What makes a successful research department? Robin Hogan Head of Department for Research, Meteorology
Bland et al (2005) – worth a read
Department of Meteorology • History – Set up in 1965 largely to train Met Office scientists – Small until ~1990 followed by rapid and continuing growth • Present – – 37 Academics (35 research active, 3 joint with Maths/Stats) 11 Additional grade 8/9 research staff 10 new academic staff yet to join in Academic Investment Project Around 60 postdocs & 50 Ph. D students • Research profile – – > £ 10 M per year in grants awarded RAE: highest in country in weather and climate research Host NCAS-Climate (NCAS = National Centre for Atmospheric Science) Host 25 Met Office research staff • This talk is about what worked & continues to work for us…
Is our success due to great leaders? • Sir Brian Hoskins – Head of Dept early ’ 90 s – Now Director of Grantham Institute for Climate Change • Alan Thorpe – – Head of Dept late ’ 90 s Head of Met Office Hadley Centre Director of NERC Now Director of ECMWF
Ethos • Success of Meteorology is grounded in an ethos of friendly collaboration with very little friction between staff – Door should always be open for a chat about a new idea • Since 1970 s this has been facilitated by daily contact with colleagues in the coffee room open to students and staff – Large central coffee room was a key design requirement when new building was built in 1997 • Main scientific discourse occurs in ~12 group meetings – Centred around groups of one or several academics but open to all • “Get on with it” ethos due to even teaching/admin load – Collegiate qualities of applicants considered in recruitment • Ongoing challenge is to maintain friendly atmosphere of a small department now that we are in no way small – Exacerbated by University failure to provide us an adequate single building – we are now spread over four buildings (and the School 6)!
Nurturing of academic staff • Low teaching load: 2 modules per year for research-active staff – – Aided by Dept funding of 1 -2 teaching fellows from overheads Two modules are currently taught by teams of 3 or 4 postdocs New lecturers have ~1 -2 year ramp-up in duties Try to facilitate teaching-free autumn or spring term • Communist allocation of teaching for research-active staff – Same load for lecturers and professors – has pros & cons… – But flexibility to buy-out teaching if income can be channelled to Dept • Strategic use of sabbaticals (e. g. to build CV for promotion) – Often first one is sooner than average time between sabbaticals • Promotion case built with support of line manager and Dept • Prize committee: prizes can boost early-career academics • If possible, guarantee lectureship to Fellowship holders
Hosted research centres – start small! • NCAS-Climate – Grew out of NERC standard grant in mid-1980 s “UGAMP” to provide global atmospheric modelling capability for UK university community – Led to Centre for Global Atmospheric Modelling (CGAM) Reading 1992 – Then became Climate part of National Centre for Atmospheric Science – Now 12 core staff at Reading and ~30 postdocs • Met. Office@Reading – Grew out of four Met Office staff based at Reading in mid-1980 s working on storm/frontal-scale (“mesoscale”) meteorology – Led to Joint Centre for Mesoscale Meteorology – Climate scientists joined when Met Office moved to Exeter – Formal academic partnership with Met Office since 2010 – Now 25 Met Office scientists at Reading (~10% of MO research) • Seize any opportunities for lasting partnerships and centres!
Leadership • Try to lead by example in terms of research activity • Crisis of leadership when no-one wants to be Head of Dept… • Met now has four Heads of Dept – Academic staff, Teaching, Research, Support staff & infrastructure – Can focus on role as well as maintaining ones own research group • Head of Dept for Research supported by three Theme Leaders – Facilitate internal collaboration – Contact for internal/external enquiries – Awareness of national funding scene • Hold twice yearly Strategy Meetings – – – Ho. Ds, Ho. S, SDo. R, theme leaders, centre heads Influencing new funding opportunities Enhancing external links Good people to attract & how to get them Not top-down!
Supporting proposals and collaboration • Departmentally funded full-time research administrator – Sorts out finances for proposals and funded grants • Mentoring of proposals – All proposals have a “mentor”: a successful grant-winner who is willing to talk through the concept with the PI at an early stage, as well as to give detailed comments on the proposal at a late stage • Building Departmental consortia – One of the jobs of a Theme Leader is to convene brainstorming sessions with interested parties when a NERC Research Programme call (or similar) is announced • Intradepartmental workshops – Focussed science workshops on a theme of interest to several groups that don’t currently collaborate as well as they might – Typically proposed by Ho. D-Research or a theme leader but organised by any member of staff • Use joint MSc/Ph. D projects to start a collaboration
Remaining challenges and ideas to solve them • Why do we write so few textbooks? – Provide preferential sabbatical leave? – Those who have written textbooks have been generally unsuccessful in winning grants so have plenty of time – discuss. • How can we get more papers in Science and Nature? – Department 1 -hr workshop on how to write high impact papers – Department to pay cost of publishing in high-impact journals – Met-abs email list: how’s my abstract? • Why don’t we have a media/policy profile nationally that is commensurate with our scientific profile? – Walker Institute media training – Engage with social media: blogging, tweeting, facebook page. . . – Hire a “Brian Cox of Meteorology”? • Why is it so difficult to hire new Chairs/Readers? – Answers on a postcard please…
Final nuggets • A collaborative culture that nurtures its staff is essential – – Seek ways to lower teaching load, e. g. by using postdocs Provide teaching-free term and 2 -year ramp-up for new staff Be flexible with sabbaticals, particularly the timing of the first Get behind staff going for promotion • Pursue different ways to encourage a strong research culture Encourage group meetings that are open to all Hold intradepartmental workshops on strategic themes Provide mentoring for proposals, particularly those of new staff Seize any opportunities to grow a project into a quasi-permanent research centre or partnership (these opportunities are rare!) – Physical proximity is important: one building with prominent coffee area! – – • Leadership is important – Spend a lot of time on recruitment – don’t be afraid not to hire – Cope with crises of leadership: consider dividing role of Head of Dept and expect senior staff to provide additional leadership
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