Is your job title research project manager or centre manager or programme manager or network manager or similar?
Do you enable research, for example by managing a research community, produce strategies, develop grant proposals, and implement business operations to grow the research area you manage together with the academics in your team?
Or is your role not purely academic or professional services, but grows and changes depending on how the research portfolio in your team evolves?
Maybe the PRISM network is for you, a place to connect to people in similar positions. Professional Research Investment and Strategy Managers (PRISMs) are managers of large research, training, and network grants who have strategic responsibilities and drive the growth of the research clusters they manage. PRISMs are vital in helping to ensure the efficient management, coordination and organisation of the grants that they support. These contributions help to support the development of high-quality research outputs.
PRISMs usually have research experience at PhD level, and/or come from an industrial project management background. PRISMs sit at the interface of research and support services in Higher Education Institutions utilising their emotional intelligence, listening, communication, coordination, and analytical skills, as well as recognised leadership traits such as empathy and persuasiveness, to enable research collaborations and build research communities.
Founded in April 2020, the PRISM network pursues two main aims:
- To bring the widely dispersed PRISM community across the UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) together.
- To engage with UKRI on a cultural shift for research teams in HEIs, which includes better recognition and progression pathways for PRISM roles.
If this resonates with you, have a look at the PRISM website and subscribe. The inaugural workshop is being held on Thursday 15 October – registration is free.
For more information please get in touch with Claire Wyatt or the leader of this new initiative, based at the University of Exeter, Dr Anja Roeding.
