f&i rosei death by 1,000 cuts: researcher burden up close & personal

INRSScience in ACTION for a World in EVOLUTION

Université du Québec

Institut national de la recherche scientifique

The increasing administrative burden experienced by researchers

Nano–Femto Laboratory (NFL)Nano–Femto Laboratory (NFL)INRS – INRS – Énergie, Matériaux et TÉnergie, Matériaux et Télécommunicationsélécommunications,,

UniversitUniversité du Québec, Varennes (Québec)é du Québec, Varennes (Québec) [email protected]@emt.inrs.ca

CASRAI Conference, Ottawa, November 20th 2014

Federico RoseiFederico Rosei

UNESCO Chair in Materials and Technologies for Energy UNESCO Chair in Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Saving and Storage (MATECSS)Conversion, Saving and Storage (MATECSS)



Institut national de la recherche scientifiqueA few words about INRS:A few words about INRS:the graduate school of the University of Quebecthe graduate school of the University of Quebec

Location: the south shore of MontrealApprox. 25 km from the city centre




Who am I?• Trained in Italy• Post-doc in Denmark• In Montreal since 2002 as Assistant Professor;

since 2003 CRC; since 2004 Associate Professor; since 2009 Full Professor; since 2011 Director; since 2014 UNESCO Chair

• Referee for NSERC, FRQNT, CRC, CFI, DFAIT, Member of NSERC Evaluation Committee 2009–2011, Member of FRQNT Committees

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Trained over 100 young scientists at all levels (summer students, MSc students, PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, visiting scientists) since 2002, from 28 countries.Twelve former group members are professors in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, India and Sweden

Given over 400 invited lectures at internationalconferences, seminars, colloquia, public lectures in 41 countries on all inhabited continents

International dimension ofmodern science




F. Rosei, A. Pignolet, T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 31, 65 (2009)F. Rosei and T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 31, 293 (2009)F. Rosei and T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 32, 163 (2010)F. Rosei and T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 33, 161 (2011)F. Rosei and T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 34, 197 (2012)F. Rosei and T.W. Johnston, J. Mater. Ed. 35, 127 (2013)




Evolution of the Workshop

• 2003 – informal course• 2005 – graduate course @ INRS• 2008 – 3-day workshop UdeM• 2009 – 2-day workshop UWA Perth• 2010 – 2-day workshop UWA Perth• 2011 – 2-day workshop McGill• 2012 – 2-day workshop ETS• 2013 – 2-day workshop ETS• 2014 – 2-day workshop McGill• 10 Invited talks @ conferences• >35 ‘Survival Skills’ lecturesWorldwide since 2005




• I think I should speed up a bit

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Tendency to focus on applications

• Preoccupying trend to ask researchers to focus on applications

• Too much emphasis on societal benefits• Fewer and fewer opportunities to work on basic

research• Unrealistic expectations that universities will

commercialize new inventions – not their mission!

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Decreasing funding

• Increasing number of researchers• Funding envelopes don’t keep up with a) n. of

researchers and b) inflation• Old (successful) programs being scrapped• New (dubious) programs being introduced instead• Lower success rates in most programs

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Increasing administrative burden

• Financial accounting, grant reporting, filling out forms;

• Clerical tasks which require a type of training *other* than a PhD in science & engineering.

• => significant frustration and major distraction from focusing on creative research ideas

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Modern science and scientists

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In modern science, anything that matters is peer reviewed

The peer review system

• It is like democracy: highly imperfect, yet it’s hard to come up with a better system

The most famous referee report

• This paper is both good and original.

• Unfortunately, the part that is good is not original; and the part that is original, is not good.




NSERC and the Common CV

• In Canada many funding programs largely base their evaluation of proposals on the applicant(s)’ CV

• The idea of a “Common” CV for use across funding agencies (both federal & provincial) has been around for >10 years.

• However, the first implementation of the CCV was ‘poor’: each agency still required multiple specific sections, thus adding to the ‘administrative burden’

• In 2013, NSERC adopted a new version of the CCV, forcing all Discovery Grants applicants to use it, even though it was a sub-standard software product

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• How many of you are still awake?

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• Issues with the Common CV:

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- Time consuming to fill out (all manual)- Cannot import from previous formats- Too long and difficult to ‘read’ for reviewers

- Average of two weeks per researcher to fill out- 10,000 NSERC funded researchers in Canada =>

20,000 weeks = 400 years of wasted time- Average annual salary of 100 K$ => waste of 40 M$- In addition, the software costs several M$




The Petition• Started in August 2013 on change.org• Reached 440 signatures by the end of Jan. 2014• Doubled in Feb. 2014 (committees)• Now >960 signatures• Scathing remarks: “Yet another example of how

our most important resource - time - is being wasted through excessive administration”

• Sent a letter to NSERC in April 2014; no reply.• In June, sent the whole file to the Auditor General

of Canada. Vague reply two months later.• Next step: send the whole file to the press. 16



Institut national de la recherche scientifiqueAcknowledgementsAcknowledgementsGe/Si, Si, Ge nanostructures:Ge/Si, Si, Ge nanostructures:• F. Ratto, D. Riabinina, C. Durand (now CEA Grenoble),

K. Dunn, L. Nikolova, M. Chaker (INRS), J. Margot (UdeM)

• S. Heun, A. Locatelli, S. Fontana (Elettra, Trieste)

• S. Kharrazi, S. Ashtaputre, S. Kulkarni (University of Pune, India)

• N. Motta (QUT, Australia)

Nanostencil / functional materials:Nanostencil / functional materials:• A. Pignolet, C. Cojocaru (now at NRC-IMI),

C. Harnagea (INRS)

P. Castrucci, M. Scarselli, M. De Crescenzi (Roma 2)

Carbon Nanotubes:Carbon Nanotubes:• S. Miglio, M.A. El Khakani (INRS), P. Castrucci,

M. Scarselli, M. De Crescenzi (Roma 2)

AFOSRAFOSR

Organic molecules: supramolecular structures, Organic molecules: supramolecular structures, 2D polymers, organic electronic devices2D polymers, organic electronic devices

• INRS: J. Miwa (now at UNSW), A. Dadvand, F. Cicoira (now at Cornell), C. Santato (now at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal), J. MacLeod & J. Lipton-Duffin (now at Univ. of Trieste), T. Dembele, C. Yan, S. Clair (now at CNRS); D.F. Perepichka (McGill)

• B.J. Eves, G.P. Lopinski (NRC–SIMS, Ottawa)• Flemming Besenbacher (Univ. of Aarhus)

Nanostructured Biomaterials:Nanostructured Biomaterials:• K.G. Nath (now at Corning Japan), F. Variola,

C. Brown, A. Vittorini, F. Vetrone (now at

Concordia), A. Nanci, J.D. Wuest (UdeM)