Pathfinder Career Narratives is an ongoing series tracking the career choices and experiences of doctoral graduates. You can see all of the posts in the series here. You can find all the Pathfinder resources and opportunities here. Today’s blog is written by Dr Christopher Daley, Research and Innovation Evidence Manager at the London School of Economics and Political Science. You can find Dr Daley’s LinkedIn profile here, and his LSE profile here.
Name: Dr Christopher Daley
Doctorate subject area, and year of completion: English Literature, 2013
Role and employer: Research and Innovation Evidence Manager, London School of Economics and Political Science
Approximate salary bracket of this type of role: £45,000-60,000 per annum
My career post-PhD has been varied, but hugely enjoyable. As an undergraduate at the University of Southampton I completely immersed myself in the world of academia and decided, at the tender age of 21, that I wanted to pursue an academic career. An MA at Royal Holloway followed and in 2009 I successfully applied for PhD funding from the University of Westminster where I worked on a thesis exploring the interaction between British science fiction of the 1950s and 60s and the politics of the Cold War. It was then quite a shock to enter the academic job market in 2013 with arts and humanities disciplines experiencing a significant decline in student numbers and funding. Therefore, after a few short-term post-doc and teaching roles I moved into the world of research management.
In 2014 I was employed on a series of Visiting Lecturer contracts at several London universities. One of these universities was Brunel University London and I noticed Brunel’s library were advertising for a part-time Research Publications Officer to support the open access requirements for REF. During my PhD I had taken a keen interest in open scholarship, so I applied and was fortunate enough to be offered the job. This then meant that I was working 50% as a university teacher and 50% as a research manager. I still had dreams of becoming an academic, but quickly realised that there was a parallel world of research management which had umbrella organisations like ARMA, RLUK and UKSG who held large conferences, published practice-based research and facilitated collaboration with policymakers and funders. This was exciting to me as someone who was interested in the broader processes and structures underpinning research as much as doing research itself.
By mid-2015 I decided to ditch the temporary teaching contracts entirely and pursue a career in research management. I was able to increase my hours at Brunel library and started to develop my professional network through presenting at conferences and events. I had a great time working in the world of scholarly communications in a university library, but I also realised that the bulk of research management work was undertaken in university research offices. In 2017, Brunel once again provided an opportunity through a vacancy in their research office for a Research Development Officer. This provided fantastic hands-on experience of pre-award processes, budgeting, and how to work with academics across a range of disciplines on project proposals.
I was only in my research development role at Brunel for a year before a promotion opportunity came up at Royal Holloway where I took a job as Research Development Manager. I was in this role for five years and it really helped solidify what I wanted from my career. The role had a significant strategy element as well as hands-on research support for academic colleagues. This meant I was involved in developing faculty and departmental research strategies as well as working closely with the Vice-Principal (Research) on university wide initiatives. I realised that whilst I enjoyed working with individual academics, I was most at home when gathering evidence, understanding trends and patterns in research and innovation policy, and formulating ideas for institutional responses to this constantly shifting environment.
Therefore, in 2023 I was successful in being appointed as Research and Innovation Evidence Manager at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). In this role I am part of a newly created evidence and analysis service within the research office. My role involves providing information and analytics to senior management to help them make strategic decisions around the institution’s research and innovation (R&I) activity and investments. I therefore spend a lot of time undertaking mini-research projects on areas such as governmental R&I policies and priorities, LSE’s internal research strengths or areas for development, and horizon-scanning the wider R&I landscape. It is an exciting role because there are not many research offices who undertake this kind of future-scoping or insights driven work. It is nice to feel as though you are doing something new and creative.
My PhD has been valuable throughout my research management career. Firstly, it has helped to build relationships with academic colleagues as I am able to talk about my own experiences as a researcher, which can help with building a rapport. More importantly, my PhD in a humanities discipline has supplied me with a strong critical eye and the ability to ask analytical questions of data, policies or processes.
When I was a PhD student I was so immersed in academic life that I didn’t plan for alternative career routes which could be just as (if not more) fulfilling as working in academia. This has resulted in it taking me about ten years to build a strong reputation within the research management world, which could have been achieved in less time if I had planned for non-academic routes as a PhD student. My advice to anyone currently undertaking a PhD, or just finishing, would be to start developing a ‘parallel CV’ which consists of non-academic work and training. The information within this ‘parallel CV’ can then be combined with your academic CV when you start to apply for non-academic roles.
Ultimately, my experience has taught me that those with PhDs should be open-minded about career routes and realise that there are many enjoyable positions in a range of sectors where the skillset of a PhD graduate can be put to creative use!
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