What does it take to lead academic research ?
July 7, 2009
I’ve been fortunate enough to be in meetings with two of the directors of the UK’s scientific research councils recently and I was struck by some commonalities. I’d like to discuss one of them.
Generous skepticism
These were men (yes, both men) with powerful intellects, but who were willing to entertain thoughts from other perspectives. You might think that this goes without saying, they do after all have to be able to see merit in other’s work, even if they cannot see the explicit route to ‘success’. Success in the charter of both organisations includes economic impact, as well as scientific advance and the public good.
The reason why I bring this up is because I have a work history in business and am moving into academia for the next few years, and the leadership approaches are completely different. While there is talk of ‘the business case’ within academic circles what is actually being spoken of is how likely the research is to attract funding. ‘Sexy’ or timely topics are viewed by most academics, that I have met, with as much relish as the truly original mode of thought.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. I rather like the image of the tousle-haired professor, forgetting the world and engaging in a flight of fancy, before plunging back to earth with a new way to think that happens to be of great use in addressing issues in bus timetabling. All because they saw the way that raindrops fell on a window pane and decided to chase that thought.
Of course, in practical terms research is a collaborative effort with individual scientific endeavour accreting to the edge of the shell of knowledge, but I don’t think that the spawning of new fields of endevour should be ignored and this is where the generous skepticism comes in. As leaders with a remarkable degree of control over what research gets done and by whom, the directors of the UK research councils must, absolutely must, be able to detach their own views on what is an immediately valid topic for funding from what might be a promising avenue of interrogation. In other words, not be seduced by the apposite, but be able to think in a strategic manner even if the outcome is not defined. I was glad to see some of that quality in both men.
