Diversity in Research Podcast

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 provides the tools for universities to think through how they can prepare for future collaborations. Not surprisingly, some of the proposed outcomes don't look great for minority groups working in or with institutions. We talked with Anna-Lena from the EUA about the report, how it came about and what it means for the future of university collaborations. Alongside the foresight report, key policy messages were released. You can see links to both reports below. This was a fascinating conversation and provides food for thought about how universities can navigate international research collaborations in the future and what this might mean for equality, diversity and inclusion in research. The EUA foresight report: "What if? - Exploring possible futures of transnational cooperation for Europe’s universities":https://bit.ly/UNIFE-reportThe policy messages: “"A renewed social contract for Europe and its universities":https://bit.ly/UNIFE-policy-inputThis episode was produced by Peter Xiong. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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, reflects this growth by taking a global approach to understanding the growth, differences, similarities and challenges in research management. For this episode, we speak to two of the book's editors (Simon Kerridge and Melinda Fisher) about the book, its idea, and what they hope people will get from it. We also interviewed two of the chapter authors from Columbia (Andrea Navas Calixo) and Malaysia (Shaliza Ibrahim and Tan Hsiao Wei), where we explored research management in their respective countries. The book is available as an Open Access publication and can be found here: https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/9781803827018 If you want to check out the specific chapters that were discussed in this episode, these can be found here: - Malaysia: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-701-820231047 - Columbia: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-701-820231042 We were also lucky to have the opportunity to write a chapter about diversity and internationalisation and how we believe it is now a core competency in global research management. You can find our chapter here: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-701-820231033 Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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, we are - some European countries have more conservative views on diversity than we do. So, we decided to look at history and invited historian Kamil Karczweski on the podcast. He has researched LGBTQ+ rights in Poland in the interwar period, and his research showed us that the story is more complicated than you might think. He explains that at the time, Poland was in some ways very progressive by decriminalising homosexuality, one of the first countries in Europe to do so. We talk about homonationalism, what it means and what it might suggest for diversity and internationalisation as FP10 is developed. We also discuss some of the political differences within LGTBQ+ movements - and then we speculate what all of this means when shaping, negotiating and voting on the next European research framework programme. Kamil's research beautifully links personal stories to tell a political story of the past and today. We had him tell us a few details of his work on the podcast. Links to the articles can be found below. You can find Kamil here: University profile Twitter The three articles mentioned in the episode can be found here: “Call Me by My Name:” A “Strange and Incomprehensible” Passion in the Polish Kresy of the 1920s Transnational Flows of Knowledge and the Legalisation of Homosexuality in Interwar Poland “For a Pole, It all was a Great Abomination”: Grassroots Homonationalism and State Homophobia à la Polonaise—A History Lesson from a Place Between East and West Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 indicators to help them measure culture. That didn’t go down well with a lot of universities, and on top of all that, UKRI dissolved their EDI committee based on governmental critique. That didn’t go down well with the research community. But we liked the idea - so we decided to do an episode on why indicators in research culture are a good idea - and particularly why we should have indicators on EDI topics - and what they could look like. Unsurprisingly, we think universities should be held accountable in this field. We also go into some of the concerns about indicators - and address the questions and comments we had on LinkedIn for this episode. Finally, we argue that this is not just a UK thing. The term “research culture” is travelling to other countries, so we should all be aware of the possibilities and challenges - and have indicators on the topic. In our conversation, we reference: Two blogposts by Lizzie Gadd, Stephen Curry and James Wilsdon: https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/political-science-blog/2023/6/A-clap-for-the-Frap.html https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/political-science-blog/2023/10/Plans-for-REF-2028-should-be-debated--not-throttled.html Articles by Research Professional (Paywall): https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/uk/research-councils/2023/6/REF-2028-changes-send--strong-message--on-equality.html https://www.researchprofessional.com/0/rr/news/uk/research-councils/2023/10/Concerns-grow-in-universities-over-REF-research-culture-metrics.html Article by Erin Cech: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abo1558 The INORMS More Than Our Ranks initiative: https://figshare.com/articles/poster/_b_NWB2023_More_Than_Our_Rank_a_preliminary_analysis_of_signatories_narratives_b_/24278587 Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 along with how to engage universities in gender analysis within research, supporting them to talk about these issues and the concept of diversity literacy. We also branch into a fascinating conversation about a new Creative Policy Development project using mosaics they are undertaking funded by the Wellcome Trust. To find out more about Eva and Scientia Scripta's work you can find them on: Twitter: @ScientiaScripta LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scientia-scripta/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/evakagiri-kalanzi/ Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 Impact" - but we, of course, had some questions about diversity and internationalisation. So we invited her on the podcast. We talked about how international collaborations can challenge how we decide what impact is and how it is measured, how to work with Global North/Global South dynamics and how diversity in impact is more than just "who". And yes, a little bit about "Murder she wrote". To find Julie and the book: Twitter: @JulieEBayley Lincoln Impact Literacy Institute website: lili (lincoln.ac.uk) Buy the book: Title Detail: Creating Meaningful Impact by Julie Bayley (emeraldinsight.com) Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 in many countries, internationalisation - and finally, how we can all help make academia more LGBTQ+ inclusive. Alfredo is good company - and we think everybody can learn a lot from our conversation with him about LGBTQ+ rights in a challenging time. You can learn more about Pride in STEM at: https://prideinstem.org/ You can follow them on X/Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PrideinSTEM You can follow Alfredo on X/Twitter at: https://twitter.com/DrCarpineti This episode is produced and edited by: Peter Xiong 00:00 - Intro 01:28 - Alfredo's background 02:45 - Why did Alfredo found Pride in Stem? 08:58 - Why focus on STEM? 15:55 - Diversity vs discrimination 19:26 - Navigating protecting employees and national politics 33:34 - What challenges/opportunities do you see for LGBTQ in academia? 44:30 - Change starting from universities 49:24 - How do you support an LGBTQ person in academia? 54:03 - End of interview 55:12 - Interview Recap Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 researchers and research managers get started in tackling what can be a complex issue. We developed a structure and questions to build on so the task doesn't feel daunting. We call it the FLOW model and explain what that means in this episode. So this time, we get our hands dirty and get practical about operationalising some of the things we have discussed on the podcast into research projects. You can download the FLOW model here. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 on in diversity and internationalisation in research and research management. And then we look at what’s to come in the rest of the year - for us - and particularly our expectations regarding the new ERA strategy, the next REF and the early discussions of FP10. Because a lot is going on that will set the scene for the coming years - in some instances for many years, and that’s, of course, interesting in a field like diversity that is undergoing rapid change right now. This episode is edited by Arthur Deligne. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 organisation, about the role of representation. Rosie gave Dipti some good advice, and we talked about how diversity and representation will play a role in projects like RM Roadmap and the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. Then we have a conversation with Lorna Wilson, chair-elect of ARMA, and Sapna Marwaha, deputy-chair of ARMA, about their work on diversity within the organisation itself. They presented at the conference, right before our panel, and this was a good excuse to follow up on the episode (Season 3, episode 2) with the then-chair of ARMA, Jennifer Stergiou, who initiated this work. As always, we finish by discussing what we learned from the conversations. The episode was edited by Arthur Deligne. You can learn more about our guests and the organisations mentioned here: Dipti Pandya LinkedIn Twitter EARMA: https://earma.org/ LinkedIN Twitter Rosie Madnick LinkedIn Twitter NCURA: https://www.ncura.edu/ LinkedIn Twitter Lorna Wilson: LinkedIn Twitter Sapna Marwaha: LinkedIn Twitter ARMA: https://arma.ac.uk/ LinkedIn Twitter Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 the conference generally and in specific sessions. We also have a chat about the two issues that cut through the conference: The RM Roadmap project and The Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. We enjoyed the conference, and we would like to thank the people who came to our sessions, the presenters we listened to and all the people we talked to. Thank you to EARMA for letting us record at the conference. This episode was edited by Arthur Deligne. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 that is making the discussion unclear. We also talk about leadership and management, and how New Public Management has impacted how research organisations work with diversity. The books has chapters on internationalisation and countries around the world, so we had a good chat about internationalisation and it's role and finally the role of research managers and administrators in this work. This is an important work and as always we thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Clemens and the other writers of this book are doing important work for moving the conversation and the practical work on discrimination and diversity. We can only recommend you give the book a read - once you have finished listening to the podcast episode of course. You can find the book here: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/book/detail/diversity-and-discrimination-in-research-organizations/?k=9781801179591 You can follow Clemens on Twitter : https://twitter.com/CStriebing This episode was edited by Arthur Deligne. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 about what it can and can't do, and the potential in FundFit and other software solutions. Luckily, Streamlyne's CEO Randy Özden was happy to join us on the podcast for a chat. And we learn a lot from his insights and his reflections on the future of software in the field. And while we still think that the core skills are person skills when it comes to diversity and internationalisation, we recognise that software solutions will increasingly be part of the toolbox in the future. We had fund and learnt a lot, and it's definitely a topic that we will follow-up on in the future. We hope you enjoy the conversation. This episode is edited by Arthur Deligne. For more information about Streamlyne do check out their links below: Website: http://streamlyne.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/streamlyne-inc Twitter: https://twitter.com/Streamlyne_inc Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 that will only grow in importance. We were slightly embarrassed that we knew next to nothing about the country’s research policy and used the country’s presidential elections as an occasion to learn more, so we had a chat with Dr Mustapha Popoola Ayo, who’s quite the expert on the topic. And we talked research policy broadly, infrastructure, funding and international collaboration. It is an inspirational and informative chat. This is not our last episode exploring research policies in countries we don’t necessarily talk about in that context. There will be more to follow. This episode was produced and edited by Arthur Deligne. You can read more about Mustapha’s new project at: www.s2nigeria.com You can find him on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustapha-ayo-phd-01599061/ Or on Twitter as: @greeners_s2b Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 Tudor-Vinther. Niels was work with European research funding in different ways for a number of years, several of them as a proposal writer. Now he’s the host of “The Grant”, a podcast dedicated to European research funding. So not only can he talk about his own experience – he has talked to research managers from all over Europe about this topic. But how do they talk about diversity and internationalisation? Do they talk about it at all? And their thoughts on Gender Equality Plans? We have both worked pre-award previously in our careers, so we could certainly see ourselves in some of the points. We had fun and had some good discussions – and look forward to chat with Niels again in the future. You can find Niels and The Grant here: Connect with Niels at LinkedIn Learn more about The Grant at the website: https://www.thegrant.eu/ This episode was edited and produced by Arthur Deligne. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 characteristics etc. and steer the communication in a negative direction. How do we balance that? That was the core issue of our conversation that took us far and wide. Julius is a researcher at Norwegian University of Science and Technology and runs the consultancy "Science Communication Accelarator" and the podcast of the same name. Julius managed to turn the roles and asked us questions - like in all good conversations. We all learned something and we agree, that science communication is a necessity - we just have to figure out which channels to use, and have a support system to catch us if shit hits the fan. You can see more about Julius here: His research profile: https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/julius.wesche Read more about Science Communication Accelerator: https://scicomx.com/ Listen to his podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2uO8pxtd1vL7zHBIa7NVpk?si=410eef8f29214b22&nd=1 or at: https://t.co/EB5gIAO25R You can follow Julius and his company here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/JuliusWesche Twitter: https://twitter.com/scicomxMedia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliuswesche/ Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 actually be problematic for the queer community to have more data collected about them. We talk queer competencies and the central question: Who should be in the room? Finally we talk about ethics, responsible research and the challenges of open science. This is obviously a topic that is close to us personally. Still, we truly think that researchers, research managers, EDI consultants and other people involved in open science and science policy can learn much from this conversation. We hope you enjoy the conversation. You can learn more about Kevin here: @kevin_guyan www.kevinguyan.com Links to the texts Kevin mentioned during our interview: Jen Jack Giesking. Size Matters to Lesbians, Too: Queer Feminist Interventions into the Scale of Big Data On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life‘You end up doing the document rather than doing the doing’: Diversity, race equality and the politics of documentation Some non-paywalled links to some of Kevin's writing that speak to some of the themes highlighted: The limits of numerical diversityThe need to look at data’s harmful historyTechnology and the downsides of being countedThanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 the direction of travel outlined in the report and explored why this remains such an important area in higher education research. Because one thing is certain after reading this report: DG Research wants diversity to be more than gender, so universities should prepare. Luckily our podcast will guide you through the key points and get you ready for the changes ahead. You can find the report here: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/006a43e7-3eda-11ed-92ed-01aa75ed71a1/language-en Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 - and of course, what happened to diversity in the principles. We didn't agree with Stephane on all things, but big principles are at stake here, so that's only natural - quite the contrary, it made it a great debate on the future of research assessment, the importance and challenges of institutional autonomy, and of course how research managers and administrators can play a role in the implementation. We trust this will have a major impact in the coming years, so we were happy to get to talk about it from the outset, and this is surely one of the topics we'll follow closely - and we will continue to insist that diversity plays an important role in the implementation. You can learn more about Stephane Berghmans and the agreement here: Visit EUA's Website, where you can also find the agreement: https://bit.ly/EUAWebsite​​​ Follow @euatweets on Twitter: https://bit.ly/EUATwitter​​​ Follow EUA on Linkedin: https://bit.ly/EUALinkedin​​​ Like EUA on Facebook: https://bit.ly/EUAFacebook​​​ Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.

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 from the Arctic University in Norway (UiT) for a chat about why the science community cut all ties to Russia if we are so focused on the possibilities of science diplomacy, why we don't see the potential of science diplomacy in Afghanistan, what to think of the "stick to science campaign" and how research managers can work with science diplomacy in their daily work. Rasmus Gjedssø is work package leader in the H2020 project InsSciDE where he runs a thread on "Power with Science Diplomacy". He is also a working group leader in the EU SD Alliance. Rasmus had a lot on his heart and we had a great conversation about the broad implications of science diplomacy that we can all use in a world that isn't getting easier to navigate. W also managed to compare universities to characters in Jane Austen novels in our final discussions - and it's always a good episode when we get to talk Jane Austen. You can learn more about Rasmus and the projects here: On Rasmus; www.arcticgeolab.co You can follow Rasmus on LinkedI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusgb/ You can follow Rasmus on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/RasmusGB Or on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/RasmusGBertelsen The InsSciDE case studies are in open access on www.zenodo.org/communities/insscide Y ou can read more about the EU Science Diplomacy Alliance at: www.science-diplomacy.eu You can follow the EU Science Diplomacy at Twitter at: @SciDipAlliance Or follow the hashtags: #SciDip and #ScienceDiplomacy Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com. Thanks for listening. Please share, rate, review and follow us on Twitter @Divrespod . If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.