One of the central aims of ARC Centres of Excellence is to encourage collaboration between organisations. The glue that supports this collaboration is a hub of professional staff, located at our Centre’s nodes.

Our professional staff are a vital part of our Centre, breaking down geographic barriers and helping us achieve our objectives.

As a team, Centre professional staff have developed their own Vision and Team Charter that supports their collaborative work and ensures high-quality service to the Centre’s researchers. Some of the best practice activities our professional team use are:

Developing team norms and communication protocols

Abandoning email in favour of instant messaging, videoconferencing and phone calls

Prioritising the Centre over local thinking

Committing to regular meetings despite the challenges of conflicting work schedules

Gathering and sharing, information with the right people, at the right time.

As well as looking after the ARC reporting requirements at each node, our operations team also manage training opportunities for Centre researchers, coordinate all Centre events, and organise travel to our overseas partner organisations. Our operations team encourages everyone to collaborate across the nodes, organise local events, and encourage researchers to contribute to Centre activities by providing pieces for our newsletters, and sharing success stories across the Centre and beyond.

“The Centre professional staff are a relied-upon network characterised by their innovative and proactive approach to solving challenging problems. Assisting with the many events and reporting requirements that are part of running a successful national research endeavour,” says Monash node leader Professor Tom Drummond.