Do you share your grant applications with people? Writing an application from scratch is hard work. It is particularly hard when you haven’t done it before. That might be because you have never applied for a grant before. Thankfully, that only happens once. More likely, it is because you’ve never applied for a particular grant […] … learn more→

In terms of higher education and research, Île-de-France presents itself as a territory of superlatives and records. It is home to 150,000 research staff including more than 100,000 researchers , which puts it at the top of the pack of European regions. This place of choice, it also holds for the publication of patents, while it ranks third […] … learn more→

In recent years, ethics committees have been strengthened in the French research landscape. Objective displayed by these bodies  : ensure upstream that a study or experience will not harm the people who participate. In the Anglo-Saxon world, although these committees (or Institutional Review Boards , IRB) have long been imposed in the humanities and social sciences (SHS), they raise a […] … learn more→

Research engagement is a government priority in many countries. While the requirements differ, there is a growing body of research and practice that can help inform how we respond. In June 2019, I visited eight universities in Canada and the USA and met with 65 managers and academics to find out what  how research engagement was […] … learn more→

Rat brains to understand Parkinson’s disease. Drones to detect plastic landmines. Social media to predict acts of terrorism. These are just a few potentially lifesaving research projects that students have undertaken in recent years at universities in New York and Maryland. While each project is interesting by itself, there’s something different about these particular research […] … learn more→

I use Twitter a lot. I have used it across my various professional faces for over ten years now. I get invited by other institutions to give masterclasses and invited workshops about creating and managing digital identities. I teach workshops about ‘researchers and social media’ every semester. I’ve written quite a few blogposts about social […] … learn more→

Finally, the message came. Friends had warned you but you couldn’t help feeling disappointed when the request finally arrived. The dean of your school has asked you (and everyone else) to apply for external funding in the next few months. You have nowhere to hide – stress and sleepless nights loom ahead. Maybe if you […] … learn more→

I am looking at a flyer for an amazing opportunity to hear one of my intellectual heroes speaking. Registration for the symposium costs $100. In my head, I do the calculations: $100 for registration, an hour to get there and back and probably two hours if I just stay for one talk, so that’s four […] … learn more→

Reports of research misconduct have been prominent recently and probably reflect wider problems of relying on dated integrity protections. The recent reports are from Retraction Watch, which is a blog that reports on the withdrawal of articles by academic journals. The site’s database reports that journals have withdrawn a total of 247 papers with an Australian author going back to […] … learn more→

At universities in Australia, we get used to knowing one another’s salaries (in rough terms). Every university uses the same basic salary structure, and has relatively comparable pay rates within that structure. So, if someone is a Professor or a Lecturer, you know roughly how much they earn. This familiarity means that we often forget […] … learn more→