This open letter has been written collaboratively by Lboro UCU Department Reps and Committee Members. Please read the letter then click here to add your signature.
The University is altering the procedure that staff must follow when applying for research funding, which will mean that researchers planning projects regarded as low value or low complexity will be expected to develop their own costings directly in Worktribe.
Up to now, much of this work was completed by specialist staff in the Research and Innovation Office (RIO) – staff who have, among other things, expertise in grant management and budget costings, as well as in Worktribe itself.
These procedural changes have:
- Served as partial pretence for the restructuring of RIO, which has led to the loss of four of the Research Development Managers, with institutional experience of more than a combined 100 years, and irreplaceable School and funder-specific knowledge.
- Increased the workload associated with grant applications, as academic staff are now expected to complete work that was previously done by staff with relevant expertise in RIO.
Although the University frames this change as a simplification, the new process is quite clearly more complex and time-consuming for academics, and possibly for RIO staff, than the previous process. It also still requires meetings with RIO staff for any minor complexity in the application.
As the additional working time required to cover these activities will not be accounted for in WAMs, time spent in Worktribe will either generate additional working hours or reduce time for other work tasks (including working to improve the substantive quality of grant applications).
Given that the task is outside of the normal skillset and experience of academic staff, it is expected that it will take considerably more time than when carried out by specialist staff – costing the University more money in the process. No equality impact assessment outcomes were shared, so it is unclear how this major change has affected different user groups.
What is more, we are concerned and saddened that this change appears to have served in part to justify a restructure that was highly stressful for colleagues in RIO – colleagues who have played such an essential role in increasing grant capture and supporting the management of our research projects and are now having to look for work elsewhere.
The University must reverse course on this policy to avoid further exacerbating workload problems for academic staff and increasing the cost of this work.
Please add your support to the open letter by clicking here and adding your name.
Please also share the link with other staff at Loughborough who may wish to sign the open letter.