Image: Nina Bo Wagner for Research Professional News
Earma 2024: Research manager pushes back against minimising stance of anonymous rector
Research support should entail more than just carrying out administrative duties, a member of the profession has argued at the annual conference of the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators.
Esben Flindt (pictured), a research support worker at the University of Southern Denmark, quoted an anonymous university rector as having asserted that “research supporters should take care of the admin rules and procedures, and no more”.
This presents conflicting interpretations of people in the support role, according to Flindt: either they provide administrative support on rules and procedures, fundraising and project management, or they are also involved in driving research development, organisational learning and change processes.
Flindt argued in the session on 25 April that research support staff should themselves be supported in exceeding administrative functions to play a central role in the research process, providing “research support plus”.
Paying their way
He said he could understand arguments that letting researchers handle the managerial workload on their own would save on costs but argued that this could create an environment where “only the strong will survive” among researchers.
Flindt also pointed out that research support staff can indirectly provide income for their institution.
His research support office was established in 2017 as an independent body from the university’s central administration, to make it more directly responsive to the needs of academic faculties.
Since 2018, the funding rate at his university has risen by 70 per cent, he said. “I’m not saying that it is only due to our support, of course not, but I’m 100 per cent sure the numbers would have been lower if we hadn’t been that involved,” he said.