Abstract

With the growing interest in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary (ITD) research to address urgent societal challenges, from the global pandemic to the climate and biodiversity crises, researchers are increasingly called upon to lead collaborative research projects and work with teams across disciplines and sectors. How does this expand the role of RMAs? The recent H2020 project SHAPE-ID synthesised knowledge on the challenges of ITD research and identified recommendations and a toolkit to improve supports and understanding. A Guide for Pre-Award RMAs produced for SHAPE-ID and presented at the 2021 EARMA conference proposed that RMAs have an important role to play in helping researchers respond to such challenges, from building a pipeline to supporting ITD team-building and proposal development. RMAs can also contribute to connecting ITD knowledge and best practice within a university, where such knowledge can often be dispersed and fragmented, and they often have significant 'interactional expertise’ from routinely bridging disciplinary and sectoral perspectives. Furthermore, RMAs may play important roles in post-award project management of ITD research projects, acting as knowledge brokers, facilitators and integrators. In our research-intensive university, our interdisciplinary research team supports Horizon Europe collaborative proposal development and works to build capacity for ITD research through events and guidance. Building on these insights about what roles RMAs can play and our team’s experience to date, we are designing a benchmarking survey to explore the range of activities RMAs in European universities currently undertake to support ITD, whether directly (through new initiatives or explicit remits) or indirectly (as part of the daily practice of proposal development, researcher development or project management).

This session is a follow-on from a presentation on the potential contributions of RMAs to advancing institutional support for ITD research , and the presentation of the preliminary results of a survey exploring the various ways RMAs are currently supporting ITD development (Tuesday 25 April 3 p.m. - 3:30 p.m, North Hall). It will give attendees the opportunity to share and contrast their own institutional experiences, to build a community of RMAs interested in supporting ITD research, and to propose other ways in which to develop the ideas discussed in the presentation further. Attendees who were unable to attend the initial session are also welcome.