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

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.

The aim of this fellowship is to undertake the research, preparation and planning through which an ambitious vision and strategy for building leadership capacity in the social sciences. This will involve: specifying what 'excellence in leadership' might actually mean in the current higher education context; use these insights to undertake a thorough 'gap analysis' of the current research support infrastructure; engaging with a range of research organisations to drill-down into the strengths and weaknesses of leadership support structures; use this process of engagement and co-production to identify new partnership opportunities that can foster fresh experiences and insights; look beyond the UK and beyond higher education in order to ask novel questions about the current approach to leadership; and then using this research to develop, in partnership with a range of research organisation and UKRI, a revitalised leadership strategy that places the social sciences at the forefront of debates concerning academic leadership. The main impact will therefore be a formal strategy report on building leadership capacity in the social sciences. The report will be developed in close co-operation with the ESRC and no publication or dissemination will occur without the explicit approval of the Executive Chair of the ESRC or designated lead official. The fellowship will therefore abide by the 'no surprises' rule. However, in terms of border potential impact I would suggest that the final approved report could be translated and disseminated to a range of audiences including: UKRI and the other research councils; Research organisations and universities; Independent research funding organisations and philanthropic bodies; professional and training bodies; specialist media outlets; and also to the education committees of scrutiny committees in parliaments and legislatures around the world. In terms of demonstrable impact it would be hoped that many elements of the final fellowship strategy report would be accepted and implemented from 2019 onwards through a process of close co-operation with research organisations, learned societies and the academies.