Research managers provide support for their scientific teams and grow alongside them

Andrea Nogová has been working in the field of national and international research grants since 2012, and since 2018  she’s been doing this for Palacký University Olomouc. She first held the position of RCPTM Grant Policy Specialist and since 2021 she has been Head of the CATRIN Grants Office.

How did it all start?

Actually, it was a complete coincidence. I was in the second year of my doctoral studies in Social Geography and Regional Development at Masaryk University and after a six-month internship at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India, I came to the conclusion that a career in science was not for me to pursue. But, at the same time, I enjoyed the world of science and research and wanted to stay in touch with the university environment. One day a friend came up to me saying that they had won a new OP VK project at the NETME Centre VUT in Brno and that he was looking for a project manager. I didn’t hesitate to take this opportunity.

You are now at CATRIN. Is this environment different from your previous experience?

Basically, managers in science and research are support for their scientific teams. They should grow and mature with them. Therefore, it does matter which institution you work for—not all are equally attractive concerning their collaborations and projects. My ambition was to find a workplace that would aim for fundings from the EU’s Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation. I worked for different institutes, but it was CATRIN where I found what I was looking for and a team I was able to embark on this challenging journey with. In essence, CATRIN allowed me to advance my career.

What does your job entail?

I currently work as Head of the CATRIN Grants Office, which entails not only preparing scientific projects, but also working with colleagues in the positions of project managers. Lately, I have felt that I am much more engaged in the latter. Since 2021, when our effort to get into the Horizon 2020 scheme brought our first major success, we have received a number of grants funded from this programme, meaning we also had to adapt the management structure to this. It was necessary to recruit and train a number of new employees who take care of these projects financially and administratively. This was not easy at all as there was a lack of people with such expertise in our region. Fortunately, however, our scientific colleagues are still coming up with new ambitious ideas and we are preparing more and more project proposals, so I still have the opportunity to do the part of my job that I enjoy the most. Furthermore, my colleagues Martin Grepl and Michaela Holecová, who, like me, focus on supporting scientists in preparing project grants applications (the so-called pre-award), are very helpful in this respect.

Which is more challenging— to understand the specifics of particular calls, or to find common ground with scientists?

At the beginning of a career of any pre-award project manager, it is always difficult to get insights into the the structure of individual calls and the specifics of particular programmes and providers. Horizon Europe is especially very complex and I must admit that even today, after years of experience, I’m not fully familiar with all its parts. In this regard, long-term experience is very valuable—individual programmes evolve and calls (even new ones) always build on what was already there. So, if you keep up with current events and trends, it is not so difficult to keep track of what’s going on in this area.  Working with researchers, on the other hand, is very different by nature. Obviously, some particular mishaps recur, for example that, in the beginning, scientists greatly overestimate the state-of-the-art part, because it is the closest thing to what they are used to when preparing scientific publications. However, with each new researcher we always have to start from scratch, finding common grounds, and this is a very interesting challenge.

You’ve already alluded to what you enjoy about your work. Is there anything else to add?

As I said at the beginning, the world of science has always been close to my heart and I’m happy to learn something new almost every day. At the same time, I’m pleased to be able to help my brilliant colleagues in developing their scientific careers and in their journey to resolve some fundamental issues regarding the life on earth. I recently came across the Japanese longevity concept of IKIGAI posted by Peter Ludwig, and, apparently, I’m doing exactly the kind of work that gives me a sense and a reason to get up in the morning. I don’t think that’s bad.

Did you have any goals that have already been overcome? And what else is ahead of you?

When I joined the former RCPTM, I was facing a huge challenge. At that time, we started to implement two OP VVV projects binding us to win another eight projects funded by the H2020/HEU programme within five years. That was in 2018, when there was only one European project on board—the ERC Consolidator awarded to Professor Michal Otyepka. A lot of people would have been deterred from accepting such a challenge, but I took it as a great opportunity to grow professionally.  Undoubtedly, this commitment has pushed us to alter our mentality as well. This has put us (Palacký University Olomouc) on the map of successful applicants for these types of grants in the Czech Republic. Currently, we have another challenge, which is to strengthen valorisation of research and development in CATRIN. Colleagues from the Technology Transfer Office are currently working on a new strategy that should help the institute move towards the desired results. Of course, Horizon Europe projects will also be part of it as 75 percent of the funding under this programme goes to applied research projects that are implemented in cooperation with private companies.

You mentioned a number of CATRIN’s achievements in grants policy. What are the makings of this success?

The important thing is that the scientific team at CATRIN gives tremendous scientific performance and has the potential for further growth. But if it weren’t for strong leadership, we would not have made these accomplishments. Unfortunately, this is a situation that I see in a number of other workplaces in the Czech Republic. I hear from my colleagues from other universities that their work is not supported by the management, which is not in any way motivational for scientists to invest time and energy in preparing project applications for these competitive programmes. Of course, it is a long way to go and it took us several years to understand what needs to be done differently. But at the same time, I think it is the only possible path to our long-term sustainability and further growth of CATRIN’s scientific excellence.

You have won the Rector’s Award for Non-Academic Workers. What does this mean for you?

I very much welcome the fact that such an award is awarded at UP and I think it is a step in the right direction. At the same time, of course, I very much appreciate the fact that I was nominated by the Director of CATRIN and that my nomination was also confirmed by the UP management. In the long-run, it is very important for me that I work with people and for people who I deeply respect and who make my work meaningful. We still have a lot of ideas and I firmly believe that at least some of them will be realised in the coming years.