FinCEAL organized a round table discussion at Finnish International Educators’ Days

FinCEAL took part in Finnish International Educators’ Days held this year in Tampere on 12 – 14 May. FinCEAL held a session titled “Mapping the roles of administrative staff vs. researchers in international research projects. Challenges and best practices.”

FinCEAL took part in Finnish International Educators’ Days held this year in Tampere on 12 – 14 May.

FinCEAL held a round table discussion titled "Mapping the roles of administrative staff vs. researchers in international research projects. Challenges and best practices.” The aim was to determine how the roles of administrative staff and researchers can best complement each other both in the application stage as well as in project management so as to enhance and support international research cooperation. The session gathered together 16 people from different universities and universities of applied sciences.

After short presentations on UniPID and FinCEAL,  the floor was given to one of the guest speakersNina Himberg, Global South Network Coordinator from the University of Helsinki. In her speech Himberg focused on common challenges and varying needs and expectations. According to Himberg the main challenges are mostly related to personal psychology and group dynamics as well as to organizational structures and traditions. Challenges arise for instance in situations where staff member is given various roles within the organization. Successful adaptation to these roles requires not only personal skills but also a good awareness of what is really included in the tasks and responsibilities and what is actually expected of the work. The roles of administrators and researchers are interdependent so the lack of knowledge and weak communication create boundaries for efficient cooperation between administrators and researchers. The researchers might not know what kinds of services are provided or who are the right people to turn to, when needing assistance. Continuous changes in organizational structures, human resource practices and financing structures bring along new working modes and fresh colleagues; measures which are expected to bring advancement, but also add pressure to collegial trust-building. Strict bureaucratic procedures create tensions and stress between the administrators and researchers, even if both are working according to their best knowledge and will. Himberg also reminded that individual researchers’ needs for services vary a lot which should be taken into account when providing different services and assistance.

Second guest speaker Funding Advisor, Elina Humala from the University of Jyväskylä reflected the roles of administrative staff and researchers through challenges and opportunities regarding funding organizations, the multifaceted phases of project life-cycle and bridge between policies and actual impact. She also pondered on the reachability of networks and different kind of skills and competences needed for good cooperation. Humala agreed with Himberg on the challenges of a staff member having various roles within the working environment. Apart from technical skills (administrative, legal and financial) administrators need to develop other important competences such as capacity to understand complex texts, service mentality, orgnisational skills, communication skills and ability to motivate and understand researchers. According to Humala some activities have been carried out at the University of Jyväskylä to develop skills and motivate researcher, to inform and stimulate researchers and to support individual project applications and projects. Yet, she acknowledges, more efforts are required to further enhance the cooperation.

Though acknowledged that the size and organizational structure of different institutions affect what way things work best, the audience seemed to recognize same kind of challenges in their own institutions as the speakers. For instance, difficulty of finding easily right contact person who knows about some specific issue appeared to have frustrated many of the participants. The lack of knowledge, weak communication and complexity of the issues were widely recognized as common problems. To describe the reality, a metaphor of "mom and dad” was brought up. When same questions produce different answers depending on who is being asked the questioner can easily stick to the preferred answer and proceed accordingly whether it is the best way or not. In conclusion, to enhance the cooperation and mutual understanding between the administrative staff and researchers, differing needs must be taken into account, communication must be improved and the varying roles have to be clarified.

FinCEAL thanks our great presenters and all the participants of the session!