EARMA Conference Oslo

Attracting talent to Small and Medium-sized public Universities (SMU)

Strategies to attract the best early-stage and consolidated researchers

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: Operational Lessons Learned

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

Small and medium sized public universities (SMU) face challenges when have to recruit scientist for their research projects and teaching activity.
Location, research environment (infrastructure, connections, facilities, research excellence of hosting research groups), position in rankings may not help on being attractive to the best scientists.
However, some SMU are getting very good results, managing a process of continuous improvement. Everyone has his own recipe and secret ingredients… but what are the key actions and the common patterns?
The session will present the experience of a group of SMU that are facing this challenge, with case studies on the actions undertaken to make working conditions attractive, to align strategy policy and actions, to use regional, national and EU funding to reach the goals.
In addition, focus will be made on what are the prerequisites to frame those single actions in a sustainable strategy. Having a good dedicated budget is important, but it may be not enough if governance commitment, long term plans, top support services are missing.

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: 1. 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.

Democratising access to AI across a research organisation

How to get AI into the system of a large research organisation

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: 3. Good Practice

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

In this table I'd like to discuss our unique AI consulting concept and how it works in practice.

We set up a free AI consulting service for Helmholtz Association scientists, i.e. currently 35 AI experts work for an organisation of 42,000 in short and mid term projects (no charge, our AI consulting is free for the researchers!); I'd like to share how we manage and pair supply/demand and would be happy to happy to discuss friction points and success stories.

How to achieve the goals with RDI services?

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: Discussion Starter

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

The topic of Discussion Table relates to the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) work and how RDI, more specific pre-award services, can support in achieving the goals in RDI funding. Host presenter, development manager Sanna Juvonen leads RDI service team at Finnish University of Applied Sciences, Laurea. She is responsible of pre award services, which have been created due to the organizational change, where faculty became responsible persons of RDI-project in addition to submitting RDI applications. Services are meant for faculty who participates to the project application process. The need and level of support varies depending on how experienced the faculty is in RDI and what kind of help is needed in project preparation process. Services differ from sparring the idea according to the funding instrument, guidance, building a consortium, supporting the search for partners and the quality assurance of the consortium, producing text paragraphs, also directing writing strategically and submitting the application. Communication and guidance of financial instruments means the selection of financial instrument and suggestion of options, review of application criteria.
The development work in RDI services brought out important perspectives in RDI application process. Pre award services are not enough to achieve RDI funding but project preparation team needs to create a common understanding of the goals in addition to the tasks, which are related to the goals. Moreover, project preparation is diverse and requires special expertise. To achieve RDI goals, it is important to clarify, whether project preparation team has the expertise needed in RDI preparation and who are responsible of different tasks in project preparation. Discussion table views practices, how to better achieve the goals with RDI services.

IBEC Projects Office: An integral, personalised and tailor-made Research Management Support

Format: Fifteen-Minute Discussion Tables

Category: Practical Initiatives

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

We present the unique model of our Projects Office at IBEC, based on providing a global vision of both the research group and institution. This enables a targeted and personalized management which is aligned with the group interests, institutional strategy and (inter)national scientific landscape. We believe this is the future model for institutional Projects Offices, in which Projects Managers are not only administrative managers but represent an integral support system for the researchers.

Challenges for RMA involved in a European University Network, the case of Ghent University in the ENLIGHT consortium

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Discussion Starter

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

The European University Alliance, called ENLIGHT, won
extra project funding through the SwafS call under H2020. This project (named
ENLIGHT RISE) is coordinated by the University of Bordeaux.

The goals of this project are put forward at the level
of the alliance: 1) empower R&I transformation; 2) increase the research
capacity; 3) strengthen the innovation capacity; 4) increase the capacity to
attract and retain talents; 5) create impact for society; 6) contribute to the
longer-term deployment of European Universities.

At Ghent University, most activities will be performed
at the central research department. There are 9 work packages leading to 47
project deliverables within a timeframe of 3 years. This adds an extra workload
on the shoulders of the Research Managers and Administrators (RMA) at each of
the 9 ENLIGHT partners.

Unfortunately, the project funding is too limited to
significantly reduce this workload. In addition, the international aspect of
the project adds an extra layer of challenges and potential issues on top of
the daily tasks of the RMAs. The RMAs hardly knew their colleagues from the partner
universities and had even never before worked together in the context of a
joint international project.

Within the partnership, the difference in size,
organisation and available personnel at each partners’ Research Support Office
(RSO) and Tech Transfer Offices (TTOs) has equally played its role and proven a
challenge to quickly identify the most indicated contact person for each work
package.

With 9 partners (with 2 different time zones) and 9
work packages leading to 47 deliverables, the project is work intense including
a speedy and vast sequence of meetings which further stresses the RMAs
availability. Furthermore, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the RSOs/RMAs
have been unable to physically meet during neither the proposal nor the start-up
and execution phases of the project, thereby slowing down the mutual
acquaintance and possibility to lengthy talk some issues through and thoroughly
outlay and discuss each other’s priorities, work organisation and institutional
strategies.

Other challenges include the (non)existing fields of
expertise, how to include/interest researchers to the centrally led project, the
different (level of) experiences between the partnership concerning valorisation,
the re-assessment within RSOs of self-created work tools and work processes,
communicating the broader European University Network strategy amongst administrators
and researchers, linking different strategies on topics as e.g. young researchers,
etc.

To tackle many of these challenges, the network has – amongst
others – highly engaged in consortium wide mapping and internal surveys.At the EARMA conference 2022 we will share and discuss
our experiences at Ghent University with regard to the start of this project
and the execution of a first set of project activities during the first half
year of this project.

Co-creating strategies with research environments

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: 3. Good Practice

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

Research environments/groups often need a strategy to become successful. However, we lack guidelines and processes to aid environments in their strategic development. In this session we share our conclusions from working closely with research environments to define strategic plans and implementation through co-creation. We will thereby suggest that facilitating co-creative processes enables refined strategies and action plans anchored within a research environment.

GraINN Cluster

Bottoms up – grassroot initiative?

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Practical Initiatives

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

Inland Norway University for Applied Sciences was formed in 2017 as a result of the fusion of two regional Universities of Applied Science in the Inland Region of South-East Norway. The Region is the size of Denmark and has a population of approx. 370 000 people. The campuses are distributed across the region with a driving distance of up to four hours from one campus to another. All campuses were originally district colleges before the 1970’s and have their own distinct culture and their own RMAs. The GraINN cluster was formed in order to meet the challenges of widespread campuses, different cultures and fragmented RMA-resources. It was led by a grassroot-movement of eager RMAs who understood the need for high quality cooperation across faculties and departments.

How to support researchers in aberrant, unstable situations? Experience of a research funding institution (RFI)

Urgent support of urgent activities in response to urgent situations – experience of a research and mobility financing institution

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Practical Initiatives

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

The modern world, full of unusual challenges, requires the RFIs to support the scientists.

Some schemes created in early 2020 could serve for the future, e.g. the Urgency Grants in response to sudden social or natural events with substantial impacts. They enable researchers to investigate the significance of phenomena after their occurrence.

Another scheme resulted from unstable political situation in some regions. Solidarity with persecuted scholars is an obligation of safe countries. Solidarity with Belarus is an example of support provided to students & researchers at risk.

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

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: 1. 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.

It's a Research manager’s crisis baby!

Ten golden rules to survive the personal frustration when promoting European projects culture in research organizations

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: 3. Good Practice

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

Once more… no answers…. It is ten o’clock in the morning and you still haven’t received any reply to the last “EU funding opportunities” mail that you sent two days ago. Siping your coffee in front of your screen you realize that actually none of your “EU funding opportunities” mails got any answer… Ever. Researchers in your institutions seem just not interested in EU projects. You feel sad and kind of useless. Do not worry, it is normal: It’s a research manager’s frustration. It is not contagious, and thanks to these ten simple rules you will soon feel better.

In the last ten years, most European research organizations have invested considerable resources to increase their European research projects portfolio. These policies originate at national level from the desire of European Countries to recover, through the funds provided by European research and innovation programs (e.g. Horizon Europe), part of the money they invest to participate in the European Union. Research organizations have therefore all implemented ambitious European policies with the scope of considerably increase the number of EU-funded projects. They equipped themselves with departments of research management and highly skilled research managers eager to help researchers to build and win thousands of EU projects. Unfortunately, these policies often sink in the shallow waters of reality. Most researchers are not attracted by European funds, which are seen as time consuming, too competitive, and also too difficult to manage compared to national funds. This Euro-inappetence makes the work of research managers difficult and undermines their chances of achieving the goals set by their organizations. This can provoke frustration and in the worst case, can lead to resignation from the job.

The European Affairs service of theInstitut National
de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (Inria), which counts eight
offices around France, has come up with a list of 10 Golden Rules to overcome
this frustration and motivate researchers to participate and coordinate
European projects.

In this session, we will use these rules as starting point to engage an active discussion with the audience, sharing experiences, and exploring new ideas. Speakers will animate the debate encouraging the audiences to provide feedback through direct interventions (brainstorming) and through a participative game-based learning platform (e.g. Kahoot!)

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

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: 1. 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?

The ETO: creating synergies between transversal funding programmes

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: 3. Good Practice

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

In 2019, Université Côte d’Azur initiated a transformation process to merge the departments in charge of external fundings, which, led to the creation of the European and Territorial Office. ETO is a one-stop shop gathering policy and project Experts for all type of funding and at any level. ETO adopts an approach by project and not by call, thus creating synergies between funding programmes and supporting the scaling up from the local level to the European and international one.

UCD’s Portal to Digital Transformation

Format: Oral 30 Minutes

Category: Practical Initiatives

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

This innovative project entailed a complete rethink and redesign of community research services information. We mapped the ‘Researcher Journey’ to deliver a fully user-focused and user-driven information platform. Replacing the service-provider approach with a researcher-centric model resulted in an agile, easy to navigate platform that puts information at researchers fingertips and builds community in an age of digital transformation. Our Communications, Public Engagement and Impact resources have expanded through co-design and collaboration to meet the growing requirements and needs within this space.

Cooperation in Interdisciplinary Teams in Research Support

overcoming professional boundaries

Format: Oral 60 Minutes

Category: Interactive Session

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

Being a Research Support Professional, you have to be an expert on Open Access & Open Data Mangement, IP & Business Plans, Ethics, Dual Use & the Nagoya Protocoll, the SMART-Method, financial management and accounting, legal issues, communication and project design- don´t you? The shifts in the europen research & innovation programmes warrant interdisciplinarity not only in research but also in research support.
In this session, we´ll - discuss how universities of different sizes tackle the multifaceted challenge - explore different approaches in our institutions regarding the hand-over between pre-award and post-award phase from research support to project management- share best practices on how to get other service divisions on board (Finanzce, HR, IT, legal, Ethics Boards…)
- sharing knowledge between the different departments (IT, Bibl, finance, HR, legal….) also pre-award and post-award – what did work, what didn’t?
- are there any IT tools that facilitate this interdisciplinary work or is it only based on human interaction?
- passing on the torch –ahh project 😊 We want to discuss, share experiences, best practices, pitfalls, compare differences between huge and small institutions and learn from each other (because we don’t have the one and only solution either, but hope to make a progress in this session) Learning outcomes:'
- getting to know examples from other institutions on interdisciplinary co-working
- get new ideas to try out or implement in your own institution
- define ourselves as the interface between the different disciplines

Open(ing) Access

An RMA Inclusive Cabaret

Format: Oral 60 Minutes

Category: Interactive Session

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

Some days I find inclusion work overwhelming, some days I rise to the challenge, some days I feel alone and unsupported. I see the struggles and pain of others and I read the damming statistics on diversity; yet little has changed. Higher Education is not inclusive. Higher Education doesn’t respect and value difference. Through metrics, targets, and precarious employment, Higher Education cajoles us into being and thinking in certain ways. Higher Education is not open.

The increasingly diverse student population and staff base, though, means that this needs to change and Research Management and Administration has an important role to play in ushering in this change and creating a more inclusive and open research culture.

In this immersive, interactive and performative paper, I will queer and unsettle research management through song, dance, and audience participation. Drawing on critical race theory (Collins, 1999), outsider theory (Eburne, 2018), and queer theory (Ahmed, 2006, 2012), I explore how to make research cultures more inclusive (Smith, 2015). Drawing on my own lived experience of research management and inclusion work, this interactive cabaret seeks stimulate thoughts on the place of equality, diversity, and inclusion work within research management and administration.By the end of the session,
participants will have:* Obtained a good understanding of
issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion and how they pertain to research
management.* Considered opportunities to
develop best practice in terms of developing an inclusive team culture.

* Gained confidence in talking and
discussing issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion

With service design to user-driven impact service

Format: Pecha Kucha

Category: Practical Initiatives

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

The significance of impact generated through research has been increasingly emphasized by both academia and society in Finland and globally. Researchers from all scientific fields are held accountable for the footprint their endeavors leave within and outside academia. Strategy of the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) highlights that impact constitutes an integral part of the UEF activities. Open operational culture enhances interaction, thus boosting knowledge transfer, commercialization of research findings and their extensive and collaborative use within the society.In terms of research projects, enabling impact creation denotes that each project phase calls for a careful planning. Optimally it is implemented through a collaborative effort uniting researchers and their projects’ vital stakeholders. Such approach requires user-driven services helping researchers to plan, engage for and evidence any impact they will generate via their research.At the UEF research impact service will be created using service design with the goal of understanding and identifying user needs and improving the user service experience. Design thinking refers to the utilization of design methods in problem solving. It involves a solution-focused and participatory modes. Our ultimate objective is to provide a comprehensive, approachable, informative, specific and verifiable service platform, where the help is only one mouse click away.In practice, this means that the needs of researchers are not assumed. Instead, we – research services personnel - start working with them to find out the bottlenecks related to the impact planning, implementation, verification and mainstreaming. We aim to find out at the grassroots level through interviews which existing UEF services are effective and what is still missing in order to create researcher-centered service paths for all disciplines.“Customer journey”- as it is called in the professional jargon - is a visual description of the service progress from the customer's (researcher’s) perspective. It illustrates the interaction between the service user and the service provider. The thematic sections of the impact service will be embracing, among others, definitions of impact, impact planning tools, toolkit for scientific impact as well as for interaction, dissemination, IPR issues, impact indicators etc.The customer journey design constitutes a concrete development task and will involve cooperation of all units providing impact services at the UEF. It stretches beyond pre-award and post-award research services, including communication services, entrepreneurship and innovation services, as well as library and even legal department.The research impact service platform is still in the conceptualization phase and will be tested with the researchers. It will be made available in May 2022 via UEF user interface website. The process will serve as a prelude to the implementation of two goals mentioned in the UEF 2030 strategy – to foster the impact generated by the university activities and make service design thinking an integral part of all university activities.

Research management experiences and needs of researchers in India

Format: Poster

Category: Operational Lessons Learned

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

The scope of public health research is growing in India, creating the need for effective and efficient pre and post grant management systems in research organizations. The growing demand for grant management services is justified considering the responsibility toward funding agencies and other stakeholders. The key to efficient implementation of research projects is a dedicated research office with skilled personnel and efficient systems. Under the India Research Management Initiative (IRMI) Fellowship, an online survey and qualitative interviews were conducted to understand the research management experiences and needs of researchers in India. This survey was conducted to facilitate the setting up of central research office within local research organizations and to build capacity of researchers and support in pre and post award processes. Currently, management of research grants at local organizations in India is entirely dependent on the Principal Investigator (and his/her team). While it is essential for research teams to possess relevant research management skills, in the long term, it creates significant burden on individuals who can be distracted from focusing on the research priorities and goals of the funded projects. Also, although the research teams comprise of qualified clinical/research staff, most do not have grant management training. A good research management practices that are implemented by a project or research group do not systematically get scaled up across the organisation.
India’s growing research portfolio necessitates the development of a bespoke research office catering to the grant management needs across the organisation. A well established research office in an organization will provide strong centralized leadership through personnel with a high level of administrative and financial acumen, and with relevant experience of dealing with research funding. We particularly need to (1) develop and strengthen specialist knowledge and experience of research management (none of our current centralised staff have research management-related training), and (2) expand the numbers of staff to manage the increasingly large organisational workload, and train these staff in basic research management practices.

The online survey was initiated to understand the needs and existing support systems for researchers in India and qualitative interviews were conducted to get insight into the findings from the survey.

The research management survey is aim further to examine the strengths and gaps in the research ecosystem in India. We particularly need to:
(1) Develop and strengthen specialist knowledge and experience of research management in India.
(2) Build capacity of young researchers to respond to growing need for efficient and effective grant management.
The survey and qualitative interview findings will be used to
1. Develop Standard operating procedure (SOP) and policies to guide research organizations locally in the Indian research ecosystem.
2. Develop a report to highlight gaps and opportunities.

THE ISGLOBAL PROJECTS UNIT: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH OF SCIENCE COORDINATION AND ADMINISTRATION

How to align science and management after the merge of three institutions

Format: Poster

Category: 3. Good Practice

Topic: Organising Support Services & Team Building

The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) mission is to improve global health and promote health equity. ISGlobal approach is multidisciplinary, ranging from the molecular to the population level and including disciplines across health sciences, life sciences, environmental, social and climate sciences. It is the result of a large integration process of three previously existing research and translation centers of excellence (CRESIB, CREAL and ISGlobal) which was completed in 2016.Regarding the research and scientific coordination, and the grants management, the previous projects offices of CREAL and CRESIB went through an integration process, involving 1) an analysis of the structures, processes and resources at that time, 2) an analysis of the internal satisfaction surveys, and 3) and a benchmarking analysis, including several national and international institutes. As a result of this process, an integrated approach was proposed: the ISGLOBAL PROJECTS UNIT. The Terms of Reference of the Projects Unit were approved by the Direction Committee in December 2016, as a hierarchically dependent structure both from the Scientific Director and from the General Manager, guaranteeing that science and administration are completely aligned.The Projects Unit includes two offices: 1) the Office for Coordination and Research Management; in charge of scientific and strategy coordination, development and implementation of institutional and scientific internal policies, research integrity and ethics, and quality; and 2) the Grants Office, which provides personalized and anticipatory support to identify and successfully approach the more relevant funders and funding opportunities, and supports researchers and other teams in the preparation and submission of proposals and the follow up of awarded project and fellowships. The key members of the Unit meet weekly to coordinate, plan and review the main activities at the Projects Unit Coordination Committee.The Unit works closely with i) the HHRR area to support the development of the HRS4R accreditation logo and implement procedures that reinforce internationalization, career development, promote gender equality and foster social responsiveness; ii) the ISGlobal teams to prepare grants submissions including costing, management and ethical issues and to provide support to sponsored projects including contracting, financial reports and audits. Since its approval, the Projects Unit has been positively evaluated by the Direction Committee (July 2019) and has received competitive funds (~0.5M€) to deploy its strategy during the period 2019-2023, especially the preparation for the new EU framework programme, Horizon Europe.Thanks to the unique expertise of each office, the Projects Unit provides high-value management support to researchers and becomes a key element within the institutional strategy to promote its international leadership.