Announcing the UofG Research Professional Staff Network

By Dr Elaine Gourlay, Research Culture Specialist (Communities & Collegiality)

I am excited to announce a new initiative at UofG which is focused on supporting and connecting our Research Professional Staff community: The UofG Research Professional Staff Network is live and ready for the spotlight!

As the Research Culture Specialist for Communities & Collegiality, I regularly speak to our Researchers about the importance of community and finding your sense of belonging at UofG. I also regularly discuss how our research culture is driven by our entire research ecology, by which I mean that research culture is not only influenced by the researchers themselves, but all of our UofG citizens who support and surround research.

But where could I find my community and network with others in similar job roles at UofG? The answer: establishing the UofG Research Professional Staff Network. Now nearing the end of its first year since launch, the Research Professional Staff Network aims to connect Research Professionals across UofG and offers opportunities where they can come together to share the experiences, knowledge and expertise that enable us to work together as a collective. This blog details the why and the how for establishing a network for Research Professional Staff community at UofG.

Who are Research Professionals?

I joined UofG not as a researcher but as a member of the Research Services Directorate. My job exists to support research and researchers at the university and is one of many diverse roles that ‘help the researchers get the research done’. These roles form a job family under the heading of Research Professionals.

Research Professional Staff (RPS) are any member of staff whose role directly or indirectly supports research activities at UofG, including those for whom this forms only part of their role. Recognising that Research Professionals work in a wide variety of careers, at UofG I invited members of our research community to self-identify as Research Professionals – the word cloud below details the array of job roles who have self-selected to be part of this community.

What is clear is that at UofG we have a rich tapestry of RPS, who hold a wealth of skills, diversity of backgrounds, portfolio careers, range of academic and professional qualifications. The next word cloud details the language the community use to describe themselves and the skills and qualities needed to do our jobs – it’s vast!

What is the Research Professional Staff Network? (aka defining its aims)

Who – The Network is for any member of staff whose role involves providing a professional service, expert guidance, system or support for research or researchers, at any point in the research journey. The Network is open and inclusive, encouraging membership from across the entire research ecology. This includes those at whole-university, College, School, and project level.

Aims – The aims of the Network were defined from recommendations from the ARMA Research Culture Survey (2020) and through Café Culture Consultations Workshops held with UofG Research Professionals (2022).

The four aims of the Network are to:

• Connect Research Professional Staff (RPS) across UofG
• Give Research Professionals a greater sense of community and identity
• Support us to align our work across different areas of the university
• Provide Research Professionals with a space to share their career development needs

How do Research Professionals find their community at UofG? (aka the inception of the RPS Network)

RPS comprise as much as 57% of the higher education workforce and, while we all work with “a shared focus and passion, working in partnership with researchers, research leaders, research technicians, collaborators, stakeholders and many others to advance research endeavours” (Dr Bryony Wakefield), we can feel isolated or that we are working in silos.

Therefore, The Research Culture & Researcher Development Team, in Research Services Directorate, felt it was important to build a sense of cohesive team spirt for our Research Professionals. The team sought to support Research Professionals to realise their part in the wider university and improve visibility of their contributions to the research ecosystem.

Working closely with Dr Bryony Wakefield, the Research Culture Team set out to establish a collaborative community of Research Professionals from across all Colleges and University Services within UofG, and thus The UofG Research Professional Staff Network was born!

How was the Network Built? (aka The Network’s Journey So Far)

Although it is now almost a year since the Network opened, laying the groundwork for the Network began almost six months before the Network had a single official member.

It was crucial to us that the Network was built by the Research Professional Staff Community from the very beginning, so gaining buy-in from our Research Managers across the University seemed like a good place to start.

There have been several key milestones in establishing the Network:

1. It Takes a Village: A Community Effort to Establish the Network
2. Consulting with our Members
3. Developing An Action Plan & Electing The Executive Committee
4. Hosing The Inaugural Research Professional Staff Network Conference

The Network’s journey so far is summarised in the timeline graphic below, and each of the key milestones covered in more detail in the remainder of this article.

1. It Takes a Village: A Community Effort to Establish the Network

Being a Research Professional myself, albeit a fairly new one, I reached out to other Research Professionals across UofG to build Working Groups to discuss their ideas of what a Network built for them would look like. Recognising the scale of the task at hand, I then brought together a Steering Committee to develop the initial materials for establishing the Network and recruiting our first members. This Committee brought together Research Professionals from across the each of the four Colleges and from several University Services to ensure that the interests of all of their colleagues were represented within the Network from the offset.

The Network opened for Members in August 2023 and proved to be instantly popular, garnering almost 150 members in the first three months, and has now stretched to over 300 members as of August 2024.

2. Consulting with our Members

The Network has a tagline – a Network built by Research Professionals, for Research Professionals, and it has truly lived that ethos from the start. Embodying the ethos of developing the Network with the voices of its members, the Steering Committee led two events for the Network: A Member Consultation and a Review Meeting to share some key topics from the consultation with our members.

Our members were forthcoming with their ideas for the Research Professional Staff Network and suggested so many ways that the Network could support them. The priority areas from the consultation, which were shared with our members during a festive networking event, are outlined below.

3. Developing An Action Plan & Electing The Executive Committee

The Research Culture & Researcher Development Team consolidated the outcomes from the consultation event into an Action Plan and devised Executive Committee roles to support these activities.

The Action Plan 2024-2025 comprises five projects, housed under three themes: Networking & Connection, Communications and Visibility & Esteem, with many projects spanning more than one theme.

• Project 1: Committee Development
• Project 2: Network Events
• Project 3: Member Communications
• Project 4: Explore Options for Induction for RPS
• Project 5: Develop Blog Series for RPS

To support delivery of these projects and continue the Network’s community led model, five Executive Committee Roles were devised in line with the Action Plan’s projects. Not only did the Research Culture Team turn to the Network’s member base to recruit to these positions, to ensure that the Network is fulfilling its mission to be built by Research Professionals, for Research Professionals, the Executive Committee were elected by our members.

The Executive Committee will serve in post for 1 year and will be renewed with the update to the Action Plan in Summer 2025.

4. Hosting The Inaugural Research Professional Staff Network Conference

In July 2024, the inaugural conference of the UofG Research Professional Staff Network was held at House for an Art Lover in Glasgow. It was an amazing day where around 100 of our members came together to network off-campus and share our journeys of ‘Becoming and Excelling as Research Professionals’.

Featuring guest speakers (including a keynote speech from Nik Claesen, Managing Director of EARMA), roundtable discussions led by the Executive Committee, and poster presentations from our members, the conference is the crowning achievement of the Network to date.

The conference was very warmly received by our members, receiving an average score of 4.31/5, and as demonstrated by the fabulous testimonial below!

“Thoroughly enjoyed the first RPSN conference. It was a celebratory and reinvigorating day reminding us all that we are valued in our profession.”

What next?

The UofG Research Professional Staff Network continues to grow in its following of members and its visibility within UofG and beyond.

I am excited to see where the Network will go next, and what it will accomplish as it enters year two since opening its virtual door to our members and runs under the Executive Committee model.

For now, all I will say is, watch this space!