The beginning of February saw us bid farewell and good luck to Katrina who excitedly headed off to have a baby. We’re delighted to report that Baby Kelly has since arrived and both mum and baby are doing well.
Stepping into Katrina’s well-worn Research Marketing shoes is our very own Andy Dunne. Up until now Andy has been covering media and PR in the press office for the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences and our Institute for Policy Research.
At the start of week three in post I asked him some questions for the blog.
So Andy, how have the first ten days been?
Busy! And productive. I’ve tried to use the first two weeks to meet and introduce myself to a whole host of people across the University, including those I wasn’t as familiar with in my previous role. So it’s involved meetings with colleagues in Research & Innovation Services, the Library, the Department of Development & Alumni, Bath IMI, the IPR, all our Faculty Marketing Teams and Matchtight (who organise pr for the STV and all Team Bath-related activities), in addition to trying to get up to speed on a host of pressing research marketing tasks.
For the time being I’m also still picking up some of the media and PR activities related to my previous role. The press team has had an excellent few weeks of placing stories about our research into breakfast, tobacco legislation, drones and our bio-tech spin out Atlas Genetics into the headlines for national and international media.
What are you most looking forward to in the role?
Firstly, I’m really looking forward to meeting and working with colleagues from right across the University in order to put the research we do at the forefront of many of our activities and our thinking. A key area however is about thinking more about the specific audiences we want to target with our research, whether that be industry, policy or civil society. So, I’m looking forward to thinking more strategically about how, why and when we publicise our work in order to bring about impact through research marketing.
What made you decide to go for it in the first place?
I’ve hugely enjoyed covering media and PR for the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences and Institute for Policy Research for the past two and a bit years. It’s been great to see University academics leading the news on stories I’ve worked on. Whilst I’ll still be involved in press-related activity, I’m looking forward to the new challenge and thinking of different ways and means to get messages about research out in the public domain.
Looking to shake things up a bit over the next year?
There are already lots of excellent initiatives afoot in terms of research marketing over the next year, not least our 3MT Final next month (do come along), and of course it’s a very big year for the University as we celebrate our 50th Anniversary. My job will be ensuring our research stays at the forefront of those conversations as well as finding new and exciting ways to profile our projects.
What's next in the pipeline?
For the immediate future, various work in relation to the Milner Centre for Evolution, our 50th Anniversary and looking ahead to the next REF with research marketing plans around our potential case studies. A main element to my role will be coordinating our research marketing efforts around these potential case studies and I’ll be working with Faculty web teams, our Digital team, and press colleagues to ensure our work is profiled in the best ways possible.
In amongst all that, you will no doubt have spotted David Cameron’s announcement at the weekend on a date for a referendum for Britain’s membership of the EU. As politicians on both sides of the debate do battle on our TV screens, we’ll be working to line up Bath academics to provide comment and analysis as things develop. We’ve already started, in fact!
Oh, and life wasn’t already quite busy, I've embarked on our MOOC – ‘From State Control to Remote Control: Warfare in the 21st Century’ – in order to write about the learning experience for University Business. It’s not too late to sign up to the free course if you care to join me.
Now for the more important question...tea / coffee?
I thought you’d never ask, Maree. Yes please. Yorkshire Tea, splash of milk. No sugar.
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