Many of us tend to forget that all research institutions are not big, comprehensive universities. Actually, quite a few are smaller institutions either because they are fairly new, specialize in a single discipline, or are based in more rural areas where there isn’t the population needed for a big research-intensive university. But how do you navig…

We often discuss researchers and research managers on the podcast, but publishers are also key players in the research ecosystem. So, we invited SpingerNature to discuss their report “Insights into diversity, equity and inclusion in the global research community.” Sowmya Swaminathan, their director of DEI, Research who also directs Springer Nature'…

Welcome back to Laura Heath-Stout - our first return guest on the podcast! Laura is a postdoctoral fellow in archaeology at Stanford University. She has a new book out: 'Identity, Oppression, and Diversity in Archaeology.', so we wanted her back on the podcast for a chat about it. And while we aren't all archaeologists the peculiar dimensions of ar…

Gender equality in academia and research has been a topic for decades. And between that and the #metoo movement, one would think we had solved the problems. Yet, here we are. While we usually say that diversity is more than gender, it's also gender. So we invited Marcela Linkova from the GenderSAFE project on the podcast to discuss the project and …

Creating equitable research collaborations between the Global North and Global South has been a struggle for many years. How do you create equitability when there is a structural imbalance in the core element of research: funding? And how do you balance the need for global collaboration with differences in values on diversity issues like gender, ra…

A core element of our work is to make research managers key promoters of diversity in research and research management. But sometimes, we felt a little alone with this agenda. Then, along came Kris and Joey. Kris A. Monahan is the President of NCURA (National Council of University Research Administrators), and Joey Gaynor is chair of NCURA's Intern…

Join us in this conversation with Robin van Kessel, a health policy researcher at the London School of Economics, as we explore the intricate dynamics of health data, digital health technologies, and AI in healthcare. Robin shares his expertise on health data poverty, the challenges of ensuring inclusive health datasets, and the importance of nuanc…

Like many others, we’ve been exploring the capabilities of AI tools. However, when we started considering their implications in terms of diversity and security, we found ourselves with more questions than answers. We're not afraid to admit that we see potential problems, and we're eager to discuss them. That’s why we invited Avi Staiman on the podc…

Being queer is many different things, and we try to remember that our experience as white cis-gendered gay men in the UK and Denmark is not representative. We have long talked about inviting Professor Sandy O’Sullivan on the podcast, and what better occasion than Pride Month? Sandy is a Wiradjuri (Aboriginal), transgender/non-binary person, and a P…

When discussing diversity, we talk a lot about gender, race, and LGBTQ+ issues. There is, of course, more to the issue – and according to Kathrine Deane, disability is the next frontier. Kathrine is an associate professor at East Anglia University. She has a disability herself, but that doesn’t stop her from being a force of nature – and an absolut…

Not all research institutions have a set of courses or clearly defined career pathways for their researchers. We expect researchers to be born with the necessary skills to project manage, plan their career and support research networks or miraculously achieve them when they get their PhD degree. Pedro Resende co-founded Chaperone, the first persona…

This week, we are joined by Sarah McLusky, who is a consultant, trainer and facilitator who helps research organisations and individuals maximise their research and research careers. Sarah hosts the brilliant Research Adjacent podcast where she talks with those working in the research space how they support research to be the best it can be. In thi…

One of the challenges with working with diversity is how some of it has been politicised. In this episode, we explore the case of UK Secretary of Science Michelle Donelan. In the fall of 2023, after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, she accused two researchers of sympathising with Hamas. The two researchers were on the UKRI Expert Advisory Grou…

Global collaborations in research, teaching and student recruitment remain at the heart of the work of higher education institutions across Europe. The European Universities Association (EUA) recently released a report which explores possible futures of transnational cooperation for universities. Taking an exploratory foresight approach, the report…

Research management has grown globally over recent years, with universities, funders, and policymakers recognising the profession's importance in ensuring effective research delivery, particularly as research becomes increasingly international in focus. A new book, The Emerald Handbook of Research Management and Administration Around the World, ref…

Along with much of the European research community, we're slowly warming up for what FP10 - the next European research framework programme - will look like. Our primary concern, not surprisingly, is what role diversity and internationalisation play. A main consideration, of course, is what is politically feasible, and without naming names - well, w…

UK politics are never boring - not even when it comes to research policy (which - let’s face it - can appear quite sedate for non-research-geeks). In this episode, we explore the recent spat after UKRI announced that in the next REF - Research Culture would count for 25% of an institution's score which was closely followed by a tender to develop in…

Eva Kagiri-Kalanzi from Scientia Scripta joins us this week to talk about Science Communication and public engagement, working across higher education research institutions and her experiences as a black woman in research management who migrated first to Finland and then the UK. Scientia Scripta is an ethical consultancy, we discuss what that means…

Societal impact is increasingly important, and as such, impact is a term that is now widely used across academia and research. Luckily, Julie Bayley, impact guru (and "Murder She Wrote" aficionado), has written a book about what research impact is, how you can achieve it and how we document it. We loved reading her book - "Creating Meaningful Impac…

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Alfredo Carpineti, science reporter, founder and chair of PRIDE in STEM. We explored what PRIDE in STEM is - whether it's still important - and whether things are worse for LGTBQ+ people in STEM than in the rest of academia. That all led us to a conversation about the challenges of the politicisation of LGTBQ+ issues…

Season seven is here! We kick off the new season by discussing how you can include diversity and internationalisation in research proposals. We know this isn't always familiar territory for people so we thought talking you through our approach might take away some of the fear! We developed a model during the pandemic that we use in our work to help…

We begin this episode by welcoming the new EU Commissioner (expected at least) Iliona Ivanovo, by saying “Hey gurl”! as only two gay guys can do it. We finish season 6 with a look back at the first half of 2023 and looking at wins and fails from our point of view. We look at some of the workshops we have run, research policy and other things going …

This episode is inspirational and aspirational as we continue exploring what we learned at the EARMA Conference 2023. Right before the conference, EARMA elected Dipti Pandya, chair-elect of EARMA as the first woman of colour. So we had a chat with her and Rosie Madnick, the past president of NCURA, and the first black woman to chair that organisati…

We had the pleasure of participating in the EARMA Annual Conference in Prague. We hosted our own panel, Jakob was part of a discussion table - and we listened to presentations, looked at the posters and had lots of discussions and fun. In this episode, we follow up on the conference by reflecting on the role of diversity and internationalisation at…

In this episode we talk to Clemens Striebing about the book that he co-edited called "Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations" (link below). We talked about the difference between discimination and diversity, and why that matters, because often we actually talk about anti-discrimination initiatives when we talk about diversity, and t…

We don't want to admit it, but it's been a few years since we were research advisors. Not that we're old - not at all, but it's been a while since we worked with funding databases to identify research funding for researchers. So imagine us getting an introduction to Streamlyne's software FundFit. We found it really interesting and wanted a chat abo…

It’s absolutely bonkers we don’t talk more about Nigerian research policy! Have you ever said that to yourself or your colleagues? No! Well, you should. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and the country with the largest population on the continent as well. And in 2050 it will have the 3rd largest population in the world. So an important country t…

Admittedly we sometimes live in a bubble where all things diversity and internationalisation are incredibly interesting and incredibly important. And they are. But how about the research managers and administrators who support researchers in writing grant proposals? We needed a snap back to reality, and who better to help us with that than Niels Tu…

We're back with the first episode of season six (can you believe it!). We kick off with a conversation with Julius Wesche about science communication and particularly social media. For science communication to work you need attention - but not all researchers with a minority background like the attention as it can draw focus on their personal chara…

When we learned earlier this year about Kevin Guyan's book "Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action" we knew we had to have him on the podcast. We talk about what queer data is and what the queering of data is. The latter probably being less familiar to the listeners. And we talk about the pros and cons of queer data. Why it can…

In this episode, we take the opportunity to examine the recent European Commission report "Approaches to inclusive gender equality in research and innovation". In a change of approach, instead of inviting the authors to talk to us, we did our own analysis of the report and chatted about what universities can do after reading the report. We liked th…

In the episode, we talk to Stephane Berghmans, Director of Research and Innovation at the European University Association. Stephane was in the room as the "Agreement on Reform of Research Assessment" was written, and we expect him to play a key role in the implementation as well. We talked about how the agreement came about, why it is important - a…

Science diplomacy is a great concept, and one of the things that inspired us to move into this work. Actually Jakob thought about writing a PhD on the topic for a while. But one thing is talking about the concept - another to put it into action in a time of war as we see now with the war in Ukraine. So we invited professor Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen …

In this episode, we talk to Uzma Sulaiman, associate director of Community Jameel, an independent, global organisation. The opportunity to chat with Community Jameel grabbed our attention as we rarely get to talk to a research funder from the Global South, specifically one targeting societal challenges in the Global South with Global South academic…

There is no doubt that there are many immediate consequences for women in the US when it comes to the overturn of Roe vs Wade. It almost doesn't bare thinking. But we all should, and Katie Rose Guest Pryal caught our attention with an article in The Chronicle called: "Abortion is a Higher-Ed Issue " (link below). Katie is an Adjunct Professor of La…

We saw the leak, but still. It couldn't happen. But it did. In June the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, the verdict that in 1973 ensured women's right to abortion on a federal level in the US. In a controversial concurring opinion Justice Thomas basically promised to overturn the right to gay marriage, gay sex and contraception as well if …

In this episode, we talk to Erika Valenti from Emerald Publishing and Ashley Richard from the University of Manitoba about the Emerald-led initiatives "First voices First" and "The Power of Diverse Voices". They focus on giving voice to indigenous people on their own terms and expanding the notion of what we consider research, with a focus on North…

In this chat we talk to Daniel Spichtinger from Austria on the topic of open science, why the EU Commission felt a need to develop a strategy for international research collaboration, what happened to "open to the world, how to understand " and what is "open strategic autonomy". We discuss the role of science diplomacy in an increasingly complex in…

On the one side, social media is increasingly considered a part of societal and research impact in academia and it is a chance for us all to get in contact with like-minded people we would otherwise never interact with. On the other side, we know that minority groups are increasingly targets of harassment and attacks on social media and that there …

Northumbria University is currently working through the process to achieve the Race Equality Charter (https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter). We talk to Professor Tom Lawson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and historian about the approach Northumbria is taking, why achieving the charter is important to them and how it fits in…

Oh, to be in the mind of a research funder! How do they think? How do they work? What is that secret to get that grant? The secret of course is that there is no secret, but in this episode we can share with you a little about what global public research funders think about equality, diversity and inclusion in research. We talk to Roshni Abedin (UK)…

The lyrics from a famous Danish aid song from the 1980s at some point says "Africa, the country that every child knows". And unfortunately, that still sums it up today. Even though we know it is a continent and not a country, we too often think about it as one - to the extent, we think that much about Africa in the context of research at all (South…

Representation matters - and in this episode Dr. Laura Heath-Stout explains why. Laura is an archaeologist, she's queer and she has a disability. We talk about how archaeological findings risk being misinterpreted, the challenge on being queer in an international setting such as an archaeological dig. But this is not just a topic for archaeology or…

Happy Research Administrators Day! To celebrate Research Administrators Day we decided it was time to learn more about how research management and administration looks like from a Global South perspective. So we had a chat with Therina Theron and Savita Ayyar. Therina is the president of SARIMA ( Southern African Research and Innovation Management …

Most watched in disbelief as Taliban regained the power in Afghanistan. Many Afghans escaped but most stayed behind trying to keep society going and maintaining as positive a future as possible for Afghanistan. One of them is Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer at the American University in Kabul. We had the opportunity to talk to him about the situation i…

You just have to admire the five people behind "The Lost Voices". We had the fortune of talking to them about the campaign. They started as a group of London based postdocs with diverse backgrounds who found it difficult to navigate academia and couldn't imagine having a career in research. That made them initiate "The Lost Voices" where they told …

This has been a long time coming. But luckily we found Gowri Gopalakrishna and Krishma Labib from Amsterdam UMC , and they we're more than happy to be part of this conversation of the role of diversity in research integrity. They told us about their own research on research integrity (fx the Netherlands Research Integrity Survey and the diversity o…

Alfonso Pezella is a mental health lecturer at Middlesex University, and he has been part of the IENE9 research project that looks at intercultural training for nurses and health care workers in Europe with a focus on LGBTQ+ rights. It was a broad discussion on the role of culture, the health consequences for LGBTQ+ persons and how training can loo…

Jonathan Grant is a professor at King’s College London , and we talk to him about his new book “The New Power University”. Jonathan’s book challenged and inspired us, so we had to get him on the podcast to explain how he sees universities changing in the 21st century. We talk about how the world has changed without universities noticing it, and how…

First of all apologies for the poor sound quality in parts of the recording! In this episode, we talked to Thomas Jørgensen, the Senior Policy Coordinator at European University Association. We invited Thomas on the podcast to talk about “A global approach to research innovation, education and youth”, which is the EUA’s input to the EU Commissions …