Abstract

Do you ever feel that everybody has got it all figured out apart from you? Conferences like these tend to be places where people claim to know it all. Anxiety inducing much? There is a solution to this problem; let’s share our worst practices! All the mistakes you have made in trying to bring about an institutional culture of societal impact could be brought to the table.
Have you ever sat in front of a group of well-established researchers, you hear yourself rambling on about societal impact, trying to squeeze all 30 slides into your ten minute presentation, only to be met with rather confused stares, a silence that lasts way too long, and a question that showed very clear that nothing of what you said was even vaguely understood (in my case it was: “So you could help us make youtube videos right?).
Have you ever experienced how researchers are really motivated to have societal impact when there is a chance of receiving funding? And how that same motivation disappears like snow in the sun when you approach them when they are already funded? Or have you ever got the “what you suggest sounds like a lot of work and we are already quite busy so could you please not bother me with this” (granted, the last bit is not always vocalized) answer back from a researcher?
This session is for all research support staffers who want to confess the mistakes they made in promoting an institutional culture geared towards societal impact. This session is for those who, over fifteen minutes, feel they don’t want to pretend to be an expert. We take comfort in each other’s mistakes, and we are honest about our worst practices. Spill it, don’t hold back, and we make sure we all leave this session a bit more sane than how we entered. Let’s fail together.

Take away message: Just because we all present ourselves so eloquently in conferences like this does not mean we got it all figured out. Being vocal about our mistakes ensures others don't make the same mistakes all over.