Abstract

BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre is Ireland’s national bioeconomy research centre, established to promote and develop Ireland’s bioeconomy through excellent research and innovation. While working on ambitious funding targets, BiOrbic’s pre-award team must also contribute to centre-level annual reporting, scientific progress oversight, education and public engagement activities as well as organisation of events and project management for ongoing research projects.
This case study illustrates how we work to ensure we meet our research funding targets (through call mapping, organising researcher training events, consortium management, proposal support) but yet contribute to the overall success of the research centre through various other activities.
Contributing to several areas within research centre management is rewarding and the breadth of work offers huge opportunity for the pre-award team to develop their skills and facilitates career development. The team have developed an array of skills in various areas including but not limited to event management, project management, report writing, finance, team building, science communication, recruitment, knowledge in data management and research integrity. However, the risks include dilution of our core expertise in research funding and difficulties in balancing priorities. To respond to these challenges, we have developed an operational strategy for our pre-award team to go hand in hand with the research funding strategy for the centre. The goals of the operational strategy are aligned with centre goals and the strategy is updated with centre management on annual basis.
Take-away messages: Opportunities to contribute widely and deepen expertise must be balanced with conscious effort to maintain focus and clear priorities