Case study
Funded by: Roberts’ Fund for Researchers
On: learning new tools and techniques
Purpose: developing transferable skills and specialist knowledge
Report written by: Andrea Hajek, PhD
Date: 25 October 2011
If Roberts’ Funding has been primarily directed towards the development or
enhancement of a variety of (transferable) skills among research staff, a small
number of researchers have also used the funding for more specific purposes. This
case study looks into one of these purposes, i.e. learning new techniques or
research methods.
Dr. Judith Purkis (WMS), for example, attended a 2-day course in the use of the
Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS), a leading in-depth tool for
consultation research and analysis. Although she found the course more detailed
than what she had anticipated, it was useful to her in that she gained specialist
(theoretic) research skills. In other words, she developed a transferable skill which
is now ‘in [her] armoury of skills to offer to a project’.
Similarly, Charikleia Tzanakou and Pamela Suzanne, both PhD students and
Research Assistants in the Institute of Employment Research (IER), applied for
Roberts’ Funding in order to follow an in-depth interview training course. In
their feedback on the course, they explain how they ‘identified a gap in their
qualitative methodology training which was not addressed sufficiently in their
research training programmes, and there was no relevant training available through
the Graduate Skills Training Programme to bridge the gap’. This course was
therefore essential for the development of Tzanakou’s and Suzanne’s research
career, as we can read in their feedback: ‘The workshop was very useful to observe
practical ways to do what we had read in books. By interacting with other students,
we could also recognize mistakes we make ourselves and work on them. The
exercises were all very rewarding in terms of understanding the theory of
interviewing. After the workshop we feel more confident about doing interviews’. In the absence of any available training in interviews at the University of Warwick,
Roberts’ Funding therefore again managed to fill in a void and provide the
necessary training support to an upcoming academic.
In other cases Roberts’ Funding allowed researchers to gain knowledge and
techniques which helped them secure funding for future projects. Thus, Mairi-Ann
Cullen of the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research
(CEDAR) attended a Social Return on Investment Training (SROI), which
resulted in her winning a bid where conducting an SROI was one element of the
work required.
Finally, I myself have benefitted from Roberts’ Funding in order to participate in a
workshop on oral history techniques. After submitting my PhD thesis, in
October 2011, I started an Early Career Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced
Study (IAS), where I started studying oral history theory and methodology. Since
the University of Warwick does not, in fact, provide any specific interview
training, I used Roberts’ Funding to attend a one-day workshop organized by the
Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies at the University of London School of
Advanced Study.
The workshop did not focus exclusively on oral history techniques, nor did it have
a practical character. Still, I did gain useful knowledge which I applied in an oral
history research guide I wrote for the Wolfson Research Exchange website.
I must also note that, if the expenses to attend the workshop were relatively low,
they were nevertheless greatly valued.
These as well as other case studies published on the LDC website demonstrate
that, even within a rich and supportive academic environment such as that offered
by the University of Warwick, there remain gaps in research facilities and services
which Roberts’ Funding has helped to cover. Early career and post-doctoral
researchers with several years of experience, for example, tend to fall outside
those categories that are eligible for funding and demonstrates despite the current
economical climate, the advantages of supporting this researcher category.