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The various roles in IRIS

To guide the portfolio of research projects to success, the IRIS Project has an organisation comprising various roles – researchers, coordinators, reference group members, committee members and Heads of Department. Everyone needs to understand their own role, and appreciate the role of others, in order to ensure that we can proceed with confidence and commitment.

Photo from Pixabay.

For Coordinators 

The key task of coordinators is to shape and synthesis the project plans of your area into a coherent overall research roadmap - which can be visualised so that other stakeholders can gain a sense of the resesearch being conducted and the direction the area's portfolio of research projects are heading.

What you need to do is:

  • Review individual project plans, ensuring that they:
    • Comply with the prerequiste of cross-ITM-school collaboration
    • Fit the overall aims of your area
    • Are feasible to undertake, and as projects are ongoing
    • Actual research is progressing as planned
  • Discuss and assess project plans of all the researchers engaged in your area, identifying opportunities to support each others ideas and plans as well as develop collaboration/interdisciplinary research skills
  • Engage reference groups in the area's meetings to support project participants and their plans as well as ensure the alignment of project plans with department strategies
  • Communicate your area's emerging research findings and news e.g. via the IRIS homepages
  • Let researchers in your area know how the Steering Committee see the how the project is heading and if there are requests for information.

For reference group members

The key task of reference group members is to act as a bridge between the IRIS Project and your department's overall strategy.

What you need to do is:

  • Recognise that a prerequisite for IRIS funding is cross-ITM-School collaboration
  • Support researchers, coordinators and departments by
    • Reviewing the research plans and area plans
    • Providing feedback and inputs to strengthen cross-school collaborations and improve plans
    • Aligning the emerging research findings with your department's strategies and activities

For Heads of Department at ITM

The key task of a Head of Department is to allocate your department's budget share in a way that faciliates new interdisciplinary research opportunities to emerge, where those opportunities are based on research that will be or become important for your department and the ITM school

 What you need to do is:

  • Emphasise to researchers and reference group members that the basis for being funded from the IRIS budget is that researchers work together across departmental boundaries
  • Stress the importance of researchers providing plans – with such plans carefully addressing cross-departmental activities
  • Appoint reference group members to the areas that will take the time to constructively support the coordinators/researchers via project reviews and area reviews
  • Discuss project plans and resource allocation with the area coordinators
  • Assess the Project's achievements together with the researchers, reference group members and the ITM School

Checklist for all

  • Recognise the prerequisite of cross-ITM-School collaboration needs to be fulfilled
  • Support presenting research projects / area roadmaps in a clear way
  • Ensure different departments/disciplines contribute in a meaningful way in each project
  • Verify that the research is proceeding to plan
  • Encourage and support people keeping their project on track as collaborative or practical challenges arise
  • Identify emerging research results are identified and communicated to stakeholders e.g. via the project homepages
  • Shape attitudes and behaviours give confidence in the interdepartmental/disciplinary research activities