Working in partnership: supporting and developing researchers20 June 2012

Event overview

Event now closed. Register your interest at www.vitae.ac.uk/ryi to be notified of future Vitae events.

Background

Vitae and ARMA provided for the first time a unique opportunity to enable research managers, researcher developers and researchers to come together in a dynamic ‘Open Space' discussion centered on identifying collaborative ways to help produce better research and excellent researchers.

In recognition of the potential for research managers, researcher developers and researchers to work collaboratively towards excellence in the research agenda, especially in relation to REF and Pathways to Impact, Vitae and ARMA in partnership hosted an ‘Open Space’ to stimulate discussion between all three stakeholder groups, to gain further understanding of how to working closely together can add further value to research.

Overview of what to expect and benefits for joining?

The grand challenge for this Open Space is to explore similarities and differences in language, roles and responsibilities along the research pathway, and to seek out ways of working together proactively help achieve research excellence. Through developing relationships and networks, and exploring those skills that they feel are essential to research excellence and innovation now and in the immediate future, participants gained a greater understanding of:

• How they can work together to add value to research strategy for sustainable excellence by partnership in researcher development, supporting research activity, and helping to build researcher capabilities
  
• Skills, roles and responsibilities of professional colleagues which are complementary to their own
  
• Ways to communicate their own skills, roles and responsibilities to colleagues in research and research management and administration
  
• How to establish new mutually beneficial partnerships to achieve common goals
  
• How to shape and influence thinking around the future of researcher development and research support

As an open space event, participants were guided to define for themselves the topics they would like to discuss on the day. All attendees had the opportunity to understand the methodology of open space, a skill they can take away and implement in their places of work. Facilitated by Dr Kevin Byron, Researcher Development and Enterprise Education Coordinator at Queen Mary University London, this was a dynamic opportunity to define needs and identify collaborative opportunities.

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