Getting traction with outreach for Creative Practice research

Developing purposeful relationships with Creative Practice researchers is a main aim of my role as a Research Services Adviser for the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland. One need I identified was that of further outreach options for their research (in keeping with recommendations from the 2018 Government funding round).

To address this an approach of divide and conquer was instigated. Rather than address at a faculty level, efforts would be concentrated on departments/schools. This could then provide an action template for remaining departments/schools.

Consequently, my project begins with the smallest department of the Faculty – Dance Studies. My goal was to engage Dance Studies with the University of Auckland Figshare for Institutions platform and create a figshare site to promote Dance Studies research.

Technical and administrative requirements aside, I had to get the department enthused (figshare as a data source for the University’s research reporting system was in my favour here). With a page created, the next step was to populate the site with a group “up-load-a-thon”.

The project came to a halt with the onset of Covid-19, leaving the last step still to be actioned as New Zealand went into lockdown.

With the “up-load-a-thon” halted I noticed something interesting, Figshare was receiving an increased number of views. New and previously uploaded guides and presentations (that I had authored) were now getting a lot more traction.

Two lockdowns later:

• file views have quadrupled
• file downloads have tripled

I think I’ve engaged them…