COVID-19 has had a considerable impact on research. The pandemic has disrupted fieldwork plans, international collaborations and partnerships, and methods of doing research. Care work, home schooling, mental health and well-being, illness, bereavement, and the all-encompassing workload of teaching during a pandemic have derailed many people’s research plans, time, or appetite for research. There has been a bifurcation of who is doing research undercut by existing inequalities within the sector. We want all colleagues to thrive in their research.
Our hope is research directors will already be having conversations around research recovery in their own institutions. However, given the magnitude of the challenge ahead, it is beneficial for us to work together as a discipline. This forum provides an informal opportunity for research directors to come together and pool different ideas and strategies to kickstart, support, and maintain research in Politics and International Relations. We hope to address challenges for people at every stage of their research career.
Please come along with your ideas as we discuss ways forward to share best practice in research support for all our colleagues in the discipline.