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Project leaders
Jill Lees (HR Manager – Development), Kevin Flinn (Head of Leadership and Organisational Development), Dr Rodney Day (Head of Science and Technology Research Degree Programmes, Science and Technology Research Institute), and Paul Smith (Associate Head of Department and Head of HR Subject Group) – University of Hertfordshire
Project's administrative home
University of Hertfordshire
Background and context
The recent highly publicised cuts in funding will challenge HEI’s to think and operate differently. For support areas such as development, which are prone to cuts, it is critical that they are innovative and creative if they wish to continue to maintain progress on their varied and important agendas with limited funding. A particular challenge will be the continued affordability of meeting specialist needs such as the development needs of the research community promoted by the Concordat through bespoke dedicated development.
This research proposal looks at how HEI’s can address specialist development needs in a way that is both effective for the learners and cost-effective for the institution. The introduction of the Concordat, The Rugby Team Impact Framework, the Researcher Development Framework and Research Excellence Framework have focussed attention on research staff and their development needs therefore UH will focus the project on this specialist group and develop our research leadership capability but the process will be transferable to other situations.
At the heart of this research is gaining a true understanding of the perceptions and realities of the bespoke needs of the research community. Importantly we will seek to use both the process of reaching this understanding and the outcome of the research itself to create a fit for purpose development proposition.
Aim
The aim of this project is to enhance the leadership capabilities of the University’s research community through the process of researching their leadership development needs.
Objectives
A description of the proposed methodology including how the project will be tested in practice
A description of proposed outcomes and outputs
Outcomes
Outputs
A description of the intended benefits to project partners and the wider higher education community
The introduction of the Concordat, The Rugby Team Impact Framework, the Researcher Development Framework and Research Excellence Framework have focussed attention on research staff and their development needs. These publications and frameworks guide institutions in enhancing the personal, professional and career development of researchers. Whilst institutions may be very committed to the principles, they may find that there is limited funding for development and a costly, dedicated development programme specifically for Research Leaders may not be feasible. In addition HEI’s may find that dedicated programmes do not support institutional ambitions around sharing learning, increasing collaboration and building mutual respect across staff groups. The outcome from this project will help these institutions to continue to make progress on these important agendas in a more cost-effective manner or in a manner that is more supportive of institutional values.
We believe that the reflective process of defining effective Research Leadership will be developmental to our Research Leaders and sharing this process with HEI’s will be of benefit to the sector. We also believe that during this process we will gain a better understanding of how our Research Leaders learn effectively and can design and adapt our programmes to result in more effective development. This understanding and our planned innovative ways of providing future development for our Research Leaders will also be of benefit to the wider HE sector. To note is that the process used in our research should be applicable to other specialist groups – ie/ addressing needs of technical staff in response to the HEaTED survey
The sector at large will be facing the challenge of maintaining progress on various agendas in the light of financial pressures and therefore the experience gained and learning established through this research should have broad relevance across the sector.
Though we may go through elements of this process without the LFHE funding it is unlikely we would have the capacity to be as in-depth or to report on the process and share our findings.
Our project will also clearly meet LFHE priority of Leadership, Governance and Management in practice; evolving roles and specific portfolios (eg leadership for quality teaching; leading research, leading strategic partnerships).