Abstract

The common challenges facing humankind are a driver for higher levels of cooperative effort amongst researchers, institutions, countries and regions. The imperatives for increased research collaboration also affords unique challenges for the management and administration of research support. It is relevant for institutions to also explore how their research support services can effectively adapt to support the internationalisation agenda; the global collaborative aspirations and concerns of researchers; and to equip research support personnel and services to manage secure and maintain efficient and effective international consortia.

What therefore are the tips, tools and techniques for research managers to effectively support and optimise international collaborative research work? This poster/session is focused on understanding some of the approaches and strategies to manage collaboration from a practitioner perspective, and highlights the results, findings and implications of a collaborative international researcher survey conducted jointly in UK and Malaysia.

The poster/session will cover the phase 1 and phase 2 results collected from the selected UK and South east Asia respondents in 2021 providing the key findings and implications from the cross regional comparative study.

The poster/session will identify the main international collaboration drivers, the international collaborative challenges faced across the project lifecycle and the effects and impact of the pandemic on international collaboration effort, all from the perspective of a cohort of researchers at different levels of experience in the UK and Malaysia. The role of research support services is considered in the survey and new ideas and suggestions are shared providing useful insights on how research support service practitioners could enhance their contribution to their institution's international research collaborations.

More explicitly, the poster/session will cover:

-the importance of collaborating internationally,
-reasons to collaborate or not to collaborate
-common challenges faced in managing international partnerships
-main challenges in implementing international collaboration
-the role of research managers and administrators in managing international collaboration
-the effects of the pandemic on international collaborations