November 18, 2024, by bbztlg
Making ideas work
PhD researcher Lauren Colley shares her thoughts on how to make ideas work in the midst of research.
A confession: at the moment, I’ll sign up to pretty much anything. Perhaps it’s a mid-PhD crisis of sorts when time spent in the presence of academics is classifiable enough as ‘work’ to make for an ‘I did something useful with the day’ feeling.
Yes, this sounds cynical, but what every researcher setting out on their PhD journey will soon learn is that it’s not always the gratifying, exciting venture you’d hoped. Whatever discipline, there will be anomalies and unexpected failures; there will be graphs and charts that fail to show any of the anticipated correlations and there will definitely be huge slumps in motivation – the “why am I doing this?” and ‘why does this even matter?’
It’s easy to get so close that perspective disappears, that the original idea – that great conceptual engine – becomes a mass of tangled wires. Although, by the end of your thesis, you’ll hopefully have untangled a few of those, the result, when it comes to talking about and communicating your ideas remains the same: it’s all gotten a bit technical.
My own research, for example, is about Victorian walkers: how their practise of writing whilst walking led (I believe) to certain rhythmic structures to become apparent in their writing. The background to this is that walking was a new phenomenon in social history – a dramatic shift that moved what had previously been an act of necessity for the working class, to something actively sought for social and recreational purposes. Unfortunately, finding a rapid way to explain why this matters – why we can put the same practices into action, why walking, rhythm and the thought processing it stimulates is valuable, not just to today’s writers, but to human behaviour – is a more complex matter.
Already I’ve filled up a paragraph without ever really getting to the nub of it: walk to be creative; walk to think; think to the pattern of your footsteps. I realise all this merely launches a series of questions into the ether. But getting to that nub quicker is why I signed up to the “Making Ideas Work in the Midst of Research” event, part of the Researcher Academy’s Innovation & Knowledge Exchange programme.
As an English student I admit I get hung up on language, and whilst the idealist in me would like to hold onto that notion of research as the path to progress, some of the formalities of research culture – the red tape, data, referencing and citations; can obscure the idea powering it all. A more cynical question therefore might be not so much how we make ideas work in the midst of research, but how do we make them work despite the tick-box formalities of research that threaten to obscure them.
The only way to achieve this is to share: no one understands your research like you, nor may they want to know the minutiae of it, but what everyone here will understand is red tape and referencing. I hope this event will reinstate purpose, motivation and imagination.
“Making Ideas Work in the Midst of Research”
I have clocked in advance (thank you Alison, Event Convenor, for this insider knowledge) that, of the 30 odd delegates, there are at least two from the arts somewhere, and I’m wondering how I find the other to cling to for safety. Why? Because we do not associate literary study – particularly the critical study of historic texts – with innovation. It is by nature, backward looking and more difficult to justify.
So how do we turn that around? In this I feel a certain responsibility to argue the relevance of literary research. Not just because our society is constructed on that of our ancestors, but because language is fundamental to communicating ideas, and essential to commercialising them. So why are the arts so less represented at events such as “Making Ideas Work” than the STEM subjects?
It is more difficult to get round the word ‘discipline’, which itself implies that we should ‘stay in our lanes’ when it comes to ideas. Dr Collette Davies, Dr Cassie Brummett and Dr Kieran Foster demonstrated that there is a developing infrastructure to support ideas, regardless of how tangential they may be to your research. Perhaps you have an idea that really could make a real-world difference, if only you knew how.
Enter the Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Programme, which is exactly what it says on the tin. Get matched up with the people who might have the technical know-how you don’t (mechanical engineers, linguists, social media experts); register your interest; outline your idea and see if there’s someone that can, if not help, then gauge its feasibility.
Dr Clare Mann’s presentation was a personal highlight of the day. Her research journey is close to home as someone who has been on HRT for bone health since my 20s, but been told repeatedly that there is insufficient research to be sure of its benefits. Dr Mann made her idea a reality by taking every opportunity available to her. She is definitely one who – if I am going to put this networking lark into practise – I would like to get in touch with.
I am something of a traditionist when it comes to the question of what purpose universities serve, because I believe they should be driven fundamentally by curiosity. The projects showcased emphasise that ideas, whether or not they are within your discipline are worth pursuing if they come from the heart. The Researcher Academy is trying to provide a more robust infrastructure to foster innovation. The YES scheme, which opens for applications June-July each year, offers a chance to gain advice on what I’d call the ‘3 Big Cs’ – Collaborating, Communicating and Commercialising ideas into viable business ventures that are not part of your current research.
A wild goose chase on University Park campus
As PGRs in any discipline, we are uniquely placed to pursue ideas and exploit the rich research culture that we are part of. Now is the opportunity to follow rabbit holes (of which the University has many) and wild goose chases (also part of daily campus life).
Approach a specialist in the field of interest and gauge your ideas feasibility. Perhaps it won’t be an immediate hit, but you’ll almost certainly come away with some advice on what could be developed, and if it’s a no-hoper, your supervisors and colleagues will no doubt set you back on track having at least scratched that itch. It might just be the itch that changes the course of your career. My advice is simple: stay curious.
Putting things into practise
It’s time to put this to the test, with an idea that I have had ever since I backed my mum’s car into a lamp post. Most people who know me will agree on one thing: I am a terrible driver, or more specifically, a bad parker. I would argue ‘spatially challenged’ is more appropriate, but words aside my twice-replaced bumper has had altercations with any number of bollards, fences, walls and sandwich boards (sorry Timpson’s) across the county.
Luckily such incidents only involve inanimate objects, but what would prove a solution to a problem that has improved little in a decade: an inflatable bumper. Calling all learners, mis-judgers and new car owners – why can’t we externalise an air bag? Perhaps like bike stabilisers they could be temporary measures. Perhaps graduated, perhaps there is an appropriately cushioned material that could save me my no claims bonus?
This is utterly irrelevant to the study of nineteenth century literature, but it could make a difference if I could find someone to brainstorm ideas with… and so it’s time to present it to OPAD (Open-source Prosthetics and Assistive Devices). Visiting the site will at least provide you with some examples of similarly assisted multi-disciplinary examples.
Perhaps it’s evident that I came here looking for something. Call it imagination, innovation or personal development as you like, but fundamentally I wanted confirmation that universities have a purpose; I wanted some assurance that the secret workings of this ticking clock functioned quietly behind an austere wooden case, whether or not it chimes the hour. Now there are not enough minutes for all the leads to follow. Remember that there will be as many cul de sacs as high-rise flats and densely cluttered new builds, but that is what research AND it seems, innovation is – development, evolution, discovery.
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