Getting traction with outreach for Creative Practice research

Presented at eResearch Australasia Online 2020. <div>Lightning Talks</div><div><br><div><p>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).</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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”.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Two lockdowns later:</p><ul><li>file views have quadrupled</li><li>file downloads have tripled</li></ul><p>I think I’ve engaged them…</p></div><div><br></div></div>