Case Study
Funded by: Roberts’ Fund for Researchers
On: training sessions and research seminars
Purpose: enhance early career researchers’ skills
Report written by: Arina Cirstea
Date: 20 July 2011
In the effort to make up for recent budgetary cuts, over the past years a number of
university departments have turned to the Roberts’ Fund for Researchers to
supplement internal funding dedicated to the development and training needs of
research staff. The funds gained through departmental bids have been used for
training sessions and research seminars aimed mainly, though not always exclusively,
at early career researchers. This report will examine briefly some of these initiatives,
relying on feedback provided by organisers and/or participants.
The WMG Research Seminars (main contact: Dr. Kurt Debatttista) represent an
example of an ongoing departmental activity that financial support from the Roberts’
programme has helped enhance and tailor to the needs of early career researchers. The
seminar series, which has been internally funded until April 2011, is described on the
departmental website as ‘a unique opportunity for our academics, industrial and
academic collaborators to present their groundbreaking research’. In the current
format (from May 2011), the seminars include ‘an opening talk’ by a WMG
researcher, followed by a keynote by a prestigious internal or external speaker and a
poster session.
Kurt pointed out that while the seminars remain targeted at a wider audience of WMG
staff and external collaborators, they include specific provisions for ECRs. One of the
most important gains for the latter is the opportunity to present their research to an
audience from a broader range of technical backgrounds than would normally be the
case at smaller scale events. It is Kurt’s view that presenters benefited from the
challenge of making their research interesting as well as accessible to both academics
and industrial partners. At the same time, through talks as well as research posters, the
sessions have potentially enriched the specialist knowledge of all attending
researchers.
At a more general level, the dialogue between the research of ECRs and keynote
speakers has implicitly contributed to promoting the quality of WMG research and
teaching programmes among its industrial and academic partners. Kurt suggested that,
should the Roberts’ award have not been available, the scale of participation –
currently rising to 90 attendees for the first Roberts funded event and 75 for the
second – would have had to be lowered. This would have undoubtedly affected the
impact of seminars, so it may be argued that the Roberts’ fund has assisted WMG in
achieving the full potential of an already thriving initiative.
A similar concern with the training needs of ECRs underlies the application for
Roberts’ funding submitted by Prof. Jane Hutton (Statistics). The award was used in
conjunction with other sources to support the participation of early career staff to a
Leadership and Teamworking Skills Workshop (8-10 July 2011). Jane rated the
event as ‘successful’, stating that the feedback returned by participants ‘indicated that
they enjoyed the weekend, and found the opportunity to evaluate themselves in a
different environment extremely useful. They also felt that being able to be on an
equal footing with more senior members of the department increased their feeling of
being part of the Department of Statistics’. The seminar focused on enhancing the
‘communication, organisation, and teamwork’ skills of all categories of staff as well
as doctoral students, and it is expected that the participants will share the best practice
by contributing to the organisation of a similar event the following academic year.
Among the outputs of this event, Jane has listed a DVD recording and a series of
reflective accounts to be published on the departmental Intranet.
The Faculty of Arts, represented by Prof. Karen O’Brien (currently, University of
Birmingham), is another recipient of a departmental Roberts’ award. In the academic
year 2010-11, alongside a number of other activities, this fund was used for the
organisation of two Publishing Surgeries for Arts Faculty Researchers (27 January
and 28 February). Fifteen postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students in the late
stages of their registration have signed up for one-to-one tutorials with Josie Dixon,
former commissioning editor at Cambridge University Press and Palgrave. As Karen
explained during the Induction meeting, the Publishing Surgeries have been set up in
response to feedback from the Early Career Publishing Workshop organised in the
previous academic year.
Among the benefits of their one-to-one session with Josie, participants listed a ‘clear’
and ‘useful’ explanation of publishers’ expectations (AH, AL), ‘a clearer insight into
the argumentative, rhetorical and organisational elements of my book proposal’ (CN),
‘a lot of specific comments and advice about my abstract/research area’ as well as
‘practical tips and resources’ (CM) and the ‘productive and encouraging tone of the
conversation’ (PK). Among the downsides, they noted the lack of more detailed
information on the type and length of material that could be covered (AC, CM) and
the ‘general’ focus of part of the session (AH, GC). One suggestion that may address
this issue and maximize the impact of the consultations would be to continue to cover
the more general areas of thesis/article publication in a workshop, ideally scheduled
well in advance of the publishing surgeries, in order to allow participants to
incorporate recommendations in their drafts (CN, GC).
The predominantly positive feedback for all these departmental initiatives suggests
that skills enhancement represents an important aspect in the individual development
of ECRs. Quite clearly, dedicated funding is necessary in order to meet these training
needs, and it can be predicted that individual departments will find it very hard to
source in other ways the funding currently provided by the Roberts’ programme.