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The fundamentals of research administration (international version)

Monday 16 June 2008

As part of the international dimension of the Congress, we are pleased to offer an international version of this established ARMA course, aimed at research managers and administrators in new and emerging research organisations, predominantly in less-developed countries. The course takes the key elements of two workshops organised by the West African Research and Innovation Management Association (WARIMA) in 2007/08 and concentrates them into a single day. The course focuses on the key knowledge areas for research administrators: it is an intensive day! The course complements parallel sessions in the main conference programme, which indicate their suitability for delegates from different locations: those labelled 'international' or 'not geographically specific' are particularly suited to this group. A final meeting over tea at the end of the Congress completes the programme, allowing participants an opportunity to reflect on what they have learnt over the three days.

As far as possible, sessions will include some relevant practical exercise(s), case study discussions, etc., although the number of areas to be covered and time available may restrict this.

This workshop complements the UK version of the course, which will run at the same time. Where possible, some sessions will be shared between the two courses. Refreshments and lunch will be taken together.

Target audience

This intensive one-day course is aimed at Research Administrators in new and emerging research organisations, predominantly in less-developed countries, and those with a management responsibility for supporting and developing research and for creating research support offices in these institutions.

Learning outcomes

Recognising the varied institutional and national backgrounds of participants, the sessions will not seek to demonstrate exactly how to undertake tasks, but rather will identify the tasks to be done, issues to take into consideration and things for participants to find out and develop on their return. Research Administrators will find the course essential in providing them with a good overview of the core elements of research administration, including those elements in which they are not directly involved, and in equipping them with the basic 'body of knowledge' needed to carry out their roles effectively. Managers will find the course useful in identifying the key activities of research support offices, in showing how different elements are linked, and in filling in some gaps in their knowledge.



Programme

8.30 Coffee and Registration
9.00 Welcome and introductions
9.15 Session 1: The context for research management and the role of research offices

This session will provide a brief overview of the general organisational and policy/political context affecting research organisations, and make some international comparisons. Wwe will then consider what Research Offices around the world do, throughout the lifecycle of a project, how they are organised and what systems they have. The role of professional associations in supporting Research Offices will be considered. Participants will have an opportunity to compare their location and organisation with others in their working group.
9.45 Session 2: Proposals, projects and people

In this session we will consider a range of practical issues in supporting research activities. We will first consider the dewvelopment of proposals to funders, and issues such as supporting academics in the writing of proposals, quality assurance processes, the practicalities of submitting proposals, and the peer review process. We will move on to consider the support required by ongoing research projects, looking in particular at collaborative research. Finally, we will discuss issues that may arise when managing and developing research staff, and how we can deal with them.
11.30 Coffee
12.00 Session 3: Financial matters

This session will ask - and then try to answer - some practical questions about costing and pricing research projects: What are the costs of undertaking a research project? How can we recover more overhead costs? How much can we charge the funder for it? This session looks at the different elements of a project budget and considers the financial issues that arise from managing a portfolio of projects. Whether or not your role involves costing research, an understanding of the costs of research is essential knowledge for all research administrators.
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Session 4: Research contracts, intellectual property, knowledge exchange and dissemination

This session looks at the background to contracts - what they are and why they matter - before discussing the key issues in negotiating contracts and identifying and protecting/exploiting intellectual property and how contracts are used to protect the university's interests. Finally, we will consider a range of dissemination and knowledge transfer/exchange (extension work) activities which may be used to share research findings beyond the university.

15.30 Tea
16.00 Session 5: Research ethics and scientific integrity

This session provides an introduction to key issues in research ethics, research integrity and scientific misconduct. We then focus on systems to ensure compliance with funders' standards and making them work in the real world in research with human participants.
17.00 - 17.30 Session 6: Review and looking ahead

A review of the day and a look ahead to the sessions on offer during the main conference

Course elements in main Conference Programme

Course participants may wish to attend sessions labelled 'international' or 'not geographically specific', or any session requiring 'basic' or 'any' prior experience.

Further details are available in the conference session matrix and the overall conference programme.

At 15.00 on Wednesday 18th June (during the final tea break of the conference) course participants are invited to meet and reflect on their Conference experiences and to identify what has been learned and how it can be applied in the workplace, including transferable skills and knowledge.

Cost

Members of INORMS societies: £175.00
Non-members: £227.00

The contact for general queries is Rosemary Hatch. For queries related to course content, please contact Pauline Muya, p.muya@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk.

Booking is now open for ARMA members and for participants who are not members of any INORMS society and wish to join ARMA. Members of other INORMS societies will shortly be able to book at the reduced price.