Research Leadership 16 November 2015 Presented by Dr Fiona Cameron Australian Research Council

Web: arc.gov.au I How many universities provide formal leadership programs? What leadership opportunities or training are provided to the rising stars—postdoctoral researchers or students? What do you as Research Office staff do to facilitate and support your research leaders? Leadership

Web: arc.gov.au I An overview Project management—the basic skills of managing a project given Commonwealth funding Programme management—the advanced skills of managing multiple projects and integrated themes Entity management—high level expertise in managing multiple programmes/projects with multiple stakeholders Leadership style—‘leading a team’ or a ‘leading team’ and being serious about succession planning

Web: arc.gov.au I So they need experience, training and support Subtext—leaders have responsibility for… Research Governance Outputs Outcomes Research Impact (everything)

Promoting excellence - performance planning and monitoring—establish benchmarks creating and sharing a longer term vision and beyond—and workshopping it to get staff ownership. Being open to feedback and ideas—being reflective and actively seeking input from other partners Not trying to be good at everything—actively recruit required skills sets Developing plans that really focus the work—strategic plan, business plan—internal milestones are critical Integration—for example an ARC centre is a national entity not a network of nodes or just the Admin organisation Being forthright about revising research directions and shifting dollars—embed change management practices Important to establish really high quality relationships with collaborating and partner organisations. Managing their expectations… Success management—developing an effective method to filter incoming partnership requests. They can swamp a centre if unchecked. Good people management and developing working relationships Governance for larger research investments—important to get this right. Insist on best practice A whole new level of public communications and dissemination of results… Discussion points: Things that research leaders need to think about

Web: arc.gov.au I Subtext—leaders have responsibility for…(2) The management team—seek effective mentoring for your research leaders—don’t assume that because you are a good project leader that node leaders can manage a large centre programme easily Succession planning The stars of the future—really invest in recruiting and training your postdocs and postgrads. They should move across nodes, organisations and disciplines with relative ease. Inspire them with visiting leading experts Managing your commitments as rising research stars—everyone will want you to be involved in something (appointments, memberships, other projects). Be strategic in what you accept and also learn to say no Recruit the very best professional and administrative staff possible. And utilise the Research Office staff from your university

Thank You