Assessing academics’ needs for research support: The experience of the Open University of Hong Kong

Billy T M Wong, Hoyee Au-Yeung and Beryl Yuen-yee Wong
The Open University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong SAR, China

Research support plays a crucial role in the research capacity development of an institution. Providing proper research support services relies on an effective channel for collecting feedback from academics on their needs.

This paper presents a needs assessment study conducted at the Open University of Hong Kong to identify its academics’ needs for research support. The study aims to identify the extent to which the University’s current research support is adequate for the academics and whether other kinds of support are preferred by them. It involved three sessions of roundtable sharing, with academics from a broad range of disciplines and at different levels of activeness in research. Following the Researcher Skill Development Framework (Willison & O’Regan, 2008), the needs of participants in different facets of research — from initiating a research study to presenting research findings — were shared and discussed systematically in the roundtable meetings.

The results showed the diverse needs of academics at different levels of research activity. The needs highlighted by research-active academics included activities for generating research ideas and identifying partners for research collaboration. Those who were not previously actively engaged in research also wished to have more activities for experience-sharing of research and making successful funding applications. There were also suggestions made by all groups of participants, such as the provision of training on research software and quantitative data analysis. Some of the needs lie at the policy level, such as the proportion of work time allocated for research, as well as familiarity with relevant research administrative policies. Based on their feedback, new or refined research support services have been provided to cater for academics’ research needs.