Managing science: developing your research, leadership and management skills

Managing science, which includes managing scientific research and, implicitly, managing scientists, has much in common with managing any enterprise, and most of these issues (e.g. annual budget planning and reporting) form the background. Equally, much scientific research is carried in universities ancient and modern, which have their own mores, ranging from professorial autocracy to democratic plurality, as well as national and international with their missions and styles. But science has issues that require a somewhat different approach if it is to prosper and succeed. Society now expects science, whether publicly or privately funded, to deliver benefits, yet the definition of science presumes no such benefit. Managing the expectations of the scientist with those of society is the challenge of the manager of science. The book addresses some issues around science and the organizations that do science. It then deals with leadership, management and communication, team building, recruitment, motivation, managing scientists, assessing performance, cooperation and competition. This is followed by a discussion of proposal writing and reviewing, committees and meetings, project management, risk and health and safety. Finally, there is a discussion on how to deal with disaster, how to cope with the stresses of management and how to deal with difficult problems.