Abstract

Drawing from experiences of the ADMIN project, we would like to present key results from our research in very short form to participants and invite them to share their experiences with us to further refine project work. The main objective of the project (Boosting Research Administration Skills and Services) with partners from five European countries (2020-2022) is to contribute to capacity building of research support staff and enhancing the prospect for Research & Innovation (R&I) projects and initiatives in European funding schemes. The second objective is to strengthen and expand the network of research support staff across project partner countries and beyond so as to allow free flow of information, knowledge and exchange of best practices hence increasing the prospects for excellence in research administration. The overall aim is to boost the capacities of research administrators by improving their performance, highlighting the visibility of their work and outcomes and strengthening relations with academic/scientific staff. The target groups are early stage research administrators who are faced to the challenge to respond to every-day tasks on R&I projects, academic staff, stakeholders and students.
We would like to discuss some major questions central to the project with conference participants: Are you familiar with innovative best practice approaches for research management (case studies from various institutions)? What are daily challenges/problems you are facing in your work environment? Results of the discussions will be incorporated in project outputs: an educational video "alone in the office" and a project management handbook including case studies with best practice approaches from varous countries, among them the Application Lab at Harz University/Germany.
The session is mainly directed at early stage research managers, but not limited to them. Participants will gain the opportunity to reflect on their own daily professional work (and especially main challenges they come across), learn about best pratice approaches in research management (support service case studies from various institutions) and network with a user-oriented research project that aims to strengthen mainly early stage research managers by providing a project management handbook, an educational video and a learning/teaching/training activity in 2022.