Event Details

In recent years the issue of “Demand Management” has come to be a thorn in the side of research management professionals working across the sector. Increased impact of demand management is being felt across the sector as the number of applications to research funders grows, and success rates nose dive. Whether you’re in a university, research institute, or a research funder, demand management presents us with an array of challenges, which make it even harder to navigate as a research support professional in an already complex and competitive funding environment.

Demand Management can be “hard”, in that it involves a funder placing a cap on the number of applications an institution can submit to a particular call or scheme. Or it can be “soft”, where it is implied by the funder that all institutions should implement an internal sifting mechanism to ensure only the highest quality applications are submitted. Balancing the demands of enthusiastic academics and the need to ensure only high quality applications are submitted to funders is very difficult. Regardless of what type of demand management you’re having to support, it is difficult to know the best approach to take at times.

This Demand Management Good Practice Exchange will give you the opportunity to hear from four speakers in four different UK universities (Cardiff, LSE, Cranfield, and Strathclyde), as they discuss their approaches to tackling demand management effectively. They’ll share their own approaches to a particular scheme, and then use a shared example for a panel discussion. Examples will include schemes such as the ESRC Centres competition, NERC standard grants, and UKRI Future Leader Fellowships. Discussion will focus not just on the schemes and the institutional approach to demand management, but it will pick up on cross-cutting themes such as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. We’ll also be joined by colleagues from URKI to share their perspective and experience of demand management. Following the presentations from the speakers there will be a chaired Q&A where attendees will be able to put their queries to the panel. We expect the event to run for 2 hours.

All research management professionals are welcome to this event, and will find it valuable regardless of your level of experience. We expect this event to be of particular interest to colleagues working in institutions where they have to implement demand management processes, and support academics (and their institutions!) to navigate such processes.

We look forward to seeing you there!

(Product photo designed by pch.vector / Freepik)