Academic researchers play an important role in society and higher education. It contributes to the development of society by developing specialist knowledge on a subject and by creating and disseminating new knowledge, enhances the reputation of a university and makes an institution more attractive to students.
Technology can be transformative for researchers; It can give them the tools to eliminate time-consuming tasks, collaborate with others around the world, and ensure their work is shared, questioned, and understood as widely as possible.
Despite this, digital transformation has so far focused largely on teaching and the student experience, at times overlooking how technology can help researchers more easily produce and disseminate world-class research.
A recent report by professional services firm EY, based on a survey of more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, group discussions with faculty and professional staff, and interviews with university leaders around the world, found that researchers face a range of problems. the existence of academic and administrative burdens that may hinder their studies.
The report found that researchers need equipment, technologies and computing power to support their work, but also want tools that will allow them to spend more time conducting groundbreaking research in new fields.
Researchers want to identify research gaps, encourage collaborations and minimize administrative tasks, says Avantika Tomar, partner at EY-Parthenon, a consulting firm focused on higher education strategy.
While universities often invest in technical equipment and computing power to enable cutting-edge research, they sometimes neglect to focus on other ways technology can help researchers succeed.
So how can technology free up researchers’ valuable time to better focus on the work they love?
Increasing researchers’ bandwidth
One of the most time-consuming tasks for researchers is to sift through information and identify gaps in research that can be explored further. Tomar says: “I did a PhD myself, and anything that comes to my mind as a potential research topic, I remember that someone somewhere in the world has either already done it or is currently working on it. There is a huge amount of published data in all forms, some of it articles, some as book chapters, some as books, some as blogs.”
But digital tools like ResearchGate and academia.edu can ease these burdens. By using the right keywords and themes, researchers can review information more efficiently to determine what data they are looking for and find research gaps to explore.
“What helps [researchers] “The thing to do is to save time,” says Tomar. “The time they can spend on the analytical or insightful part of the research, as opposed to the mundane data-related part. I think saving time is the biggest thing. “You can innovate more when you have time, space and bandwidth.”
Spending time on research, not admin
EY’s research found that researchers’ biggest frustration was the amount of time spent on administrative work. There are many administrative tasks involved in conducting academic research, many of which are still on paper or require academics to access multiple systems and enter the same data over and over. Universities can make a real difference to their research communities by improving these processes through technology, ideally through an end-to-end digital system across the entire research lifecycle and institution.
“We aim to create an environment in the future where researchers can focus on their research and not be distracted by administrative tasks,” says Professor Atsushi Kanai of Hosei University in Tokyo.
“Many procedures require teams to enter the same sets of information into multiple documents,” says Professor Yasushi Asami of the University of Tokyo. “We plan to expand our use of digital transformation to end such duplication.”
Technology can help facilitate mundane and time-consuming administrative tasks that distract from more meaningful parts of research. Administrative tasks such as grant applications, risk assessments, progress reporting, budget management, reviews and publishing can all be streamlined using technology.
Building relationships with research partners
According to EY’s report, technology can also help researchers connect with each other to share data and ideas; This is another important priority for research scholars. Researchers need effective collaboration platforms, tools to securely share sensitive data, and face-to-face networking opportunities, they said.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” says Tomar. “Building world-class relationships with researchers takes time and effort; But if you don’t, it will be difficult to get your paper published or have a network to attend the right conferences.”
Digital communication tools such as social media, podcasts and video calls help improve collaboration, making it faster, more efficient and easier to connect with others around the world and share data and ideas, improving the quality of research and expanding the pool of potential collaborators . This is especially useful for those working in niche areas.
Organizations that adopt the technology are already feeling the benefits. As one research academic in Singapore highlights: “I work very effectively with other researchers all over the world. Our research is done in different laboratories around the world, my co-researchers can follow the results remotely, work with the data, talk to me, talk to my colleagues. Thanks to digital technology, it’s now completely It’s a different world.”
But it’s important to remember the value of face-to-face collaboration—the water-cooling moments that naturally occur in the offline world. Online and offline collaboration should be supported and developed to maximize research effectiveness.
Universities also need to carefully manage collaboration tools and information systems and implement strong cybersecurity measures and processes to protect sensitive research data, the report found.
Helping research reach a wider audience
Even top-notch research will have limited impact if no one has access. Digital tools allow researchers to share their work more widely and help people outside academia understand it. “Sometimes I think academic research is only for academics,” says Tomar. “But data visualization tools can help make it more readable for casual audiences, allowing you to showcase your research to policymakers and the corporate world and increase its impact,” says Tomar.
Relating to: Saving time and being more effective: How new technology can liberate university staff
Digital tools have the potential to transform the world of research for the better and increase the chances of finding real-world applications for scientific advancement. But researchers need access to the right equipment, technologies and computing power. Digital technologies and advanced online resources such as libraries, large databases, statistical packages and modeling tools will need to be accessible to everyone.
“Many of these technologies are not accessible or affordable to every researcher,” says Tomar. “To get to the point where we use technology in a meaningful way, it needs to be accessible to a wider audience rather than a select few.”
With the right commitment and tools in place, academics will be able to focus their energies solely on the subjects they are passionate about and produce world-leading research with fewer obstacles. “We are starting to move in the right direction,” says Tomar. “The tenacity of academic researchers and the application of the right technology transforms research to achieve superior results.”
To learn more about using technology to transform research, read EY’s latest report on higher education