Timothy Lau, EMCR Forum Executive member
Andrew Ray, EMCR Forum science policy intern
Over the past few months, the EMCR Forum Executive has been busy running COVID-safe online leadership events, advocating for members through submissions to parliamentary inquiries, and preparing to recruit new committee members.
Based on the survey conducted earlier this year, the EMCR Forum Executive made a submission to the Victorian COVID-19 Inquiry outlining the impact of the ongoing lockdown on EMCRs, and recommending actions the Victorian Government could take to ease the impact on researchers. This work highlighted the importance of boosting funding for the university sector, and the research sector as a whole.
Continuing on this work, the Executive made two submissions to the Australian Government’s Job-ready Graduates package: one to the Departmental Inquiry and one to the Parliamentary Inquiry. These submissions highlighted concerns shared with the Australian Academy of Science regarding the impact of funding cuts per student, and the disproportionate impact this will have on EMCRs.
The EMCR Forum also made submissions to the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) strategy and priorities review, and to the ARC Excellence in Research in Australia review. In these submissions, the Forum advocated for the inclusion of new metrics to expressly capture the role of EMCRs in driving research and publications for universities. The Forum also discussed the need for improved diversity metrics to encourage universities and research institutions to better engage researchers from diverse backgrounds.
The EMCR Forum Executive will continue to advocate for researchers in Australia. Read past submissions.
In addition to the above submissions, the EMCR Forum Executive met with the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, the Hon Karen Andrews MP, on 9 September, and with representatives of the NHMRC on 27 August. The meetings were held to discuss follow-up actions from the ‘Impacts of COVID-19 for EMCRs’ survey report that can support the research sector, and both meetings resulted in positive outcomes. The Forum is looking forward to further consultations with government and funding bodies with regards to how future grant rounds can be adjusted to appropriately factor in the impact of COVID-19.
As part of a series of online workshops and catch-ups designed to promote healthy research environments, the EMCR Forum hosted an online seminar on 3 September. ‘The stories we tell ourselves as STEMM leaders’ was facilitated by Fabian Dattner, founder of the Dattner Group and co-founder of Homeward Bound. The event was co-presented and made possible with the support of UniBank.
At the event, Fabian shared her valuable experience helping government organisations and the private sector in developing leaders and increasing sustainable practices. She also shared her passion and advocacy work to increase the number of women in leadership roles within the STEMM sector.
The event was well attended, with a diverse group of over 40 researchers from all levels of academia participating in the interactive session. Fabian’s session was followed by an additional talk on ‘Enhancing your leadership skills with four levels of listening’ by Sonia Reinhardt, Unibank's learning and development specialist. The final event was a 15-minute speed networking activity, which shuffled participants into break-out rooms three minutes at a time (which greatly promoted succinctness!).
The discussions mainly revolved around the positive and negative narratives that we tell ourselves on a daily basis, and how to manage and embrace these narratives. In particular, the seminar highlighted the power in acknowledging personal limitations and vulnerabilities, and that—perhaps unbeknownst to the individual admitting these limitations—these acknowledgements are often viewed as a sign of strength and courage. Participants also discussed the benefit of empathy and the power of everyday words in our interactions with peers; in particular, how awareness of the words we use can make us better leaders.
The EMCR Forum Executive is looking for new members to join the group in 2021. To encourage more EMCRs to apply, it hosted an online information session explaining the EOI process. Over 50 EMCRs joined the session and learnt more about the benefits of serving on the Executive. Applications closed on 19 October and the Executive is excited to review all the amazing applications and get to know all potential candidates. New Executive members will be officially announced in 2021.
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