Sharing knowledge about professional services in South Africa

Sam Julier (UCL Institute for Global Health) embarked on the Research Capacity Strengthening (RCS) Fellowship to further his knowledge about processes in South African universities.

13 September 2024

Professional services staff in universities support academic research in many ways. This includes financial management, project support, communications and more 鈥� and academic research cannot happen without this core support. However, staff working for professional services rarely have opportunities to travel to meet peers, exchange knowledge and build relationships.

The Research Capacity Strengthening (RCS) Fellowship was created in response to this. A joint initiative by UCL Global Engagement (GE) and Research Innovation Services (RIS), the RCS is designed to enhance research management ecosystems within universities. It gives individuals working in professional services opportunities to visit and learn from global partners. The RCS Fellowship is currently in partnership with the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. Sam Julier, the Research Finance Coordinator at the UCL Institute of Global Health, was one of the three RCS Fellows selected to participate in 2024.

Connecting with global partners

鈥淎ll of our funding in the UCL Institute for Global Health is international,鈥� Sam explained. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 very easy to become desensitised to the work the institute does when you鈥檙e mostly working with numbers on a screen. Being able to see how our partners actually worked seemed like an incredible opportunity, and that鈥檚 why I applied for the RCS Fellowship.鈥�

Sam travelled to South Africa for a five day trip in July 2024, along with two other RCS Fellows from UCL. They flew into Johannesburg and were met by the team from Wits, who showed them some of the tourist sites before they started a programme of networking meetings. They met several members of staff doing similar roles, and in particular discussed how their pre-award work is done, and how funding applications are driven. As well as meetings, the Fellows visited a hospital field work site where one of their projects was active, and they visited the Wits Health Consortium, which has a similar remit to UCL Consultants.听

After spending three days in Johannesburg, the Fellows flew to Cape Town, where they had some free time to explore the city before enjoying a series of meetings and talks at UCT. Sam was able to connect with UCT staff members designing a new database to manage research applications, grants and funding streams. They also compared the financial systems UCL and UCT use, discussing the pros and cons of each.听

鈥淥ne of the Principle Investigators at the UCL Institute for Global Health has a big fellowship grant in Cape Town,鈥� Sam said. 鈥淚鈥檝e been communicating with a member of staff at UCT about it for the last five years. It was great to go and actually meet them! It definitely helped to flesh out the management side of the project.鈥�

Strengthening relationships

After the Fellows returned to UCL, there has been some follow-up communication from the peers they met on the trip. This is helping to deepen both working relationships and understanding of how the different universities operate.听

鈥淲e partner with Wits and UCT on a number of grants, and it was so valuable to see how our partners work, and to experience some of the research being done on the ground,鈥� Sam said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to assume that everyone operates like UCL does, but that is not the case.鈥� The knowledge gained will help the Fellows tailor their working relationships with partners in the future.

鈥淎cademics have opportunities to go to conferences all over the world, but similar opportunities for professional services staff at universities are few and far between,鈥� Sam explained. 鈥淚鈥檇 tell anyone to grasp it with both hands if they get the chance to do something like this. This was such an incredible trip 鈥� the people at Wits and UCT were so welcoming, and we experienced so much!鈥�

Featured image

Group photo of Sam and other RCS fellows听at the听University of Cape Town

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