Download Template for communication audit - Future Research Leaders Program

Module 6: Grant and Contract Administration
Communication audit
Multi-investigator research projects face a range of challenges in establishing and maintaining good communication,
and in recognizing and resolving misunderstandings. If you lead or participate in such a team, we recommend that you
work through the following exercise, and then discuss the range of options for your project with a senior researcher in
your discipline who has managed a large collaborative research project.
Communication requirements differ between disciplines and projects, and individual preferences for communication
styles also differ. Using the management of a current project and the template provided below, carry out a selfassessment of how you manage communication and mutual understanding. Print out your template (please feel free to
add to it if there are areas that you feel should, but haven’t been covered) and bring your results to the Workshop for
discussion.
Self-assessment of a current project: Communication and managing mutual
understanding
Activity
1. Stakeholders
List the stakeholders in the project
Comment
A project often means different things to different stakeholders.
Understanding and managing their expectations is a valuable skill.
Eg Who is the funding body, co-investigators, research team, students,
admin, public
For each stakeholder, what do they
expect to gain from the project and
what do they expect to contribute?
If you’re not sure, ask them
2. Responsibilities
Responsibilities can be explicit or implicit, mandated or negotiated.
Who has overall responsibility for
the project?
What responsibility is devolved to
others in the project? How is it
documented?
Do you have team members who are
external to the University (eg Partner
Organisation or Industry
representative)? What is their level
of involvement?
What level of responsibility do
postdocs have on your team?
How do you ensure that they have a
clear understanding of their role?
Describe the reporting mechanisms
you have in place so that you can
monitor the progress of the project.
If you have students as part of the
team, who are their supervisors?
Describe, briefly, how you and the
co-supervisor ensure that you are
accessible to the student.
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3. Modes of communication
What formal project meetings
involve the whole team, and how
often are they held?
What formal meetings discuss
administrative matters (eg staffing,
budget, reports, etc) and how often
are they held?
How often do you hold formal
meetings for sub-projects and with
individual team members? Please
comment, in particular, on meetings
with postdocs and students.
What role do annual appraisals play
in setting expectations, reporting on
success and dealing with problems?
What type of informal meetings do
you have, eg a chat over coffee?
Over lunch? How useful are they?
What is your preferred interaction
style? Do you encourage interaction
between group members, or mainly
just with you?
Does the physical space allocated to
the project facilitate informal
interactions? If not, How will you
encourage interaction?
What early successes do you
envisage in the project? How do you
acknowledge/celebrate success?
Do you have a website or wiki for
your project? What role does it play?
If yes, who updates it and what type
of information is posted on it?
Do individual members have their
own websites?
If the answer is no, in what other
ways is information about the project
made available to members in the
group and to the public?
Do you have a central repository for
ongoing documentation?
Does the project or group have a
name? Who is entitled to use it?
Does it have a logo?
4. Dealing with challenging issues
Communication can take many forms, both formal and informal, verbal,
and written, hard copy and electronic, direct and indirect.
Communication develops over time through conducting the research
itself, solving problems, co-authoring papers, working with postdocs and
students, and via a myriad of informal and social ways.
Eg weekly research meetings, annual retreats, journal club, formal
presentations of research, writing sessions, study groups
Eg open door and/or regular meeting times, informal chats in the
corridor, phone, skype or email contact
Eg is the group co-located, are there whiteboards, if not can you arrange
for them? Where do informal meetings take place? Where does the group
have coffee, eat lunch?
Eg photos, videos, posters, papers, media articles, annual report
The art of dealing with challenging situations is to anticipate problems
and stop them arising where possible, and have a range of effective
options available to you for the ones that do occur. It is also useful to
consider what is (and is not) within your circle of influence.
What is your publication strategy?
Was the strategy your decision, or
taken in conjunction with team
members?
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When is authorship proposed and
finalised? Who is first, last and in
between? Who has input to the
decision and who has the final say?
What benefit do you think early joint
publications might have?
How do you manage tensions that
arise from differences among team
members?
How is the budget managed?
What funding is available to each
project component and member and
who can authorise spending?
How do you deal with
underperforming project personnel or
students?
5. Developing an overall
communication strategy
Do you have an overall
communication strategy for this
project? If so, describe it.
Reflection on a past project
What worked well for you in
managing a previous grant. Why?
What went wrong? Are you able to
analyse why?
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