Research England virtual study tour for ARMA members

Date: Thursday 3rd October 2024
Time: 10am – 12pm, 2pm – 2:45pm

Closing date for Expressions of Interest: Thursday 12th September 2024

Research England is a council within UK Research and Innovation. We oversee UK Research and Innovation’s England-only functions in relation to university research and knowledge exchange. This includes providing grant funding to English universities for research and knowledge exchange activities; developing and implementing the Research Excellence Framework in partnership with the UK Higher Education funding bodies; overseeing the sustainability of the Higher Education research base in England; managing the £900 million UK Research Partnership Investment Fund; and administering the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).

This Research England study tour will provide ARMA members with an opportunity to find out more about what Research England does to support UK universities. It will provide an overview of current funding and policy development activities, more detailed updates on current projects and also presents an opportunity for research managers to feed in on a number of active policy areas. There will be plenty of opportunities for discussion and to ask questions.

An overview of the programme can be seen below:

Morning session: 10am - 12pm: Introduction to Research England

The morning session will be kicked off by Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England, who will provide an overview of Research England and our unique role in the HE sector. Introductions to our research and knowledge exchange funding and policy work led by funding and policy leads will follow, along with an overview of our Insight and Engagement function. Colleagues from the UKRI Culture and Talent teams will then introduce the work that they are doing. The morning will finish with a panel Q&A with the speakers with further opportunities to ask questions.

Recommended audience: Those who are new to research management and their managers/supervisors, but anyone with an interest in Research England’s funding and policy activity.

Afternoon: 2pm – 2:45pm; RE Consultation opportunity with ARMA members

After an extended lunch break, the afternoon session enables a more detailed look at some key projects and policy work through round table discussions.

2pm – 2:40pm: Roundtable discussion in break out rooms
Roundtable discussion options include:
• Talent and Skills - Speak with UKRI’s Talent & Skills team to learn more about their ongoing and emerging priorities. The session will look at how UKRI can support and empower research managers to embed career development in all their activities.
• Supporting healthy research cultures in institutions: barriers and opportunities from a research manager perspective – The session will offer an opportunity to ask you what you do to support healthy research cultures as research managers, to enhance our understanding of practices within the sector. We want to understand the barriers you face and the opportunities you see in your institutions and the sector more widely. We are interested in what you think Research England could do more of, and what areas we could prioritise, to influence behavioural change to enable a healthy, dynamic, diverse and inclusive research and knowledge exchange system in the higher education sector.
• Reflecting on Strategic Institutional Research Funding (SIRF) in an evolving higher education landscape - This session will provide an opportunity for the RE Research Funding team to update attendees on the current progress of the once-in-a-generation strategic institutional research funding (SIRF) review. There will be an opportunity for attendees to explore how institutions approach and use their research funding allocations, such as quality-related (QR) funding, and whether institutional approaches are considered transparent. There will be an opportunity to hear from attendees with their insights on how SIRF supports their role/work in their institution.
• Research Financial Sustainability – full title and blurb to follow.
• Data Management Plans: the next stages of UKRI policy and open research data practice - blurb to follow
• Introduction to Trusted Research and Innovation – blurb to follow

2:40pm – 2.45pm: Reflections and close
Kim Hackett, Director of Insight and Engagement will close the afternoon.

Recommended audience: We recommend that you attend the morning session in preparation for the afternoon, but all ARMA members and levels are welcome, particularly those with an interest in feeding in and contributing to discussions that will shape future policy.

Please select your top three preferences for which roundtable discussion you would like to attend.