Abstract

The research services at the University of Antwerp have grown in line with the rapid growth of the research activity at the university overall. Once the number of people involved in the central offices passed 50, a clear need for a review of our purpose and activities arose. I therefore initiated a comprehensive process of feedback from academics and researchers, 360° evaluation of the heads of unit, and coaching towards fine-tuning the why, the how and the what of the services. This resulted in the DRIVERS acronym, which structures the services of the department for all involved. Moreover, we defined three operational and three strategic priorities for the further development of our services. Finally, the name of the department changed to RIVA, Research, Innovation & Valorisation Antwerp, in order to more clearly reflect the scope of the department's activities.
In this presentation I will reflect on my experiences as head of department in starting and steering this change process. I will highlight what we learned and where we struggled as management team, and how we are following up with the introduction of client-centered performance management for the university's research services.
The main messages learned are that (1) having the why, the how and the what of our research, innovation and valorisation offices clearly defined proved beneficial to collaboration among all involved, and that (2) in order to achieve performance improvement in the longer term the research office needs to look beyond the set of KPI's set by the government.