ESRC Leadership Fellow: Building Leadership Capacities for the Twenty-First Century

ESRC的2015年战略计划包含了“发展社会科学领导能力”的承诺。这一承诺既认识到科学领导的性质和规模正在发生变化的方式，也认识到社会科学在社会中的潜在作用和相关性从未如此之大。该奖学金的目的是在2017年进行的内部研究的基础上，将其发展成为一个雄心勃勃的愿景和战略，使ESRC在国内和国际上都处于这一议程的最前沿。公共资助的研究和发展格局的更广泛变化，以及研究投资可能变得更大、更复杂和越来越雄心勃勃的方式，推动了对将在该奖学金下进行的研究的需求。新的领导技能——例如跨学科意识、财务管理、沟通技巧、与非学术伙伴合作以及协作领导模式——将变得越来越重要。因此，本研究的主要重点将是：(1)回顾现有的领导支持框架；(2)查明国内和国际上提供方面的差距和最佳做法的例子；(3)提出一系列建议，结合起来提供一个创新的、雄心勃勃的领导力发展战略。这项研究的关键要素将包括关注“职业旅程”，以及如何在不同的职业阶段提供和激励领导技能和能力；强调在体制改革的同时实现积极的文化变革；同时也要明确考虑培养领导能力的新战略如何提供积极的协同效应，以应对高等教育中的平等和多样性挑战。2017年7月，UKRI首席执行官马克·沃尔波特爵士概述了他对新的资助格局的看法，并强调需要“激励和奖励大胆、雄心和敏捷，积极鼓励想象力和创新”。要实现这一愿景，就需要在社会科学领域采取一种新的领导方式，而该奖学金的目的是与合作伙伴合作，确定这一方法的核心组成部分以及如何实施。

The ESRC's Strategic Plan 2015 contains a commitment to 'develop capability for social science leadership'. This commitment recognises both the manner in which the nature and scale of scientific leadership are changing, and how the potential role and relevance of the social sciences in society has never been greater. The aim of this fellowship is to build upon internal research that was undertaken in 2017 and develop this into an ambitious vision and strategy that places the ESRC at the forefront of this agenda both domestically and internationally. The need for the research that will be conducted under this fellowship is driven by broader changes in the publicly funded research and development landscape and the manner in which research investments are likely to become larger, more complex and increasingly ambitious. New leadership skills - for example, in relation to inter-disciplinary awareness, financial management, communication skills, working with non-academic partners and modes of collaborative leadership - will become of increasing significance. Therefore the main focus of this research will be to: (1) review existing leadership support frameworks; (2) identity gaps in provision and examples of best practice, both nationally and internationally; and (3) to come forward with a set of recommendations that combine to offer an innovative and ambitious leadership development strategy. Critical elements of this research will include a focus on 'the professional journey' and how leadership skills and competencies are provided and incentivised at different career stages; an emphasis on achieving positive cultural change alongside institutional reforms; and also explicit consideration of how a new strategy for developing leadership capacities might offer positive synergies to address equality and diversity challenges within higher education. In July 2017 Sir Mark Walport, the chief executive of UKRI, outlined his vision of the new funding landscape and underlined the need 'to stimulate and reward audacity, ambition and agility, where imagination and innovation are actively encouraged'. Achieving this vision will require a fresh approach to leadership within the social sciences and the aim of this fellowship is to work with partners to identify the core components of this approach and how it can be delivered.