We met Dr Adelina Gschwandtner (School of Economics) at the Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) launch event in September, and since then Adelina has worked closely with the OSC to improve the dissemination and impact of her research. I caught up with Adelina last Wednesday (6th December) to find out how her interaction with us (particularly Sarah Slowe, @HeadUniKentOSC) has boosted the profile of her research.
How did you find out about the OSC?
I first met Sarah at an event organised by OSC in September about impact. From the first moment on she looked not only very competent but also very friendly. I asked her if I could send her a grant application that needed improvement with the pathways to impact section. Not only did she agree but also looked at the document very quickly and sent me her feedback on the same day. We arranged a meeting to discuss it and all the ideas she gave me during this meeting were brilliant. The grant is now on its way and I am waiting for a reply. But actually, at that meeting Sarah gave me additional advice with respect to media and press releases options offered by the University. She helped me to make contact with Dan Worth from the corporate communications department.
Why was that important?
This was amazing! I sent Dan my recently accepted paper for publication and he not only wrote an article about it that was published in the News section of the University’s homepage but also sent information about the paper to different other interested parties. As a consequence, the following events happened in a short sequence of time:
- An article was published in InQuire on the 29th of November about the results of my research.
- KMTV made an interview with me on the 1st of December which was broadcast live.
- The Organic Authority published an article about my research on Monday the 4th of December.
- Another article was published in Organic & Natural Business Magazine (see page 5).
Have you done anything else with the OSC?
Sarah also helped me to make contact with a colleague in another School to potentially work together on a common research interest (organic). I am going to meet him tomorrow to discuss a potential collaboration and I am very excited about this opportunity.
How was your experience with the OSC?
I think Sarah did a fantastic job and provided a brilliant service that helped a lot to promote my research and to increase its visibility!