Last updated, 12th December 2023
Dipti Pandya - Senior Manager, Research Programmes, UCD Research and Innovation
Tell me about yourself?
My name is Dipti Pandya and I am a senior manager on the Research Programmes team in UCD Research and Innovation. I have been in UCD since 2015 - last week was actually my eight-year anniversary!
Any grants that are being submitted by the University for either national or EU funding, come through me and my team. In the last few years, we have made several changes to the pre-award supports we provide to the research community in UCD. These changes have contributed greatly to a substantial increase in research income.
What projects are you working on? Tell us a little bit about them?
I am involved in a number of POST projects including the Research Tenders Project. Earlier in the year, we were invited by the POST Service Lead for Researching, to review our ways of working, and to submit any pain-points we have encountered within these processes. “Tenders” refers to a specific funding stream that is often availed of by researchers across the community and in conducting our review, we realised that the existing process is not structured optimally. This project will review the current process and will make recommendations to address this service gap.
Another pain-point we identified was Grant Mobilisation. Although our research income has increased, our research spend has not increased at the same rate. When looked further into what was driving this underspend, we realised that some projects are not mobilising in time. Theres a gap between getting the funding and actually getting started. There are many reasons for this including delays associated with hiring and contracting. The objective of this project is to review the support provided to researchers during grant mobilisation and to design a service that best utilises self-service, central and local supports.
I understand you are also involved in the FinPOST programme. Can you tell us a little bit about your role?
I represent UCD research on the FinPOST steering committee. I am obviously bringing in my own professional expertise and knowledge, but I am also making sure that the voice of the researcher is heard when capturing the current pain points or when designing the new process. The FinPOST program will change and hopefully improve how research budgets are currently managed. For example, it is currently not possible to review the funding throughout the lifecycle of the project. By being involved in this project and by holding a close relationship with the research community, I can articulate the needs of the user, e.g. The need to access financial information in real time.
What are you enjoying most about working on these projects?
We have actually been working on some of these projects over the years but progressing them beyond a certain point has been a challenge due to time constraints and competing priorities on the team. My experience, with the POST projects including FinPOST has been very positive. One of the main positives has been having resources on board to drive and support these initiatives to finally make things happen whilst also using the work that has been done to date.
It's also been really good to meet people and learn something new. For me, having an external perspective on things is always helpful. I'm looking forward to learning more from my new colleagues.