, and this is what we’re starting to see in new initiatives. One of my favourites is the Centre for Science and Technology Studies’s evaluative inquiry – a context-specific approach, which involves both evaluator and evaluated in defining methodologies. Crucially, the approach is formative, not summative – the feedback helps the evaluated to move forward, rather than just judging where they’ve been.

In other mixed methods approaches, the ‘Quality and Relevance in the Humanities’ tool offers a framework for collecting both quantitative and qualitative evidence for assessing humanities research. In addition, Canada’s International Development Research Centre has developed the RQ+ method for providing context-specific evaluations. This is of particular benefit to those in the global south, where research may have different goals with different measures of success to those used predominantly in the global north.

M ADE TO MEASUREOne of the characteristics of these new approaches is the move away from a narrow focus on pounds and publications, and consider a broader range of research inputs, outputs and outcomes. We’re all now familiar with measuring research impact, of course, but there are increasing calls to measure – and thereby incentivise – open research, reproducibility and novelty.

Services such as Dimensions and Wisdom.ai are racing to incorporate a wider range of data in their products, and tools like the Open Science Career Assessment Matrix seek to evaluate researchers’ commitment to openness. This is all very well in principle, especially if it loosens the grip of publication-based evaluation, but we should be a bit careful. Our academics are already measured to within an inch of their sanity and introducing even more metrics may

not go down well. The main thing to remember is that measuring is not the only route to achieving behavioural change. Sometimes we forget that.

EVALUATING EVALUATINGHaving evaluated virtually everything else there is to evaluate, the only thing left is evaluation itself. In an interesting development, the Wellcome Trust, in its efforts to implement the principles of Plan S, have now stated that as of 1 January 2020 they will only fund institutions who have committed to the principle of recognising the intrinsic merit of an output, rather than the journal it happens to be published in.

They also added that being a signatory to DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) or the Leiden Manifesto would fulfil this requirement. Again, very laudable, but not without its complications.

So, that’s where research evaluation might take us in the years to come. Whatever transpires, it certainly won’t be boring!

profile

D R E L I Z A B E T H G A D D is Research Policy Manager (Publications) at Loughborough University. She is co-Champion of the ARMA Research Evaluation Special Interest Group and chairs the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) Research Evaluation Working Group. She also chairs the Lis-Bibliometrics forum and founded The Bibliomagician blog.

Our academics are already

measured to within an inch of

their sanity and introducing

even more metrics many not

go down well

“ “

No 28

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

Training and development are a hugely important part of the support that ARMA

provide to the wider research management community. With technical workshops, good practice exchanges, webinars and a host of other events, the programme covers pretty much every element of research management you can think of!

But in an environment that grows ever more complex, where policy, regulation and funding are regularly changing, and research management careers and skillsets blur around the edges with other HE professions, it can be hard to keep up with everything that you might want or need to know. It’s also a challenge to judge whether a hot new topic – or a research management staple that you haven’t given much thought to before – is something that you should invest time and effort in learning more about.

That’s where ARMA Bites come in! ARMA Bites are a brand-new addition to the ARMA training and development programme, designed to give you a quick introduction to different research management subjects. These short videos are just three to 10 minutes long and are free of charge to ARMA members – you can access them whenever you like, as many

ARMA Bites are videos that provide members with a dynamic way

to brush up on subjects, without reading thousands of pages in the

process. In the hectic research management environment, they

provide an efficient alternative for enquiring minds.

A B I T E O F W H A T Y O U F A N C Y

BITE-S IZED GUIDE

• ARMA bites are short video introductions to research management topics

• They are free of charge to ARMA members

• Find them on the ARMA website

• Access them at anytime

• Watch as many times as you like

• Amongfirsttopicsarefulleconomiccostingandcontractlaw

• AvoidFOMOandimpresspeopleintheofficewithyourknowledge

No 29

T H E P R O T A G O N I S T

These short videos are just

three to 10 minutes long and are

free of charge to ARMA members

– you can access them whenever

you like, as many times as

you like

“

“

times as you like, from the ARMA website. They will cover a variety of research management staples, like full economic costing, specialist technical subjects – export control, for instance – and hot topics, which may be new or simply experiencing renewed importance in a research management context, such as safeguarding.

You might want to watch an ARMA Bite to help you decide whether to pursue further training on a subject, or because a little bit (bite?) of information will add context to other aspects of your work. Then again, you may just have FOMO (fear of missing out!) and want to be that person in the office who knows a little bit of something about everything. Whatever your reason, we hope you’ll agree that ARMA Bites will become a valuable and easily accessible resource that ARMA members will return to again and again.

YOU TALKING TO MEOne of the amazing things about the ARMA community is that our Special Interest Groups, Good Practice Exchanges, Conference and other events ensure you can always find a colleague willing to share their knowledge and experience. The amount of expertise across our membership is enormous and we’d like to harness some of that in support of ARMA Bites.

We’re on the look out for ARMA members who would be interested in recording an ARMA Bite on their own specialist research management subject for the benefit of fellow members. The videos are easy to record, you don’t need a fancy camera crew, just a PC or laptop with a microphone (and maybe a webcam, but not essential) and ARMA will help you out with the rest.

You also don’t need to be an experienced trainer or presenter or be the world’s foremost expert on your chosen subject. We’ve all got something to offer, and your three to 10 minutes on the fundamentals of your area of work could be exactly what a fellow ARMA member is looking for.

So, if you’ve got something to say about, for example, REF environment statements, evidencing expenditure on grants, setting out a response to a policy consultation, theory of change or any of the other myriad subjects that form the wonderful, rich, exciting, frustrating world that is research management, watch out for the ARMA Bites 'expressions of interest' invitations, which will be arriving soon through our Special Interest Groups and member newsletters.

profile

J E N N I F E R S T E RG I O U is Director of Research and Innovation Services at Northumbria University with responsibility for a wide range of research strategy, policy and support services. She joined ARMA’s Board of Directors in 2016 and is now Director of Training & Development.

No 30

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

A M I L E I N M Y S H O E S

No 31

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

Iam the Research Office", is how I respond when people ask what I do as Research &

Knowledge Exchange Manager for the Royal College of Music. When I started work back in the Dark Ages, I was advised to find a speciality and stick to it, as employers didn’t want generalists – they wanted experts!

I ignored this advice, ploughed my own furrow and had a succession of different jobs in related fields. This sort of approach would later be labelled ‘a portfolio career’. Who could have foretold that my current role would give me the opportunity to apply this accumulated experience with my degree in Music and Inter Arts Studies? I am not an academic, but I do understand enough about music not to feel like a fraud when I’m talking to Royal College of Music (RCM) researchers. Being a performer also helps, as ‘creative types’ definitely have different mind-sets to, as it were, ‘normal’ academics.

Having worked in both arenas, I now know that challenges for research managers are similar, whether you’re working in a larger HEI or a small and specialist institution. One of the most useful things to come out of last summer’s INORMS conference was validation of how complex research management is becoming – it really is as difficult as we think it is. As soon as I’ve just about mastered one aspect of the job, yet another edict comes from the government/funding councils.

RHY THM OF THE DAY Thank goodness I can pick the collective brains of networks such as ARMA’s Small and Specialist SIG Working Group, PRAG-UK (for practice research), and co-pilot institutions in Jisc’s Open Research Hub project. I regularly meet up with research managers from other small and specialist institutions, so we can cry on each other’s shoulders, whinge about writing yet another report and generally let off steam. You know who you are – thank you!

I enjoy the autonomy of being able to problem-solve and come up with solutions which can quickly be put into place. I work very closely with the Director of Research who understands my strengths, and the Finance Team, who have been a huge source of support. I also line manage a part-time Research Finance Administrator

and a PhD student helper for the RCM’s EPrints repository.

I like variety, so having an ever-changing task list keeps me on my toes and boredom is not a factor. I’ll give you a flavour of the sheer breadth of tasks which come my way.

Different researchers need different levels of support so, on a given day, I may have to dig right in and act as a non-expert reviewer, write sections of a proposal such as a data management plan, structure the budget or act as facilitator for more experienced members of staff.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve overseen the submission of a couple of Horizon 2020 bids, and negotiated last minute budget changes with lead international partners. Having written the RCM’s HEIF Strategy, I decided we needed to get cracking with our new Knowledge Exchange Projects Fund, so I have been tweaking proposals and budgets for the first two pilot projects, which are due to be completed by the end of July. One is from the Centre for Performance Science about music technology and cultural venues, the other is an Education CPD proposal about early years music provision.

REF-wise, I’m Secretary for our REF Working Group and have just organised a series of REF Surgeries for the summer term, to give our submittable researchers an overview of what’s expected. We’re not big enough to have a CRIS – which means I rely on spreadsheets. I’ve been adding as many REF-able outputs as I can find to Sharepoint and depositing them in EPrints. We

don’t have the luxury of a dedicated repository manager, so I have responsibility for open access – again, thank goodness for Jisc Open Research Hub, without which I wouldn’t have known where to start.

RIGHT NOTES , WRONG ORDERAn occupational hazard is to receive peculiar music-based requests from members of the public or media. Here are a couple of recent random requests for information that I’ve passed on to the Library: ‘Dear Dr Hewett, please could you let me know how to arrange a visit to the Frank Bridge Collection at the RCM? I’m focussing on the piano sonata and subsequent chamber works and other pieces that employ the Bridge chord, and would very much like to examine some of his sketches'.

And: ‘Dear Emma, I am a researcher on the BBC history series Who Do You Think You Are? Our current research has led us to a family of musical ancestors, although we are struggling to find much detailed information on them. Do you hold any billings from Southwark/Surrey side music halls during the mid-19th century?’

Well, I didn’t know there was such a thing as a ‘Bridge’ chord and, as far as I know, the RCM has never been involved with music halls!

What exactly do you do? A question people in research management are faced with more than most. In a new,

demystifying series, one individual takes us on a magical mystery tour of their unique professional life. Let’s

meet the Royal College of Music’s Emma Hewett.

profile

E M M A H E W E T T has been Research & KE Manager at the Royal College of Music since 2015. She has a creative industries background at Channel 4 and as an actor’s agent. emma.hewett@rcm.ac.uk twitter @MusicResearchKE

I meet up with research

managers from other small

institutions, so we can cry on

each other’s shoulders, whinge

about writing reports and

generally let off steam

““

"

No 32

T H E P R O TA G O N I S T

In a new series, we investigate the

weird and wonderful ways in which

people arrive at the hallowed gates

of research management. It’s rarely

a straightforward journey!

W H E R E I C A M E F R O M F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

My role was to develop and

launch a range of bread and

morning products“ “

My name is Yvonne McMeel and my career path has been quite varied,

to say the least. The first of my degrees was in Consumer Science at Cardiff University. After graduating, I worked in the food industry as a new product development manager for a company called Brace’s Bakery in South Wales.

I was a knowledge transfer partnership associate and the main focus of my role was to develop and launch a range of bread and morning products with major UK retailers, as well as re-branding the company’s product portfolio, resulting in greater brand awareness and recognition.

After five years of establishing the merits of toast and cereal, I took a career break and went travelling for three years across South America, New Zealand and Australia. As well as being an incredible cultural adventure, it was also fascinating to contrast food production in those regions with the processes in the UK. I couldn’t entirely switch off from work!

I eventually returned home and completed a degree and postgraduate certificate in nutrition. During this period, I worked on a freelance basis and set up my nutrition consultancy business, working in Harrods, the world-famous retail store, and on the National Diabetes Prevention Programme.

During the nutrition degree, I also had the opportunity to work on several research projects, which gave me great insight into the complex world of research and sparked an interest in working in it. Having completed my second

degree, I worked at Imperial College London as a research assistant, working primarily on the Airwave Health Monitoring Study.

This was a key role as it gave me experience of working in a large interdisciplinary team – while also equipping me with the unique range of skills required to thrive in it. This position led to me managing the creation of the Food and Nutrition Network at Imperial College, where I operated across inter/multidisciplinary teams within the university and established groups capable of responding to research calls.

I joined the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health in 2018 and in my role as partnerships manager, I am responsible for actively identifying and developing opportunities for multi-disciplinary collaboration, both among researchers and other academics at the University of Reading, and with external stakeholders who share the Institute’s strategic ambitions. Supporting European Institute of Innovation & Technology Food (EIT Food) projects and partnerships is a primary focus of my activity, as well as identifying and supporting colleagues for industrial collaborations.

On reflection, my career has had three central themes – education, nutrition and the frequent need to challenge myself in new areas. Ambition has been a defining aspect and the driving force behind my professional life – in the final analysis, that’s about evolving as an individual, but also about making positive changes in wider society.

Our annual conference gives delegates the opportunity to network with over 600 individuals in the profession, meet exhibitors and sponsors who provide a wide range of services to support your roles, and take part in interactive sessions that develop your professional knowledge and skills.

ICC WALES2020

ARMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Follow the conversation on twitter with #ARMA2020

www.armaconference.com

Join us for the next ARMA Annual Conference on

10th -11th June 2020 at the ICC Wales, Newport

S U P P O R T I N G P R O F E S S I O N A L I S M

SUM IT UP

Evaluation is not exactly everyone's cup

of tea but changes are afoot and new

methods could signal fewer headaches

BRIGHT S IDE

The industrial strategy has credible

prospects for the humanities and,

delivered carefully, may provide

salvation in several areas of research

LOST IN SPAIN

Research management doesn't always

have an equivalent profession in other

countries as our Spanish correspondent

explains

ISSUE 9 Spring 2 0 1 9

NEVER MIND BREXIT

HERE’S SOME

rESearCh oPtim

ism

The

The PR

OTA

GO

NIS

T Supporting Professionalism

ISSN

2397-1665Issue 9 Spring 20

19 www.arm

a.ac.uk