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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. Go8 Future Research Leaders Program 1 of 3 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? Go8 Future Research Leaders Program 2 of 3 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? Go8 Future Research Leaders Program 3 of 3