Successful collaborations of all sizes require diligent groundwork
As funders increasingly push for larger, strategic grants through such schemes as the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Industrial Strategy Challenges Fund, research development officers in universities are having to stimulate and support interdisciplinary teams of researchers working together, often for the first time.
This is no easy task. It is something I’ve been grappling with since I started in research development more than a decade ago. It is become more pressing in my new role as director of Eastern Arc, the regional research consortium that brings together the universities of East Anglia, Essex and Kent.