"Research Administration, Inside Out!"... UNIST Finds Solutions On Site

On the 17th at Gyeongju Lahan Select, '2024 UNIST Research Administration Day' Held

About 100 Research Administration Personnel Attended, Year-End Summary Including Training Completion and Awards

A workshop where field practitioners directly solve research administration issues was held.

It is gaining attention as a new method to train ‘research administration experts,’ essential for advancing research administration.

UNIST (President Jongrae Park) held the ‘2024 UNIST Research Administration Day’ on the 17th at Lahan Select in Gyeongju. This event was promoted to strengthen the expertise of research administration personnel and enhance creative problem-solving skills, with about 100 research administration staff from UNIST attending.

‘Research Administration Day’ is an event held annually across the United States at universities, hospitals, and research institutions to motivate research administrators and raise public awareness of the importance of research administration. UNIST is the first in Korea to introduce ‘Research Administration Day’ and is attempting to spread it domestically.

In his congratulatory speech, President Park Jongrae said, “UNIST has established itself as a leading institution in research administration in Korea,” and expressed gratitude, saying, “This is thanks to the research administration practitioners who have devoted themselves to supporting researchers, improving various systems, and continuing innovative efforts.”

President Park added, “We will continue to fully support UNIST to lead a new paradigm of research administration in Korea.”

At ‘UNIST Research Administration Day,’ major issues in the research administration field over the year are shared, and activities such as completion and awards for various programs and education, as well as team building, take place. This year, the ‘Inside Out Program’ received particularly positive feedback.

The ‘Inside Out Program’ is a ‘UNIST-style problem-solving program’ created by Design Thinking expert Professor Kwanmyung Kim of UNIST and UNIST research administrators. It is designed for practitioners to directly discover hidden problems in the research administration field and find solutions together, utilizing Design Thinking techniques. Topics such as research project agreements and settlements, student labor cost management, research equipment purchase and registration, and joint research project operations were also provided through prior surveys.

Geunsook Seo, a researcher in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UNIST, said, “It was very helpful to find the most efficient and accurate workflow together in specific tasks,” and shared her thoughts, “Depending on career or level of education and training, people often adapt to inefficiencies by working in different ways, but I realized and learned a lot through this opportunity.”

Completion and awards for educational activities conducted throughout the year were also held. Fourteen people who passed the comprehension evaluation in the ‘2024 Research Administration Expert Training Course’ received certificates. Mi-ae Kim, a researcher in the Department of Earth Environment and Urban Construction Engineering at UNIST, who scored the highest, said, “The questions in the comprehension evaluation were closely related to actual work, so solving them was a study opportunity,” and added, “There was also a problem explanation session, so the entire training process, including lectures and evaluations, helps improve work competency.”

At the award ceremony for the administrative researchers’ study group presentations held at the ‘1st Research Administration Knowledge Festival in UNIST’ in June, Team Yeonaein (Mi-ae Kim, Euseul Koo, Heesoo Choi from the Department of Earth Environment and Urban Construction Engineering) won the grand prize, and Team Eungdaphara2019 (Sujin Yoo, Heejun Han, Nara Yoon from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering) won the excellence award.

Kwangho Lee, head of the UNIST Research Management Team, said, “Research administration must establish itself as an important partner in research beyond simple support tasks,” and added, “UNIST proposes and is promoting a four-stage development plan for research administration personnel: motivation, expert training, expert certification system introduction, and expert utilization to cultivate field-customized research administration experts.”

Professor Kwanmyung Kim, director of the UNIST Research Office and organizer of the event, said, “As a pioneer in research administration, UNIST aims to create exemplary cases of research administration through creative and challenging methods,” and added, “UNIST will do its best to train the best research administration experts so that researchers can focus on their research and produce world-class results.”