Last week UKRN held its annual Institutional Leads retreat. This year it was hosted by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen at the Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture. Twenty-four UK research institutions were represented. The retreat provides opportunities for discussion and reflection, to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones.
Delegates were welcomed by UKRN Project Coordinator Dolly Coates who was equipped with the all-important name badges. Marcus Munafò provided the opening remarks and invited everyone to introduce themselves, including several Local Network Leads (LNLs) who were representing their Institutional Lead (IL). Small groups discussions were mixed and changed throughout the day to encourage new interactions and conversations.
Neil Jacobs led a discussion around UKRN sustainability options. Outputs from these discussions were captured and reviewed later in the day to determine priorities for future UKRN activities. Marcus led a discussion on sharing effective practice and reporting on institutional strategies. The IL chair, Tom Stafford, led a discussion around what makes a good IL-LNL partnership, with key input from LNLs present. ILs can draw upon the LNL grassroots knowledge base, as one IL put it ‘the LNLs are the brains of the operation, they’re the conduit from researchers to senior management teams.’
A swift trip out into the glorious Cardiff sunshine for a group photo was followed by small group discussions around Special Interest Groups (SIGs). There are several SIGs within UKRN, including the metascience SIG and the computational reproducibility SIG. All 3 member groups (LNLs, ILs and the Stakeholder Group) are keen to both nurture these SIGs and establish new ones. Notes from these discussions will be collated and shared across UKRN.
Throughout the day the UKRN Community Project coordinator, Diane Hird, worked with local filmmaker Lloyd Morgan from Rockadove to interview several ILs about the specific challenges within their research discipline and what UKRN can offer researchers in these fields. The interviews will be used to create short videos and case studies to help expand the range of disciplines within our LNL community and their grass roots research networks across the UK.
Thanks to everyone who attended the retreat and to local organisers Karen Desborough and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen for providing such a warm welcome to Wales.