Global collaborations in research, teaching and student recruitment remain at the heart of the work of higher education institutions across Europe. The European Universities Association (EUA) recently released a report which explores possible futures of transnational cooperation for universities. Taking an exploratory foresight approach, the report…

Research management has grown globally over recent years, with universities, funders, and policymakers recognising the profession's importance in ensuring effective research delivery, particularly as research becomes increasingly international in focus. A new book, The Emerald Handbook of Research Management and Administration Around the World, ref…

Along with much of the European research community, we're slowly warming up for what FP10 - the next European research framework programme - will look like. Our primary concern, not surprisingly, is what role diversity and internationalisation play. A main consideration, of course, is what is politically feasible, and without naming names - well, w…

UK politics are never boring - not even when it comes to research policy (which - let’s face it - can appear quite sedate for non-research-geeks). In this episode, we explore the recent spat after UKRI announced that in the next REF - Research Culture would count for 25% of an institution's score which was closely followed by a tender to develop in…

Eva Kagiri-Kalanzi from Scientia Scripta joins us this week to talk about Science Communication and public engagement, working across higher education research institutions and her experiences as a black woman in research management who migrated first to Finland and then the UK. Scientia Scripta is an ethical consultancy, we discuss what that means…

Societal impact is increasingly important, and as such, impact is a term that is now widely used across academia and research. Luckily, Julie Bayley, impact guru (and "Murder She Wrote" aficionado), has written a book about what research impact is, how you can achieve it and how we document it. We loved reading her book - "Creating Meaningful Impac…

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Alfredo Carpineti, science reporter, founder and chair of PRIDE in STEM. We explored what PRIDE in STEM is - whether it's still important - and whether things are worse for LGTBQ+ people in STEM than in the rest of academia. That all led us to a conversation about the challenges of the politicisation of LGTBQ+ issues…

Season seven is here! We kick off the new season by discussing how you can include diversity and internationalisation in research proposals. We know this isn't always familiar territory for people so we thought talking you through our approach might take away some of the fear! We developed a model during the pandemic that we use in our work to help…

We begin this episode by welcoming the new EU Commissioner (expected at least) Iliona Ivanovo, by saying “Hey gurl”! as only two gay guys can do it. We finish season 6 with a look back at the first half of 2023 and looking at wins and fails from our point of view. We look at some of the workshops we have run, research policy and other things going …

This episode is inspirational and aspirational as we continue exploring what we learned at the EARMA Conference 2023. Right before the conference, EARMA elected Dipti Pandya, chair-elect of EARMA as the first woman of colour. So we had a chat with her and Rosie Madnick, the past president of NCURA, and the first black woman to chair that organisati…

We had the pleasure of participating in the EARMA Annual Conference in Prague. We hosted our own panel, Jakob was part of a discussion table - and we listened to presentations, looked at the posters and had lots of discussions and fun. In this episode, we follow up on the conference by reflecting on the role of diversity and internationalisation at…

In this episode we talk to Clemens Striebing about the book that he co-edited called "Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations" (link below). We talked about the difference between discimination and diversity, and why that matters, because often we actually talk about anti-discrimination initiatives when we talk about diversity, and t…

We don't want to admit it, but it's been a few years since we were research advisors. Not that we're old - not at all, but it's been a while since we worked with funding databases to identify research funding for researchers. So imagine us getting an introduction to Streamlyne's software FundFit. We found it really interesting and wanted a chat abo…

It’s absolutely bonkers we don’t talk more about Nigerian research policy! Have you ever said that to yourself or your colleagues? No! Well, you should. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and the country with the largest population on the continent as well. And in 2050 it will have the 3rd largest population in the world. So an important country t…

Admittedly we sometimes live in a bubble where all things diversity and internationalisation are incredibly interesting and incredibly important. And they are. But how about the research managers and administrators who support researchers in writing grant proposals? We needed a snap back to reality, and who better to help us with that than Niels Tu…

We're back with the first episode of season six (can you believe it!). We kick off with a conversation with Julius Wesche about science communication and particularly social media. For science communication to work you need attention - but not all researchers with a minority background like the attention as it can draw focus on their personal chara…

When we learned earlier this year about Kevin Guyan's book "Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action" we knew we had to have him on the podcast. We talk about what queer data is and what the queering of data is. The latter probably being less familiar to the listeners. And we talk about the pros and cons of queer data. Why it can…

In this episode, we take the opportunity to examine the recent European Commission report "Approaches to inclusive gender equality in research and innovation". In a change of approach, instead of inviting the authors to talk to us, we did our own analysis of the report and chatted about what universities can do after reading the report. We liked th…

In the episode, we talk to Stephane Berghmans, Director of Research and Innovation at the European University Association. Stephane was in the room as the "Agreement on Reform of Research Assessment" was written, and we expect him to play a key role in the implementation as well. We talked about how the agreement came about, why it is important - a…

Science diplomacy is a great concept, and one of the things that inspired us to move into this work. Actually Jakob thought about writing a PhD on the topic for a while. But one thing is talking about the concept - another to put it into action in a time of war as we see now with the war in Ukraine. So we invited professor Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen …

In this episode, we talk to Uzma Sulaiman, associate director of Community Jameel, an independent, global organisation. The opportunity to chat with Community Jameel grabbed our attention as we rarely get to talk to a research funder from the Global South, specifically one targeting societal challenges in the Global South with Global South academic…

There is no doubt that there are many immediate consequences for women in the US when it comes to the overturn of Roe vs Wade. It almost doesn't bare thinking. But we all should, and Katie Rose Guest Pryal caught our attention with an article in The Chronicle called: "Abortion is a Higher-Ed Issue " (link below). Katie is an Adjunct Professor of La…

We saw the leak, but still. It couldn't happen. But it did. In June the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, the verdict that in 1973 ensured women's right to abortion on a federal level in the US. In a controversial concurring opinion Justice Thomas basically promised to overturn the right to gay marriage, gay sex and contraception as well if …

In this episode, we talk to Erika Valenti from Emerald Publishing and Ashley Richard from the University of Manitoba about the Emerald-led initiatives "First voices First" and "The Power of Diverse Voices". They focus on giving voice to indigenous people on their own terms and expanding the notion of what we consider research, with a focus on North…

In this chat we talk to Daniel Spichtinger from Austria on the topic of open science, why the EU Commission felt a need to develop a strategy for international research collaboration, what happened to "open to the world, how to understand " and what is "open strategic autonomy". We discuss the role of science diplomacy in an increasingly complex in…

On the one side, social media is increasingly considered a part of societal and research impact in academia and it is a chance for us all to get in contact with like-minded people we would otherwise never interact with. On the other side, we know that minority groups are increasingly targets of harassment and attacks on social media and that there …

Northumbria University is currently working through the process to achieve the Race Equality Charter (https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter). We talk to Professor Tom Lawson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and historian about the approach Northumbria is taking, why achieving the charter is important to them and how it fits in…

Oh, to be in the mind of a research funder! How do they think? How do they work? What is that secret to get that grant? The secret of course is that there is no secret, but in this episode we can share with you a little about what global public research funders think about equality, diversity and inclusion in research. We talk to Roshni Abedin (UK)…

The lyrics from a famous Danish aid song from the 1980s at some point says "Africa, the country that every child knows". And unfortunately, that still sums it up today. Even though we know it is a continent and not a country, we too often think about it as one - to the extent, we think that much about Africa in the context of research at all (South…

Representation matters - and in this episode Dr. Laura Heath-Stout explains why. Laura is an archaeologist, she's queer and she has a disability. We talk about how archaeological findings risk being misinterpreted, the challenge on being queer in an international setting such as an archaeological dig. But this is not just a topic for archaeology or…

Happy Research Administrators Day! To celebrate Research Administrators Day we decided it was time to learn more about how research management and administration looks like from a Global South perspective. So we had a chat with Therina Theron and Savita Ayyar. Therina is the president of SARIMA ( Southern African Research and Innovation Management …

Most watched in disbelief as Taliban regained the power in Afghanistan. Many Afghans escaped but most stayed behind trying to keep society going and maintaining as positive a future as possible for Afghanistan. One of them is Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer at the American University in Kabul. We had the opportunity to talk to him about the situation i…

You just have to admire the five people behind "The Lost Voices". We had the fortune of talking to them about the campaign. They started as a group of London based postdocs with diverse backgrounds who found it difficult to navigate academia and couldn't imagine having a career in research. That made them initiate "The Lost Voices" where they told …

This has been a long time coming. But luckily we found Gowri Gopalakrishna and Krishma Labib from Amsterdam UMC , and they we're more than happy to be part of this conversation of the role of diversity in research integrity. They told us about their own research on research integrity (fx the Netherlands Research Integrity Survey and the diversity o…

Alfonso Pezella is a mental health lecturer at Middlesex University, and he has been part of the IENE9 research project that looks at intercultural training for nurses and health care workers in Europe with a focus on LGBTQ+ rights. It was a broad discussion on the role of culture, the health consequences for LGBTQ+ persons and how training can loo…

Jonathan Grant is a professor at King’s College London , and we talk to him about his new book “The New Power University”. Jonathan’s book challenged and inspired us, so we had to get him on the podcast to explain how he sees universities changing in the 21st century. We talk about how the world has changed without universities noticing it, and how…

First of all apologies for the poor sound quality in parts of the recording! In this episode, we talked to Thomas Jørgensen, the Senior Policy Coordinator at European University Association. We invited Thomas on the podcast to talk about “A global approach to research innovation, education and youth”, which is the EUA’s input to the EU Commissions …

First of all apologies for the poor sound quality on some parts of this recording! As the UK announced its national researcher mobility scheme named after after the famous Enigma mathematician Alan Turing to be launched as the new EU mobility programme Erasmus was being launched we decided it was time for a chat about the two schemes and what it wo…

Jennifer Stergiou is the Director of Research Services at the University of Northumbria and the chair of ARMA (Association of Research Managers and Administrators) in the UK. She took over as chair in the middle of the pandemic, so we had a chat with her about how that has been. The main reason for inviting her however was to discuss the recent rev…

We were intrigued when we heard about the term bibliodiversity and had to learn more. The result was this eyeopening talk with Dr Arianna Becerril-García. She is a professor at Autonomous University of the State of Mexico and executive director at Redalyc. We talk about the differences in how we look at scholarly publications in the Global North an…

In the final episode of Season Two, we chat with Professor Alexander Serebrenik (Software Engineering and Technology cluster, Eindhoven University of Technology) and Senior member of technical staff, Reed Milewicz (Center for Computing Research, Sandia National Laboratories). Alexander and Reed met at a conference in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois wher…

In this weeks discussion, we chat with Professor Dr Ludovic Thilly, Chair of the Coimbra Group and Professor of Physics at the University of Poitiers. We discuss Professor Thilly's recent work developing HR strategies for researchers based on the presentation he gave at European Research & Innovation Days in September 2020. We talk about career pat…

Dr Clara Barker is unique in that she is transgender and holds an academic research post at Oxford University. But how did she get there and what hurdles did she face along the way? In this fascinating chat, we learn about Clara's accidental road into research and how she almost walked away. Now in her academic position, she works to promote transg…

To start 2021 we chatted with Tyson Yunkaporta. Tyson is an indigenous activist, thinker and academic in Australia who challenges us all to think differently about the way we live and work. Indigenous communities around the world have lived in sync with the land and with each other for generations and these approaches to thinking and knowledge are …

In this week's podcast, we chat to Lizzie Gadd and explore how bibliometrics, citations and rankings can impact on the diversity of research and the research environment. Lizzie chairs the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) Research Evaluation Working Group. The group has recently examined the role of bibliometrics in t…

We are joined this week by Tena Prelac, Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) at the University of Oxford, who is a member of the Academic Freedom and Internationalisation Working Group. We discuss the rise in self-censorship amongst UK academics, academic freedom and what the role of international researc…

Mental health understandings have been surrounded by stigma and a lack of literacy for many years but this is slowly changing. In our conversation with Associate Professor Nicola Reavley, Principal Research Fellow, Mental Health Literacy Programme at Melbourne School Of Population And Global Health we explore how this stigma is changing, what this …

Laura Evans from Nifty Fox (@NiftyFoxCreativ) joins us to launch season two of the podcast. Laura started her career in Higher Education by supporting widening participation and student engagement. Through this experience, she could see that it wasn't always easy for her to come out and she felt that many services were missing their mark including …

We had the pleasure of chatting with Saskia Walcott of Walcott Communications in this episode. Saskia has had an unusual journey into the research and higher education sector. Following a career in communications and public relations, she joined the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). She has also worked for universities before starting he…

Vicky Williams, the CEO of Emerald Publishing, joined us this week to reflect on their recent report, The Power of Diverse Voices, which explored diversity and inclusion in global academia and publishing. Vicky explains how Emerald has worked to increase equality and diversity within the company and how they are now championing change across the se…