Edinburgh Napier University

More than 50 technicians from across Edinburgh’s universities came together at Edinburgh Napier last week to celebrate the first-year achievements of the Edinburgh Technical Collaboration.

Established last year, the collaboration was formed between Edinburgh Napier, The University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University and Queen Margaret University in response to concerns that technical staff were falling between the gap of their positions having elements of both academic and professional services roles.

Throughout the last year, the collaboration has introduced mentoring and job shadowing programmes across the four HE institutions and the event recognised the impact that the programme, along with its participating colleagues, has had in helping increase the visibility of technical roles alongside supporting personal career development.

Attendees heard from a number of Edinburgh Napier staff, including a welcome from Professor Nick Antonopoulos, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal of Research at the University, Dr Claire Garden, Head of Learning & Teaching within Edinburgh Napier’s School of Applied Science, Bill Surradge and Neil Guthrie, both Technicians within the School of Applied Science alongside Lisa McMillan and Jo Brown, Institutional Administrators, Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF).

They were also encouraged to share their career stories through the Squiggly Career Stories and Me in 3 profiles before taking in a tour of the University’s Simulation and Clinical Skills Centre – Edinburgh Napier’s purpose-built facility for health simulation and clinical skills training.

Tours of the University’s Sport and Exercise, Animal & Plant Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Microbiology and Psychology facilities were also offered as part of the event. Future tours of Merchiston, which includes various areas including the design workshops, music rehearsal rooms, materials centre, fabrication lab and more are also planned.

Professor Nick Antonopoulos, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice Principal of Research at Edinburgh Napier said: “I was really delighted to welcome so many technicians to Edinburgh Napier. It was great to hear so many positive outcomes from the collaboration that has happened across the last year.

“I think collaboration between technicians has an extra key element which is important. Collaboration is essential in terms of creating the requisite support and resilience that we need across all teams to be able to deliver in very challenging times.

“I absolutely agree that all four universities can and should strive to do better in terms of increasing the visibility of technical staff, alongside increasing the strategies for recognition and advancement of staff and that is certainly something we can help open dialogue on. I’d be very keen to look for opportunities to expand the Edinburgh Technical Collaboration to include teams like research and innovation offices.

“It’s been a very successful first year and I look forward to seeing it develop further in the next 12 months.”