Creating a university research office

Jérôme Billotte, Sandra Wirth, Violette Ruppanner (alumna)

Initial situation

Within this university, research-related issues are mainly managed in a network under the direction of a Vice-Rector, with dedicated relays in each faculty. This gives the network a certain agility and freedom of action to those dedicated to supporting research. However, a self-evaluation also highlighted the lack of visibility of the collective mission and the lack of common strategic objectives.

The Vice-Rector considered it opportune to evaluate the efficiency of the current organisation with regard to the missions of his dicastery and to analyse alternative modes of organisation. To this end, the university is considering the creation of a Research Office under the responsibility of a dedicated head of department.

The objective of the mandate was to assess the relevance of the creation of a Research Office and to propose its essential elements: missions, objectives, key services as well as the profiles necessary for their implementation and a list of points of attention.

How it happened

The mandate was carried out in five stages:

Framing of the mandate with an interview with the principal and a kick-off session with the research support team
Documentary analysis and launch of the participatory process
Conducting interviews and benchmarking with other universities
Synthesis of lessons learned and co-construction of the future research support service with team members
Conclusion with the drafting of the final report with recommendations concerning the following elements: vision, missions, objectives, organisation, profiles and services.

Result

The project was presented to the university rectorate which approved the creation of a dedicated research support service.

The research support team, which initially was not necessarily in favour of the creation of a head of department position, has understood the advantages and now supports the approach.

Strategos’ support was appreciated and led to other mandates within the same institution.

Other projects of