Experienced Leader, Grant Writer &Coach

 With many years as an experienced coach and mentor in my Professorial role, I have supported many junior staff through one to one meetings and in workshops. Academic staff have been supported through probation, career changes, towards promotion and in grant writing. I am currently focusing on developing the most effective ways to support academic staff who are struggling with motivation and engagement or feeling challenged after starting new roles.  

My skills as experienced grant writer enabled me to take a structured approach  to improving grant submissions and outcomes, from increasing presence on relevant grant panels to running effective internal reviews and panels . During the time as Head of the Biomedical Science Department in Sheffield  changes were put in place to support grant writing and the quality of submissions. From 2016-2020 value of grant awards held by the department increased by over a third.

  While creativity of thought is a well-recognised facet of many workplaces, the importance of neurodivergence in this creativity is less well acknowledged but likely to be key. In association with HR I was  instrumental in supporting discussions initially about increasing awareness of neurodivergence; in areas around Reasonable Adjustments and in finding aways to facilitate development of a more inclusive and positive approach to our differences.

As an experienced leader I developed the plan and supported implementation of a merge of teaching from three biology departments at The University of Sheffield (2018-2021). The teaching merge has allowed more effective teaching with greater choice to be delivered to students and streamlined teaching provision so reducing total teaching hours in the School. The teaching merger paved the way for the complete merger of the three departments in 2021 to generate the School of Biosciences which has allowed further sharing of best practice, removal of duplicated roles and improved wider technical and administrative support. 

  There is clear evidence that a sabbatical can improve staff well-being, increase retention, and increase productivity. However, in many institutes this time has only become available to those who have generated funds to support their absence and has ceased to be an inclusive part of an academic role, regardless of the likely benefit to both individual and organisation. I have recently developed a route to embedding study leave in academic roles without unmanageable increase in workload for others. The programmes is currently being initiated for implementation in two Schools at the University of Sheffield.