BU Research Blog

On Thursday 27 May, we held our first Research Staff Coffee Break. We welcomed researchers* from across BU (virtually!) for an informal catch-up session over cups of tea and great coffee.

(*This is a very loose term – everyone is welcome, whether research is the majority of your role or a tiny part!)

We began by introducing the BU Research Staff Association (RSA), who organised the event. The RSA is an association run by BU researchers from all faculties who want to make BU a great place to work and do research. We aim to ensure that researchers are supported to realise their full potential and to develop and produce research of the highest quality. We are a friendly group who want to make sure we support and represent BU researchers in the best way we can.

At the start of the session we raised 2 questions for discussion:

1. Is there anything you have struggled with as a researcher during Covid?
2. Is there anything the RSA could do that is useful for you as a researcher?

These were just to get us started – in the course of the Coffee Break we covered subjects ranging from the pros & cons of working from home during Covid, to tips on how to run a virtual conference.

We also talked about possible future sessions which the RSA might run, including sessions on Writing Grant Bids and on Applying for Pay Progression.

It was lovely to see everyone’s faces, get to know people a bit better, and take some time away from meetings / marking to talk about some of the issues we are struggling with – as well as share things which are going well.

Our next Research Staff Coffee Break will be on Thursday 10 June at 3-4pm, via Zoom.

During the Coffee Break, we’ll chat about Recovering From Covid Disruption As A Researcher. We’d love to see you there!

As the RSA, we want to run events which are of most interest to researchers at BU. If you have 5 minutes to spare, it would be great if you could fill out our survey so that we can make sure the RSA is putting on events which you would find useful – please find the link here (it should only take 5 minutes to complete):

Finally, if you did want to contact any of your RSA reps to discuss any issues confidentially, our contact details are below:

University Research Staff Reps:  

Michelle Heward

Ashok Patnaik

Faculty of Health & Social Science:

Preeti Mahato

Rachel Arnold

BU Business School:

Rafaelle Nicholson

Ashok Patnaik

Faculty of Media & Communications:

Oliver Gingrich

Ethzaz Chaudhry

Faculty of Science & Technology:

Kimberley Davies