Innovation bubbles

Ottoline Leyser speaks to the Association of Research Managers and Administrators about research culture

It’s not every day that research managers get invited to join the chief executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in a jacuzzi—even a metaphorical one. But that was the message Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser gave yesterday to the annual conference of the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (Arma), in a session chaired by Research Professional News.

Rejecting the idea of the link between research and its impacts as a simple pipeline, she suggested rather, “it’s a jacuzzi. The circulation of people and ideas in the system is absolutely crucial to connecting discovery to prosperity and public good. We can’t think of it as a linear, unidirectional pathway.”