Tuning in to the Value of Research Staff — Showcase event

On the 15th of September, we held a showcase event for the ‘Tuning in to the Value of Research Staff’ series, to share our progress so far, and invite expressions of interest for future collaboration.

Jo Birch launched the postcard which had been printed with a summary of tips for PIs (primary investigators).

We then had a couple of talks from Stewart Husband from the Engineering Research Society and Vera Lukashchuk from Medicine Dentistry and Health Research Staff Association. They spoke about the benefits of having a dedicated research group, and shed some light on the process involved in setting one up.

This was also an opportunity to share the output of the previous two workshops, in terms of the visual notetaking response by artist Kay Aitch, as well as some of photographs I had taken.

This was a fun and thought-provoking series of events to work on, which I hope is evident in these photographs and blog posts.

As a newly appointed member of staff, joining in with this project enabled me to not just acclimatise myself to the work environment of — and with — my peers, but also developed the broader way in which I viewed myself as a researcher. It is this emphasis that I feel is most important — that researchers need time and space to develop and reflect upon themselves, as well as on their work, and that this approach is vital for research, rather than simply incedental to it. I hope that this event has prompted interest in the proposed Research Staff Association for Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences, as I believe this would continue the good work intiated by these workshops.