EARMA Conference Oslo

Bringing an century old institution into modern science landscape

The case of University of Coimbra Institute of Legal Research

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: Case Study

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

The University of Coimbra Institute of Legal Research (UCILeR) has two official starting dates: the first in 1911 and the other in 2013. This double birth still marks the identity and the understanding of how science is done at this research institute. The analysis of institutional history is important to define its position in the scientific field, and to understand researcher’s identity. It is relevant because institutional history is one of the great conditions for science management.

Career development programmes for researchers: A strategic approach

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: Case Study

Topic: Professional Development and Recognition

Why do institutions establish career development programmes for researchers? Are such programmes necessarily a privilege for the select few that already have a solid financial platform? May they help institutions reach strategic goals? If so, what goals are more important: Ensuring that academic staff are acquainted with research ethics, regulations and laws; increasing external funding; or creating a better connection between research, education and innovation? Should programmes be shared with others – across disciplines and institutions – to enhance understanding, or should they be aimed at increasing one’s own competitiveness? These questions do not have a definite answer, and need to be revisited regularly.

Research leadership programmes

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: Case Study

Topic: Professional Development and Recognition

The University of Oslo Research Leadership Programmes have run since 2007, and offer one course (“Starting Level”) for researchers who recently have been given leadership responsibilities and one (“Consolidating Level”) for more experienced research leaders. The programmes are tailored specifically for research leaders on the operational level, with an emphasis on personal development and peer learning. About 700 research leaders have participated over the years, one fourth of these coming from other Norwegian institutions.

Talent development for young researchers

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: Case Study

Topic: Professional Development and Recognition

The NMBU Talent Program is a career development program that supports young, talented researchers in their effort to develop as researchers. The program provides an opportunity to build on skills and competences that will improve the chances for attaining funding from top research programs nationally and internationally. The duration of the program is three-years and includes support per participant with (1) Funds for competence building, (2) Allocation to a mentor, and (3) Participation in biannual meetings.

Assessment of the impact of research and innovation projects sponsored by the European Commission: insights from a case studies approach

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Impact

Research impact assessment is a “wicked” issue as it involves necessarily tangible and intangible aspects. This may include e.g. scientific outputs and economic impacts, but also tacit knowledge, social and environmental impacts, by nature often more difficult to appraise. The topic of circular bioeconomy, at the intersection of the circular economy and bioeconomy concepts, will be used as a case study to demonstrate how the impact of research projects on the society at large can be assessed. Those attending will gain a practical perspective about how to assess research impact and about short, medium and long-term effects of research topics driven by public policies.

CHALLENGING ‘THE NORMS’ IN ACADEMIA

IS THE SECTOR LOSING ITS APPETITE FOR CHANGE?

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Impact

Over the last few years, many academics have become
increasingly disillusioned by ‘the norms’ within research culture that are
holding back progress. The academy’s tie to incentives and its influence over
career progression, a trend towards insecure contracts, and a lack of
diversity, are among the issues that have come to the fore. COVID has
compounded these issues, leading to greater insecurity and deepening
disparities. The need for real societal change to encourage a fairer, more
equitable environment for research to thrive is becoming increasingly more
urgent.

In this session we will share a whistle-stop tour of Emerald's '2021 Time
for Change' report. Now in its third year, it reflects the views of over
2,000 researchers world-wide.  The report looks at trends in attitudes to
research evaluation, academic culture, openness and transparency and the
evolving role of the publisher. It explores the challenges researchers face,
and the impact on personal lives and career aspirations.

Claire Jackson, Emerald’s Head of Community Engagement, will
present the main findings, explore regional differences, and give examples of where
positive change is happening plus, discuss the growing role of publishers as
facilitators of research impact. 

Caddies of science: Project Managers

Having centrally employed project managers makes everyone's life better.

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Project Management

We all know a Principal Investigator (PI) who swore off being a coordinator because of the administrative load. They all complain about being inundated with the bureaucratic procedures , chasing partnes, keeping track of rules, deadlines etc., and not being able to do their science which is why they join the project in the first place. Just like a caddy carrying the burden of the golf clubs for the golfer and assisting with guidance on the way to success, a Project Manager (PM) working with the PI can take the administrative burden of being the coordinator of a collaborative project.
Many PIs, especially when they first try coordinatorship, try to do the project management themselves, later they push the mundane(!) tasks to a Postdoc or a PhD student. This of course decrease the time that Postdoc or PhD student can dedicate to their science and worse when they leave the knowledge/experience accrued during the project leaves the organisation with them. Employing a PM for the project duration is another option, which is of course a temporary arrangement and the PM in that position tends to start looking for their next assignment towards the end of the project losing focus or moves on at a crucial point of time. Some entities have a central project management office that take over the PM role but this of course incurs quite an economic load to the central funds.
At KTH we have our PMs employed centrally at Research Support Office and assigned to the projects according to their availability and fit, both in personality and skill. PMs keep records of their hours per project and then the projects are invoiced internally based on the timesheets. Every PM is only assigned to projects for parts of their time in order to have the possibility of supporting new proposals, develop guides and temples for the greater benefit of all our PIs such as risk management, change management, quality management, management structure, etc., which can all be customize by the PM to fit the project’s needs. We try to match our PMs with PIs at the proposal stage to coach the PI to increase the likelihood of approval as well as building personal relationships and trying out the personal chemistry before the projects are even approved. We are currently working on lessons to be included in our regular proposal workshop for PIs provided centrally and planning to create our own project management methodology for collaborative scientific projects, based on PM2, which will take KTH’s internal rules and regulations into account.
With this model of centrally employed, project funded PMs the university gets to keep the knowledge/experience accrued in house, the PM gets to have stability on both employment face and area they work on, namely EU-funded collaborative scientific projects, the EC gets to interact with PMs that are already experienced in EU projects and the PIs have their project run smoother and they and their teams can focus on their science.

From Strategy, to planning, to execution

How theory collides with reality in a practical case study

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Policy, Strategy, Evaluation and Foresight

For any organisation the journey from initial ideas, through to a high level strategy, then detailed planning and actual implementation is fraught with challenges, but also filled with the promise of a better future. This talk will cover current thinking in organisational strategy, highlight key implementation differences between corporate and university strategy as identified by EARMA surveys, and walk through how University College Dublin managed the journey from overall university strategy, to research strategy, to annual planning, and execution. The talk will close with a live survey of the audience's experience of developing and implementing strategy.

Impact evaluation of introducing a Project Manager Program in a big institution

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

In past editions, I exposed my experience in a small institution when I joined the CMRB as Head of Projects Office in 2018 and we integrated the Project Manager figure in the department. In 2020, CMRB merged with IDIBELL, a big institution, and the challenge became to implement the tailored PM figure into a bigger and already structured Institution. After two years applying this model, we have evaluated in both researchers and RMA the impact of the merge in their day-to-day operation. In this communication, I will present the results of the survey and our experience during this merging period.

Impacting Research Management through North-South capacity development partnerships (30 min presentation)

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Impact

There is rigorous
debate as to where "academic impact" (i.e. peer-reviewed
publications) ends and "research impact" (i.e. beyond the academe)
begins. The StoRM and the TReMOR Projects are two recent, international North-South
partnerships towards improving Research Management capacity across the
participating countries across SADC, the UK, and the EU. This presentation
showcases their capacity development initiatives, and how their online
resources, under the "new normal", have impacted RM capacity
development on the African continent and further afield.

Look inside – think beyond: A toolbox to support researchers in finding alternative ways of exploiting project results

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Impact

Impact is becoming increasingly important to funding institutions, but for researchers who are the experts for excellence in their research areas it is not an easy point to address in project proposals. Our exploitation toolbox aims to bridge this valley.

Its presentation will give an overview of how researchers can be coached their way across this bridge: to align their excellence in research with stakeholders’ expectations and to find alternative ways for exploiting their results.

Open Data - How can I make it happen?

Putting Open Data into practice with your CRIS system

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Open Science & Responsible Research & Innovation

The past few years, driven by funder mandates, research data management (RDM) has taken increasingly center stage in the context of managing the research life cycle. There has been a rapid growth in the appetite for making research data publicly available. In response, the number of open data repositories has risen sharply, along with open data requirements attached to research funding. Many involved in the research ecosystem, from policy makers and funders to publishers and institutions, have adopted new research data guidelines and practices. While many welcome this greater transparency, for those tasked with managing and analyzing their institution’s research outputs and their impact, the shift to extend the research life cycle management to research data brings a unique set of challenges. In this presentation, the team of a leading university will share their experiences with advancing their RDM practices by leveraging their Current Research Information System (CRIS) and specialized RDM tools, and how this has helped them shaping their strategic thinking throughout the research lifecycle. 

Open Research: From Thought to Deed

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Open Science & Responsible Research & Innovation

Openness as a concept in scholarly communication is gaining increased traction with more and more universities and research institutes adopting the concept. But is it just a concept or even worst an aspiration?  This paper will discuss in
practical terms the step involved in implementing open research in a single
institution and in a network of 
universities aligning with national and European policies and
infrastructures. The challenges, cultural ethos and successes will be examined
with a view to highlighting what works and what does not work. Ultimately, we
will attempt to answer the question is Open practical?

Open innovation between Universities of Applied Sciences

A case study of national Centres of Expertise in NL

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Impact

Universities of Applied Science play a key role in innovation for tackling the societal missions of our time. This paper presents guidelines and best practices in the challenge to form nation wide cooperation between UAS research groups and societal actors.
It is presented in the form of a case study of the Dutch Centres of Expertise that have been set-up in 2018 as an instrument to create critical mass in practise based research.
The author is initiator of several centres and works across the institutional borders of universities, industry, public services and citizen stakeholder groups. With a multitude of centres focussed around six of the national innovation missions, a vibrant network of researchers is build that delivers impact. The presentation explains the reserach management principles that are applied to stimulate coorperation, interdisciplinary work and entrepreneurship.

Paths towards the creation of RMAs professional communities

A comparative perspective between Italy and Portugal

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Professional Development and Recognition

This presentation will focus on possible paths towards the creation of RMAs professional communities in European countries where formal RMA associations do not exist, on the basis of two case studies: Portugal and Italy.
Starting from an overview of the main RMA associations worldwide, we will describe the paths developed by the two countries towards the establishment of a community of professionals, focusing on the main activities implemented so far, similarities and differences. Eventually, we’ll make some considerations on the expected impact on professional recognition.

In particular we will present the experience of two informal networks of professionals working as research support staff:
• the Platform of Professionals at the Interface of Science, established in Portugal in 2016
• a working group on RMAs under the Research Unit of the Italian National Association of University General Directors (CODAU) created in Italy in 2019/20.  The Platform of Professionals at the Interface of Science (PIC) is an informal Portuguese network, that integrates research managers and administrators working in the different areas of R&I management and communication, technology transfer and value creation. With the mission of promotion and enhancing the professional recognition of such professionals, PIC has engaged in several policy actions aiming at promoting the inclusion of RMAs in the R&I decision-making processes in Portugal.

The Italian working group is a network of Italian professionals who work in the universities in different areas of R&I management, communication and evaluation activities. It has been established with the aim of analyzing and endorsing the professional role of RMAs in Italy, in particular through the creation of a professional development framework, which identifies and maps the skills, areas of activity and training needs of Italian RMAs. The purpose was that of increasing awareness about the role and the potential of this activities within the national RMA community.

We will present a comparative analysis among the two experiences at the national level and lessons-learned on the followings:
• Mapping the community and professionals’ definition
• Raising awareness and Communication
• Training initiatives
• National context and policies towards professional recognition.    Results will show common traits and differences and highlight the importance of a bottom- up or co- creation approach in raising awareness about the RMA profession. Suggestions will be offered to colleagues who wish to implement similar activities in their own contexts.

Quality assessment of RDI at Turku UAS: Research Group evaluation process and the role of RMA in RDI quality

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

One of the core tasks of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences is to deploy RDI activities that promote working life and regional development whilst contributing to the reform of the economic structure of the region. R&D activities were added to the statutory tasks of UASs in 2003 and innovation activities in 2015. Given its short history, this has had implications to the quality culture of UAS. Over the past few years, the development of RDI processes at Turku UAS has been strengthened. We present a case study depicting the connection between RDI and the internal Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) assessment cycle: reflecting how it is working at Turku UAS for Research Groups’ evaluation and the role of Research Managers and Administrators (RMA).In Finnish HEIs the assessment of RDI is done as part of an internal self-evaluation cycle and the PDCA concept is widely implemented. The PDCA cycle is applied at Turku UAS and the quality system covers all areas and functions. The Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC) audits quality management of research activities at Finnish HEIs. While many European HEIs focus primarily on the quality of the output, FINEEC concentrates on the quality systems that monitor and develop the quality of the processes as well as outputs.Turku UAS’ RDI assessment includes 1) RDI projects’ lifecycle evaluation, 2) Research Groups’ evaluation. In this session we focus on Research Group’s evaluation, a process conducted in two parts: a self-evaluation questionnaire of the Groups via an online questionnaire and an internal activity report compiling information from various sources (financial information; Finnish Research Publication Portal). To enforce the use of collected information, an annual target discussion with the Research Groups has been added to the process.The role of the RMA in PDCA and Research groups’ evaluation is two-folded. First, providing tools for assessment and offering compiled, visualised monitoring reports for decision making (Check-part of the PDCA). Second, unravelling the need for support in certain themes, knowledge, and issues that Research Groups have shortage and wish to develop (Act-part of PDCA) e.g., knowledge in new funding sources, Open Science, incorporation of Sustainable Development Goals, innovations, and tools for goal-oriented stakeholder networking.Turku UAS has conducted an evaluation of the Research Groups in the same format for the last four years. During this time, we have learned that there is a discrepancy between set RDI goals and available knowledge and/or human resources The top challenges vary from year to year, but internal and external cooperation and networking is a recurring theme. Establishing and maintaining cooperation is a long-term and complex task which, in most cases, relies on individuals’ personal contacts. Only synergy of operations (education, RDI, business), multidisciplinary cooperation and wider stakeholder networking can be solutions to this matter. It also craves more evolved quality culture and completion of the PDCA cycleWe wish to understand how does your organisation deal with RDI assessment. What kind of practices you have?

RMA's role in deepening stategic partnerships between universities (Pecha Kucha)

How can RMA's strengthen international (research) collaborations bottom-up? Discussion using a case study: institutional partnership Radboud University Nijmegen, University of Glasgow

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: International

Strategic partnerships
are agreed at the highest level of any institution, but it is RMA’s who have a
significant part of the responsibility for ensuring successful exploitation of
the research aspects of those partnerships.

Radboud
University and University of Glasgow have been partners
since 2018. This partnership entails funds to increase cooperation between
researchers and support staff, as well as enhance staff mobility.

The funding
is to kick start deeper collaboration
between researchers at both institutions, such as working together on Horizon applications. Key is to make both the fund and collaboration known and
applicable throughout both universities. RMA’s can play an active role in
supporting researchers with consortium building and are therefore perfectly
placed to help deepening existing institutional partnerships.

This
session will discuss how RMAs can utilise such a partnership,  facilitating increased collaboration between
researchers and European projects.

Research Data Management: Some Challenges

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Open Science & Responsible Research & Innovation

There is a growing wish for science to become as open as possible, with the aim to increase the impact, reproducibility, interdisciplinarity, and efficiency of research. Two important elements in this respect are open research data and FAIR data management (Wilkinson et al., 2016), which are increasingly becoming priorities on the agenda of funding agencies and governments. Open research data refers to freely accessible information in the form of text, numbers, images, audio, etc., that has been used and/or produced in research endeavors; it includes the data underlying scientific publications, as well as their metadata (European Commission, 2019; Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, 2018; OECD, 2015; The Research Council of Norway, 2017; UNESCO, 2012). The FAIR principles stand for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (Wilkinson et al., 2016). In a nutshell, Findable refers to the presence of metadata and a unique and persistent identifier for a dataset; Accessible means that a dataset and the accompanying metadata are understandable to both humans and machines, and are deposited in a trustworthy repository; Interoperable refers e.g. to the use of accepted vocabularies for the data and metadata; and Reusable involves e.g. the use of standard licenses for a given dataset (LIBER, 2020). The main purpose of FAIR is to increase the quality of research data, and to facilitate their interpretation and potential re-use.Despite the increased attention on the matter, there are still challenges to make research data as open and as FAIR as possible. We present and discuss some of these challenges inspired by a survey among academic staff at Nord university. An example of such challenges is that researchers need to adhere to GDPR, which imposes several restrictions on the handling of personal data. In particular, researchers in the social sciences, who often work with data involving human participants, experience a tension between open research data and GDPR. In this respect, many issues arise. For instance, how to anonymize research data containing personal information while keeping most of their value for future re-use. Another example refers to the presence of various traditions and practices across research fields, and the need to operationalize the FAIR principles accordingly. For instance, building upon existing research data in the social sciences may be challenging not only because of the variety in types of data (e.g., qualitative interviews, observational data, and data from surveys), but also due to the plurality of theoretical perspectives and philosophical views, where knowledge is advanced not necessarily through a process of accumulation, but through the illumination of different aspects of a phenomenon. The topics of open research data and FAIR data management are complex, and discussing the challenges associated with them is important. Such a discussion can promote a reflection on how support services within research data management can assist researchers meet the increasing demands from funding agencies, governments, and publishers regarding open and FAIR research data.

The rise of the Italian Research Managers and Administrators Association

A SWOT analysis

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: EARMA and professional associations

The
presentation aims to analyze the case study of the creation, establishment, and
development of the envisaged
Italian Research Managers and Administrators (RMAs) Association, under an
innovative perspective, not previously covered at a national level.

Specifically,
we are carrying out a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
Analysis of the internal and external factors that have a potential positive or
negative impact on the launch of the Italian RMAs Association by an RMAs
informal working group. 

GDPR and Protection of Personal Data in Horizon Europe

A Case Study for Research Managers and Administrators

Format: Oral 60 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Project Management

This live session asks participants to interact with characters from a case study on data protection issues exposed by research partners awarded with a fictional grant. Participants will play the roles of data controller and processor, committed to handle and store personal data for research purposes. Research managers will work together to seek compliance of research activities with GDPR. Within an unconventional frame, we will share our personal experience and discuss best practices.

How to improve researcher competencies in policy advice by creating a trainer network across Europe?

Format: Oral 60 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Impact

This session gives an insight into how both a research policy unit at a university and a training unit at JCR are jointly looking towards increasing researcher competencies in advising and shaping policy.

The transformation of basic research governance in Hungary: implications for research management

Format: Oral 60 Minutes

Category: Case Study

Topic: Policy, Strategy, Evaluation and Foresight

The presentation aims to analyse the interplay between organizational transformation, staff development and regulatory framework in case of the transformation of the research governance of a given country. The focus is on Hungary, where a new actor, the Eötvös Loránd Research Network was established two years ago.

A holistic approach to researcher’s career development

The role of the Office for Coordination and Research Management

Format: Pecha Kucha

Category: Case Study

Topic: Policy, Strategy, Evaluation and Foresight

The Office for Coordination and Research Management promotes researchers career development, facilitating and aligning actions from the different departments, especially Education and Training and Human Resources.
We will present ISGlobal’s holistic approach for researcher’s career development covering the whole track from predoctoral researchers to research professors. We will discuss the training, mentoring, career development activities and periodic research assessments all along the research career track.

Forming a professional association – REGON Case Study

Format: Pecha Kucha

Category: Case Study

Topic: EARMA and professional associations

Czech Republic, South Moravia, around 2010 - vast investment from the structural funds rapidly improves the research infrastructures of local research centres and attracts many excellent researchers. However, the Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) recognizes that such investments, in isolation, are not sufficient for sustainable development of research and innovation potential of the whole region. The RIS also highlighted the fact that there is a lack of experience in supporting research projects and in research management in general.
Around the South Moravian Innovation Centre (JIC) as the RIS coordinator has formed a group of experts willing to meet and share best practices, discuss common problems and find solutions to them. A Regional Grant Offices Network (REGON) was created. At the begging of 2020, Masaryk University, the most successful Czech institution in the obtaining the projects from the Framework programmes, took a lead of the group and was about to launch the new chapter of REGON. However, COVID-19 suddenly changed plans – the physical meetings were not possible.
Paradoxically, this helped in the end - online platforms created new forms of communication and opened meetings to the research management community from the whole country. The ability to regularly bring together probably the largest group of RM professionals raised the question of how to take advantage of this movement, concentration of skills, great ideas and common goals and benefit together in the long term. This led us to the idea of establishing a professional association - the Czech Association of Research Managers and Administrators (CZARMA). I will guide you through the REGON journey from a regional meeting of a few international project management enthusiasts to an attempt to create a broad professional platform.

Lessons learned from switching an intensive MSCA proposal preparation event online due to COVID-19 restrictions

Format: Pecha Kucha

Category: Case Study

Topic: Proposal Development

This Pecha Kucha presentation highlights the experiences of RMAs in Eurac Research with organizing an intensive proposal preparation event for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships. We used to hold an in-person event that has moved online due to COVID-19 restrictions in the last two years. In this presentation, we discuss our lessons learned about each of the two formats and highlight our doubts about returning to the in-person events once restrictions ease.

Developing Support for Clinical and Health Researchers

Format: Poster

Category: Case Study

Topic: Proposal Development

The College of Medicine and Health (CoMH) in University College cork, Ireland, spans 6 schools and is the academic hub for 11 hospitals. In 2019, a Research Support Officer role was created, and a clinician was appointed as the Vice Dean of Research and Innovation – normally an academic appointment. This is our story so far – on how we are developing research and research support strategies for both our academic and clinical researchers, including those who wish to become research active. While the college is affiliated with a number of hospitals in the region, many researchers based at those hospitals do not receive/seek out university/college-level support for their research efforts. Aside from 2 large research centres, there has been little collaboration between the college and the hospitals. The hospitals are often considered as separate entities to the college, and many academic researchers are unaware of the research efforts within the hospitals (and vice versa), despite studies being similar with potential for collaboration. The reasons for such disconnect are many, and historical.Since 2019, we have been developing a mechanism to provide research support across the college and our affiliated hospitals. Our aims include increasing awareness of the local research supports available, increasing local academic-clinical collaborations, helping researchers navigate the funding landscape and map out a career path, and ultimately, to increase the research outputs and impact of the college. Here, we present some of the challenges we have met and continue to meet, some of our efforts and achievements to date, and what we hope to achieve in the future.

Development of a national standard research classification system in Ireland

Format: Poster

Category: Case Study

Topic: Policy, Strategy, Evaluation and Foresight

This project is developing a national standard research classification system in Ireland. It is being designed for the primary purpose of the categorisation of all exchequer-funded research in the Republic of Ireland, but will have the potential to be used more broadly in categorising all research being undertaken nationally. The classification will be inclusive of all research performing sectors in Ireland. It will contribute to the development of evidence-based policy and contribute to the discussion of the impact of research funding.

Implementation of European Charter for Researchers by Estonian research institutions

Format: Poster

Category: Case Study

Topic: Policy, Strategy, Evaluation and Foresight

The European Commission ‘Human Resource Strategy for Researchers’ supports research institutions and funding organizations in the implementation of the Charter & Code in their policies and practices. The aim of the study carried out in 2021 was to analyse the implementation of the Charter & Code principles by research institutions in Estonia, also if and how the implementation is supporting the goals of the national Research and Innovation Strategy. 10 institutions in Estonia took part of the study. The outcome of the project were recommendations to the R&D institutions and policymakers.
The poster gives a comparative overview of the outcome.

Insights from a pilot multi-phase study to increase researchers' engagement in the Italian scientific research and treatment institutes (IRCCS)

Format: Poster

Category: Case Study

Topic: Research information systems (CRIS)

Research engagement is the interaction between researchers and research end-users and/or partners. Decision-makers and scientists have paid little attention to define strategies for increasing research engagement in Countries of Southern Europe, such as Italy.In Italy, research activities in healthcare are mainly performed by the Scientific Research and Treatment Institutes (named as IRCCS from the Italian acronym of these organisations). IRCCS hospitals represent the excellence of the Italian research and healthcare system with high standards of health research and staff training. Regardless of their public or private nature or their affiliations with local Universities, IRCCS hospitals receive economic and practical recognitions only by the Italian Ministry of Health. Currently, 51 hospitals obtained recognition as IRCCS hospitals in Italy, of which 21 are public and 30 private.In this context, the General Directorate for Research and Innovation in Healthcare of the Italian Ministry of Health started to organise periodical round tables to map the activities and the specific needs of Senior Researchers and Junior Researchers within the network of IRCCS hospitals. The need to determine a strategy for enhancing the engagement of researchers was the rationale underpinning the round tables. Moreover, following the European strategies and recommendations, the Scientific Departments of IRCCS hospitals and the Grant Offices (GO) also promoted initiatives to sustain research engagement in order to improve the strategic support of researchers in the design management and in the implementation of research activities.This pilot and multi-phase study aimed at developing and initially validating a brief questionnaire to explore research engagement, providing an initial mono-centric description of the research engagement's levels, preliminary identifying clusters of researchers' engagement and identifying an initial theory-grounded framework for guiding future research endeavours in the field of research engagement in Italy. The developed questionnaire measured "Project-oriented engagement" and "Organisation-oriented engagement". Fifty researchers were enrolled. Among responders, two main clusters were identified: one with a trend of higher project-oriented engagement (characterised by a higher number of senior researchers), the other one with a slightly higher organisation-oriented engagement. A two-level framework was hypothesised to study the research engagement in future research, considering the theoretical interconnection between the individual-level engagement, its consequences and its organisational characteristics. Further research is required to provide an in-depth description of research engagement and its antecedents and outcomes.