Growing_the_Best_and_Brightest._The_Drivers_of_Research_Excellence

Growing the best and brightest March 2014
Despite the varying views of the value of
institutional-level strategies, a number of
benefits were highlighted to us:
» Recruitment. A documented institutionallevel
research strategy can signal to potential
staff the ambition and professionalism of the
institution. A document detailing the vision
of the institution and how it aims to achieve
their goals can give a sense of the
organisation that cannot be attained from
speaking to a select few people in the
recruitment process.
» Sharing best practice. The process of
creating an institution-wide research
strategy can provide a mechanism through
which departments can learn and exchange
views about research excellence.
» Resource allocation. A research strategy sets
out the institution’s priorities and objectives
which can be used as a basis for making
resource allocation decisions. With an
agreed upon set of goals, making decisions
between competing resource requests can be
made simpler and more transparent.
» Guidance. An institution-level research
strategy can be used by departments as a
basis to create their own written document.
Whether departmental research strategies are
specifically documented or not, the main way in
which they can influence research is through
the identification and subsequent focus on
specific areas. The degree to which ‘cherrypicking’
takes place varies by department.
Some are actively and constantly looking for the
new and interesting areas in which their
department could expand into, and others take
a more passive approach. The process of
identifying these ‘up-and-coming’, or
strategically important areas, typically involves
the departmental research committee. As these
committees are made up of active researchers
in the wider field, they are best placed to
identify these new academic avenues to pursue.
The individuals we spoke to described two
ways in which the identification of specific
areas practically influences the research output
of the department.
» Internal funding. Departments can also make
seed funds available for research in
particular areas, or given a set of research
proposals choose the one which aligns with
their strategy.
Along with identifying areas to develop into,
departmental research strategy can influence
research in other ways. Interviewees often
described funds being made available for
interdisciplinary research – which as discussed
earlier, is a common institutional level strategy.
Strategies can also be formulated with regard to
the development and motivation of individual
researchers, for example standard approaches
to reduced loads for early career researchers
and the amount of research leave that can be
applied for.
Similarities between the views on research
strategy and governance arrangements
Similar to the views we received on
institutional strategy, the opinions on
governance and specifically the degree of
centralisation were mixed. Indeed, we
visited both institutions that would consider
themselves relatively centralised and those
that consider themselves as very devolved.
Centralised institutions spoke of their ability
to act as a large entity, enabling
collaborations and allocating funds.
Devolved institutions spoke of the freedom
and ability to make decisions. All
institutions we spoke to are highly
successful, and as such both governance
models are capable of producing excellent
research.
Whilst most of the institutions that we spoke to
have publicly available research strategies, we
received varying views as to the value of such a
document. Most decisions that influence
research directly are made at the lowest
effective level, however there are clear benefits
to having a documented research strategy that
is built bottom-up.
» Hiring. If an area of interest is identified and
the skills or experience are not already
present in the department, relevant
individuals are hired. This aligns closely
with the ‘strategic hiring’ trigger discussed
previously.