How many researchers does it take to set up a research staff association?

21 May 2010

By Tennie Videler

I am on the train on the way back from a meeting with representatives of research staff associations from Scottish  and Northern Irish universities in Edinburgh. It was wonderful to spend the day with such a driven bunch of individuals. We discussed some of the main issues people focus on as staff associations and what some of the common hurdles in running them are.

Most research staff associations combine organising social events and representation in university committees (which incidentally plays havoc with my classification in the RS communities listing which distinguishes between social and represntational..). The issues taken up include:

• Research staff being proactive about your own career. RS associations have taken a lead on the introduction of staff development/ career reviews
• Implementation of the Concordat for the career development of researchers
• Recognition of teaching by research staff
• Organisation of careers days
• Organisation of social events to promote integration of research staff

We discussed the relative advantages of small and large committees: for examplemeetings not as long for the former, sharing out of the workload and larger effective network for the latter. 

We talked about strategies on how to engage research staff, overcome apathy and make sure you are working from a mandate. Everyone agreed that making logistics as easy as possible was crucial. This was seen as the reason for many single subject/ discipline associations, which tend to boil down to a single building.

We decided it was crucial to identify a staff champion, usually someone in staff or researcher development, which would help to raise funding. But such a champion is also important for continuity, as high turnover is inherent in the employment of research staff.

We also had a chat about what everyone gets out of the role they play.

We went through some of the different models of setting up research staff associations.  With the UKRSA we are planning to put together a guide on how to set up a research staff association using the different models, with that in mind it would be useful to know:

• Are you part of a research staff association?
• How is it set up?
• Do you have a webpage I could put in the RS communities listing?

Then we wondered why there were so many biologists in the room? Are biologists over represented? If so, why are they more inclined to be active in these sort of associations?