The Partnership series of seminars on Global Environmental Challenges is paired with a concurrent set of masterclasses which aims to catalyse and support collaborative, interdisciplinary research. The masterclasses are led by the seminar presenters (and members of their research teams in some cases) and are being attended by 18 researchers and collections staff from the two institutions,
Increasing numbers of interdisciplinary research calls are available which require expertise from a range of disciplines, and the implementation of this series is supported by leadership teams across both institutions who recognise a need to support the development of their research-active staff. This opportunity focuses specifically on increasing our academics’ understanding of what it takes to lead complex cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional projects.
The overall goal of these activities is to directly address partnership priority area 1 (research expertise for global environmental challenges), aiming to build capacity and leadership skills in mid-career and senior academics who might lead large research funding proposals and projects. They will also contribute to priority area 4 (facilities to transform our science) by increasing our chances to achieve major institutional and infrastructure funding, and to priority area 5 (creative approaches for broad audiences) through interdisciplinary research which interacts with the unique collections and expertise held at both institutions.
The masterclasses have focussed on logistics, methodology, and lessons learned by the presenters, who have successfully designed and delivered large-scale, interdisciplinary projects. Sharing experience is invaluable for research development as well as addressing global concerns, and feedback from masterclass attendees responding to a survey halfway through the series was overwhelmingly positive. Attendees confirmed that they have gained confidence, inspiration, time to think more broadly and widen their networks, and have enjoyed learning from senior colleagues, and that they have applied this practically by reaching out more and aiming to gather different views when designing research.