Things have been pretty hectic lately. On Thursday and Friday last week I was up in the North-South Ministerial offices in Armagh meeting about ICLRD (International Centre for Local and Regional Development) projects that focus on cross-border spatial planning. I also spent time giving my views to the Innovation Task Force that's meant to be setting out how Ireland can realise a 'smart economy'. Not unsurprisingly my message was you can't expect an innovation and knowledge-led economy if you disinvest in education and research and development (which is what is presently happening). The weekend was spent preparing for a site visit that was held yesterday that concerned a large collaborative bid for a National Audio and Visual Repository for which I'm the chair of the coordinating committee. It brings together researchers in the humanities, social sciences, computer science and libraries from ten higher education institutions across the island, plus the main cultural and media institutions, and industry. Thankfully things went well on the day and I think we made a compelling case. Hopefully there's a bit of joined up thinking between the government funding body and the Innovation Task Force! Today I'll have spent the morning contributing as a member of the Census Advisory Board where we'll have been going over the pilot results for the 2011 census and finalizing the questions. In the afternoon I have to reprofile the Institute's budget which will no doubt be a joy. We're presently audited every three months and I've just been told I now have to sign-off on daily timesheets for the 31 people whose salary/scholarships we cover. If only the politicians received the same level of scrutiny! What all of this means is that I don't have anything meaningful to say today because there's too much other stuff going on (yeah, I know, I'm a freakin' loser). Back to a review tomorrow, when hopefully things are back on an even(ish) keel.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Freakin' Loser
Things have been pretty hectic lately. On Thursday and Friday last week I was up in the North-South Ministerial offices in Armagh meeting about ICLRD (International Centre for Local and Regional Development) projects that focus on cross-border spatial planning. I also spent time giving my views to the Innovation Task Force that's meant to be setting out how Ireland can realise a 'smart economy'. Not unsurprisingly my message was you can't expect an innovation and knowledge-led economy if you disinvest in education and research and development (which is what is presently happening). The weekend was spent preparing for a site visit that was held yesterday that concerned a large collaborative bid for a National Audio and Visual Repository for which I'm the chair of the coordinating committee. It brings together researchers in the humanities, social sciences, computer science and libraries from ten higher education institutions across the island, plus the main cultural and media institutions, and industry. Thankfully things went well on the day and I think we made a compelling case. Hopefully there's a bit of joined up thinking between the government funding body and the Innovation Task Force! Today I'll have spent the morning contributing as a member of the Census Advisory Board where we'll have been going over the pilot results for the 2011 census and finalizing the questions. In the afternoon I have to reprofile the Institute's budget which will no doubt be a joy. We're presently audited every three months and I've just been told I now have to sign-off on daily timesheets for the 31 people whose salary/scholarships we cover. If only the politicians received the same level of scrutiny! What all of this means is that I don't have anything meaningful to say today because there's too much other stuff going on (yeah, I know, I'm a freakin' loser). Back to a review tomorrow, when hopefully things are back on an even(ish) keel.
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