Monday 4 August 2014

Connecting and communicating with other projects

One of the great things about being a JISC-funded project is the ability to network with other projects in the programme.  There are many areas of common ground across all the Pathfinder projects and talking to institutions is a rewarding experience.  It is relatively easy to carry out and complete a project in isolation but, without interacting with other projects in the programme, a real opportunity is missed.

Interacting with other projects is a chance for support, advice and, most significantly, the exchange of ideas.  This was the case in point for us recently when we had a conference call with colleagues at Coventry University working on the O2OA project.

We were able to explain our methodology and approach but also to receive suggestions and encouragement from colleagues with interests similar to our own.  We are clear that we see the methodology that we develop and use during our Making Sense project will itself be an output.  We hope that it will strike a chord with other institutions, particularly those similar in mission to our own, and help in embedding OA compliance to support our researchers.

We were particularly pleased to talk about behavioural change and pick up advice on normalization process theory.  We hope that this will inform our work on sensemaking.  It was also good to discuss our concerns about process maps and how they do not reflect the researcher experience.  Both our projects are more interested in putting the researcher at the centre and understanding this as a constellation is central to our thinking and our work.

We look forward to more equally rewarding exchanges with other projects within the programme and welcome the opportunity to talk with colleagues.