Speakers:

Dharanija Madvahan, Scientific Coordinator Max Planck Schools

Helga Soer-Sodmann, Head of SAFIR Research Funding Support University of Muenster

Uli Rockenbauch, Head of Administration Leibniz-Institut für Zoo- und Wildtierforschung (IZW)

Moderation: Birte Seffert

»You are not at the mercy of the system – you have agency.«

Key Messages:

Many researchers experience frustration in dealing with bureaucracy – and we heard quite a few stories in this session. Our speakers changed “to the evil side” –  from research to admin. They advocated for understanding the administration’s perspective to navigate it successfully and argued that friction and delays are not intentional but rather the result of being notoriously understaffed.

But they also admitted the need for the bureaucracy to adapt faster to change and to integrate feedback – while participants expressed the hope that admins would make an effort to understand the needs of researchers. One way might be to create more opportunities to meet each other.

Helpful Tools and Tipps in Dealing with Bureaucracy:

• Learn to understand the system: A mentor or buddy can help
• If you need the admins: Start early, come prepared – and accept that you might need time and patience
• A phone call or personal conversation is a good way to ask for advice and to get informal information that you might not get in writing via email
• When writing emails, be precise and make it easy. Ask for a phone conversation and suggest a few dates and times
• Contact one person first instead of sending the same email to many persons at the same time. Set a date until which you need a reply. If you didnt get one until then: contact the next person
• A nice “please” and “thank you” go a long way 🙂

»Solving administrative problems is not a scientist’s turf.« – Uli Rockenbauch