Practicalities

This chapter covers some practicalities about the organisation of this specific workshop. Note that a general knowledge of how to run a workshop (venue booking, organisation, announcement, registrations, feedback and evaluation etc.) is assumed, so only topics specific to this particular workshop are highlighted.

Duration

110 min.

Audience

Target audience of the workshop

Given that the workshop is about the diversity of roles and contributions to research, it is important that the audience reflects that diversity and is as inclusive as possible. As such, it ideally includes researchers (including PhD candidates), research team leaders, various professional support staff (including data professionals, legal experts, ethics advisors, project management, HR talent development etc.) and decision-makers.

Ideal composition of the organisers’ team

Ideally, the team of organisers is also composed of individuals with diverse roles and experiences, so they can relate with the audience and drive the discussion. To the extent possible, the team of organisers should be composed of researchers at various career levels, and have a diverse representation of professional support staff.

Roles during the workshop

Apart from regular participants, to smoothly run the workshop we suggest that the following roles are appointed:

Chairperson

  • Welcoming the participants, keeping an eye on the time and smooth progress of the agenda, closing the workshop.

  • Most likely a member of the organisation team.

Presenter

  • Person (or people) introducing the slide deck and the activity.

  • Most likely a member(s) of the organisation team.

Moderators

  • People facilitating the discussion within the breakout groups, ensuring inclusivity and respect, guiding the participants, and ensuring that rapporteurs are appointed (if need be).

  • Can be a member(s) of the organisation team or a volunteer(s) from the participants.

  • For an effective moderation of the breakout groups, as well as to emphasise the team aspect, we suggest having two workshop moderators per breakout group, ideally composed of an academic and a professional support staff.

Rapporteurs

  • People who will report from the breakout group discussion in the plenary session.

  • Ideally volunteer(s) from the participants.

Break-out Groups

Participants will work in break-out groups. In advance of the workshop, decide how many participants you wish to have in your workshop and consequently, how many break-out groups you are willing to support. We recommend that the maximum group size doesn’t exceed 8 participants per group to facilitate engaging and inclusive discussions.

More information about break-out discussion facilitation can be found in the Activity section.

Requirements

We suggest to have the following items available for the workshop:

  • A large screen / projector

  • Print out an Activity Sheet for each group (ideally on a large format such as A0). Alternatively you can use whiteboards or flip charts.

Hint

If you don’t have the opportunity to print the large activity sheets, you can also use a flip chart paper. If you lay that out on the table, people around it can each fill in their comments. This way the group works more democratically than while using the standing flip chart.

  • Marker pens for participants

  • Tables set up for the breakout groups

  • Timer and whistle to signal time is up (optional)