Sharing best practice, finding efficiencies, setting up future networks – and swapping a few war stories
Operations staff from 18 ARC-funded centres met in Melbourne last week to share best practice and learnings, and to develop future networks among similar roles.
How do centres become ‘greater than the sum of the parts’? What strategies have professional staff found to enhance centre cohesiveness? What works with respect to managing KPIs? What doesn’t work?
The first Victorian ARC Centres & Hubs Staff (VACHS) Workshop brought together representatives from ten ARC Centres of Excellence, five ARC Industry Transformation Research Hubs, and three ARC training centres.
Sharing lessons from recent Centre Reviews: Natalie Jones (CBNS)
Delegates included staff from operations, finance, communication, outreach, education and training, centre administration and node management.
Penny Bambrick from the Australian Research Council also shared first-hand insights from within the ARC. Penny is Assistant Director of National Competitive Grants Program Major Investments.
Discussions included: lessons learned from ARC centre reviews, re-bids, centre cohesiveness, financial management, outreach, social media, internal communications, education and training, mentoring, diversity and equity.
Brainstorming sessions brought common roles together to identify shared challenges, and possible solutions. (From the comms table, the cry “I’m so glad to hear someone else say that — I thought it was just me” captured the spirit of shared challenges.)
Participating Organisations:
Centres of Excellence: Centre for Environmental Decisions, Centre for Climate Extremes, Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS), Centre for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Centre for Mathematical & Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS), Centre for Particle Physics at the Terascale (COEPP), Centre for Advanced Molecular Imaging, Centre for Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology (CNBS), Centre for Exciton Science, Centre for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET).
Industry Transformation Research Hubs: Research Hub for a World-class Future Fibre Industry (Future Fibres Hub), Bioprocessing Advanced Manufacturing Initiative (BAMI), Research Hub for Computational Particle Technology, Digital Enhanced Living Hub, Research Hub for Nanoscience based Construction Materials Manufacturing (Nanocomm).
ARC Training Centres: Centre for Personalised Therapeutics Technologies (CPTT), Training Centre in Alloy Innovation for Mining Efficiency (mineAlloy), Training Centre in Lightweight Automotive Structures (ATLAS).