On Wednesday 7th November 2018, Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Director of Research Communications at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education) was invited to share the Institute’s research communications activities with Research Division Leads (RDLs) from across the University’s Prosperity & Resilience (P&R) research theme at the theme’s termly meeting.
Led by Professor Adrian Bell, the P&R research theme is the largest of the University’s five research themes and is made up of 11 research divisions. Six of these divisions are affiliated with Henley Business School (Business Informatics Systems, and Accounting; ICMA Centre International Business Association; Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour; Marketing and Reputation; Real Estate and Planning), with the other five divisions being Economics, Global Development, Law, Politics and International Relations, as well as our research division of Education, Language, and Learning (ELL).
As the idea of having the Director of Research Communications (DRC) role specific to a research division is a new and innovative idea, not least because this role is served by a research / academic member of staff (as opposed to a Communications professional), Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s presentation generated a lot of interest and questions from RDLs.
Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has since met up with two of the RDLs at their request to offer them one-to-one support, specifically in thinking strategically about how some of the research communications activity ideas within the ELL research division could be transferred to theirs. He has also been invited by one of the RDLs to inspire their research staff to become more actively engaged in communicating about their research to non-academic audiences at their Research Away Day in Spring 2019.