The 2009 conference is hosted by The Science Shop, Queen's University Belfast

Motivating student researchers and mediators between experienced researchers and experienced clients

Students are very important to knowledge transfer.  They have roles as researchers who work on their bachelor's or master's thesis and, in the Science Shop at Tilburg University, as mediators between civil society organisations on the one hand and researchers and academic supervisors on the other hand.

The Science Shop enables students to explore civil society in two ways. They make use of their academic knowledge to find answers to questions from society and they also use their social skills to play an intermediary role between researchers, supervisors and clients.

In research projects that are carried out to give an answer to questions from society, a mediator can spend a lot of time organising meetings with the parties involved to fine-tune the activities and the research question. The researcher manages his project and decides, in consultation with his client and his supervisor, the exact question, the literature study, the data, the process and so on. All this requires knowledge skills, research skills, and, in particular, social skills. These aspects need special attention when working with student researchers and student mediators.

In an introductory course for mediators we describe the process of carrying out a typical research project by the Science Shop, the roles and positions of the partners who are involved in the project and the role of a student mediator. We stress the importance of good communication within and management of the project with all student researchers.

Our presentation will focus on our way of working with student mediators and student researchers, the mediation process and the research process. Special attention will be paid to the introductory course for mediators and the management tools that are available to the researchers. I am interested in your experiences with student researchers and would like to discuss your roles as academic supervisors in research projects for civil society organisations.

Theme: Engaging students in community based research

Presenters Name: Iris Sliedrecht-van Lavieren

Presenters Institution: Coordinator, Science Shop, Tilburg University

Presenters Biography:

Since 2000 Iris has worked as coordinator of the Science Shop at Tilburg University, dealing with students as researchers and as mediators.