Alexandra Thomas: Helping researchers focus on research

Tell us a bit about yourself, and how you came to be here in Aotearoa and in this role?

I was born in Aotearoa, New Zealand and spent my early years growing up here. My mother is a Kiwi and my father is English. At the age of nine, my family emigrated to a small town near Liverpool, in the north-west of England, where I grew up.

I always knew I wanted to move back to Aotearoa; it had been my life goal to bring up my own children here. So, just over seven years ago, my husband and I packed up everything and emigrated here with our two daughters – then two years old and five months old. I haven’t looked back.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a ballet dancer. There are many video clips of me dancing around the living room, dressed up in my mother’s old dresses, and I practised ballet until my late teens. But I was also excessively shy when I was young and didn’t really like an audience; my mum made me do speech and drama to push me out of my comfort zone. I don’t think dancing was ever really on the cards as a career!

Is there any alignment with that fantasy and your job?

Not at all. My career found me. I was lucky that I had a fantastic part-time job at the University of Essex when I studied there, and that created a pathway for me to move into a university role directly after I graduated.

I completed a postgraduate qualification while working in the university’s employment service, where my job was to help other students find jobs. I realised early on that I was good with people, pragmatic, organised, and had a common-sense approach to tackling problems.

Do you have a research background, and if so, in what area?

No, I didn’t find a topic that I was passionate enough about to attract me to commit to a PhD. I have always had so much admiration for my academic colleagues and am inspired by what they do, but I wanted to utilise my strengths and work alongside academics.

I am a hands-on, practical, and solutions-oriented person and my skill-set complements my academic colleagues, who often have wonderfully big ideas that I can help make happen.

What prompted the redesign that resulted in the Research and Innovation Office?

Mainly we were operating under a highly complex organisational model, with many different parts of a puzzle that we were never quite able to piece together. The hope is that a simpler structure, comprising one central hub and faculty/LSRI-based research service teams, will create opportunities to build a more cohesive community of research management professionals.

What feedback are you getting from the many staff across the University who sit in the newly established R&I office?

That the new structure ‘makes sense’. We no longer have the invisible organisational barriers that were making things harder than they needed to be. We now have a simplified structure that allows us to focus efforts on ensuring our services are more effective for researchers and not spending all our time trying to figure out who should be doing what.

What is the significance of the te reo Māori name Te Puna Tiketike?

Puna is a natural spring of water or a well, symbolising a source of sustenance. Tiketike reflects the Waipapa Tōitu symbolism of Waipapa Ngā Maunga Whakahī – the mountains that stand as kaitiaki of the knowledge held by our community and embody the pride of our people.

My hope is that these symbols will guide and inspire our collective mahi to support and enable our community of researchers.

What kind of things, in your experience, keep researchers happy, creative and motivated?

Taking away administrative burdens and making things simple for researchers to allow them to focus on their research.

Our locally based teams are critical to providing the support that researchers really value. The team’s role is to ensure we build specialised, high-quality services.

What’s the thing you really love about the job?

I have the most incredible team and am exceptionally lucky to be surrounded by talented people, both professional and academic staff.

I am also proud to work for such a highly reputable university. We have so many stories to tell about the impact the University is having, and we have our researchers to thank for that. They are our engine.

Gilbert Wong