ECR Talk March 2017Professor Berthold Schoene

Head of Research and Knowledge ExchangeFaculty of Arts and Humanities

The Omnitasking Academic

Academic Careers

5-year planning & pre-REF

3 Talks in 1

Teaching Publishing Conference attendance and organisation Public engagement (impact generation) Awareness of HE agendas, developments

and debates REF Bidding Networking

The Omnitasking Academic

All-in-one approach: have a plan, be strategic & stay focused (but flexible)

Research-informed teaching Quality and utility: “end users” and

stakeholders: who’s interested in your work? who might (will!) benefit from it? What are the best ways of involving the world in your research?

Relevance & topicality: stay on the pulse Collaboration, community & collegiality Time-management

OMNITASKING

Be aware of subject-specific quality indicators

Be aware of overlap and duplication of material

Familiarise yourself with current REF guidelines (e.g. ECR status)

The Conversation

PUBLISHING

Present work in progress, strategically: initiate a dialogue about your research questions/problems rather than reporting on results

Identify external mentors(= future referees)

CONFERENCING

Public engagement as the pathway to impact

What is ‘impact’? How is it defined? How it is captured/measured?

What makes an ‘impact case study’? Quality and utility Co-production/co-creation/co-curation of

research Who is your research for? What public engagement activities already

exist in your department/faculty/institution?

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT (IMPACT)

Times Higher Sign up to blogs and newsletters, both

internal and external (e.g. ManMetNews; MMU RKE Blog; your Institute or Research Centre mailing list)

Research Professional’s 8am Playbook Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Jobs.ac.uk WonkHE

Higher Education Politics

REF 2014

http://results.ref.ac.uk/

REF 2021

Bidding

Be in the knowWhat’s going on?

The University’s new Strategic FrameworkPlace ++ Ambition ++ Community ++ Partnership ++ Sustainability

The University’s new RKE strategyWe are a great modern university, in a great global city, here to make an impact on Manchester, our nation and beyond, with a driving ambition to discover and disseminate knowledge, and make higher education accessible and beneficial to all those with the passion and ability to succeed.We work closely with our city, with business, the community and our academic peers – locally, nationally and internationally - to be inventive and creative, generate great opportunities, and enable our students, colleagues and everyone whose lives we touch to make an impact.

Online

OVERALL NUMBER ONE AIMTo become the best modern university in the country within the next five years

PRIORITIES High-Quality Student Experience ++ World-Class

Research, Practice & Professionalism ++ Internationalisation ++ Business-Facing, Progressive & Market-Focused Approach

CHALLENGES Austerity ++ Brexit ++ Immigration Policy ++ Populism

OfS

UKRI

REF

TEF

Higher Education Reforms

The RKE Blog https://mmuresearchblog.wordpress.com/tag/rcuk/Other relevant blogs and mailing lists (ManMetLife/funding bodies/THE/Research Professional etc)Twitter

Guidance for the Appointment of Professors and Readershttp://www2.mmu.ac.uk/humanresources/a-z/guidance-procedures-handbooks/guidance-for-the-appointment-of-professors-and-readers

Let it be known & DEVELOP a PROFILEWhat are your ambitions?Where do you see yourself in five years’ time? How will you get there?Everyone has promise and potential; provide evidence of actual achievements & demonstrable capacity. If you want to be a reader/professor, start acting like one.Make use of training opportunities & staff development.

Your colleagues (at Manchester Met and elsewhere), your mentor, your line manager, your Head of Department, your RC Head, your Head of RKE, your Dean …

Plan your career Be opportunistic (in a good way!)

Volunteer (but think before saying yes)

Step into the breach

Invite delegation

Contribute ideas

Be visible (which involves ‘invisible work’)

Synchronize What’s your thing? What’s the University’s thing?

The University needs people to implement its strategies and fulfil its many ambitions.

Take the initiative, be innovative & make things happen (in response).

Make a differenceResearch ++ Teaching ++ Enterprise

  Teaching (publications; inter/national profile) Research & Enterprise (networking,

impact/media; policy/business; income) Academic citizenship/Esteem: a representative &

an ambassador – serving your community/discipline/your institution (increasingly as a leader)

PGR supervision

Lead What is your leadership style? Develop a leadership strategy: ‘tough’

decisions, or just (‘just’) decisions A partner – a mentor: share, listen,

collaborate, propose, consult, take others with you.

What makes you stand out? What do you want to be known for? What will be your legacy?

5-year PlanAnnual research review process now in its fourth year in HLSS

Areas under reviewResearch & Knowledge Exchange Projects & ActivitiesPlanned OutputsFunding & Bidding ActivityCollaboration, Networks & External Engagement (incl. International)Research-Informed Teaching, incl. PhD supervisionEsteem & LeadershipSymplectic & Ethics

A Multi-Purpose Review Career development: designed to help you frame your

existing research, knowledge exchange and wider scholarly activity with a view to planning and achieving high-quality research outputs for REF2021, and/or generating impact of internationally excellent reach and significance.

 Mentoring

On-file resource for Faculty research managers and RKE leaders (from across the University)

Categorisation and departmental workloading 

Annual ReassessmentThe five-year research plans are ‘live’ documents subject to annual revision and review. Staff undergo an annual review process in term 1 of every year, with all revised plans becoming due for resubmission by 15 January each year.

This annual review process is followed by a full reassessment of everybody’s researcher status, to be completed by the end of term 2.

STRATEGY