SRAI’s Senior Executive Institute
The Senior Executive Institute (SEI) held its first in-person event since 2019 at the 2022 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. It took the form of a master’s retreat on the topic of Intellectual Advancement for Senior Executives in Research Administration.
Our two keynote speakers discussed their career journeys and some key learnings, successes and challenges. Picking just three highlights, and one memorable quote, from each:
Professor Ed Synakowski, incoming Vice-Provost for Research and Innovation, Stevens Institute for Technology and former VP Research at UNLV
- The importance of agency, and the relationships and balance between personal agency and community agency
- The similarities and differences of working in national labs, government, and universities
- Being a VP for research is a licence to learn
- Quote: “As a young man, with a passion for planets, the realization that I was looking at Saturn”
Dr. Jeff Cheek, President & CEO, SUNY Research Foundation
- Servant leadership, professional development and succession planning are key
- A hierarchy of needs for changing research culture: make it possible; make it easy; make it normative; make it rewarding; make it required (Source: Brian Nosek, University of Virginia, Center for Open Science 2018 COGR Presentation)
- Dr William Moulton Marston’s DISC (Dominant, Inspiring, Cautious, Supportive) personality model as a tool for balancing leadership teams and decision making
- Quote: “My wife said ‘you have your degree, you’re smart, someone will hire you.’”
In addition to the keynote speakers, seven experienced colleagues provided thoughts and provocations for the following roundtable discussions:
- Motivations and Models – Marcia Landen, Vice President for Research, The University of Southern Mississippi
- Key Relationships and Connectivity – Annedorte Vad, Head of Administration Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen & President, Danish Association of Research Managers and Administrators
- Organisational and People Development – Katie Porter, Director of Research Administration, Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation
- Future Outlook – Amy Sikalis, Director, Research and Science, Radiology and Imaging Sciences, University of Utah and Ian Carter, Director, Carter Research Navigation Ltd.
- Systems Change and Working Strategically – Mark Hochman, Director, Research Management Resources Pty. Ltd.
- Team Dynamics and Staffing Skills – Rebecca Claycamp, Independent Research Management Consultant
Many additional themes emerged from the 1.5 day of presentations and conversations, and all who attended left with information to benefit the next steps in their careers, their ability to execute and be effective and established meaningful connections with fellow attendees and presenters.
There are two primary and broad roles of SEI for the Society of Research Administrators International: first, space for research executive leadership engagement/networking; and second, guiding authority on research topics of importance – research governance (strategy, capacity, and innovation) and research leadership (oversight, management, and culture).
In closing we provide Katie Porter’s outline, as it speaks across the topics discussed.
Premise: No organization can be successful unless everyone feels valued and respected.
- Everyone in the organization must understand the mission and vision. Leaders need to get to a really compelling vision for the organization.
- What can we do as leaders? Recognize that excellence is created “at the coal face” of any organization – it’s hard to discern from the CEO’s or VP’s office. There is dignity in every job in an organization because everybody is playing an important role in getting to the mission and vision.
- Great attrition – great resignation. What are people running FROM and what are people running TO? Less transactional work – better career paths and development opportunity. How do we create this for our teams?
- Habitual excellence. How do we get there? We need to feel valued, have the right tools for the job and understand how our roles contribute to the mission and vision.
Simple concepts. But how do you make them true in a robust way? What’s working for you?
Ian Carter, Director
Carter Research Navigation Ltd
SRAI Senior Executive Institute Co-chair
Amy Sikalis, MPA, Director Research and Science, Radiology and Imaging Sciences
University of Utah
SRAI Senior Executive Institute Co-chair
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