This might look like a bit of an odd one to be excited about, but bear with me because I was on the Taskforce that developed this document.

It was more than simply editing (although I did all that too). I returned to my communication and public service roots, in amongst the analysis of the 250 responses to the Exposure Draft across January. It was a mammoth effort that generated the feedback to be incorporated into the main document. I wrote case studies, sourced images, captions and credits and managed the layout process.

National research infrastructure (NRI) underpins a wide array of research and innovation and most people don’t even know it’s there. More importantly, there’s a large specialist workforce that operates and maintains it all, as well as helping researchers get the most of out of the kit. These people are the beating heart of NRI and it can’t work without them.

This is an important document. It makes a series of recommendations that aim to support and develop NRI across the next five to 10 years, including providing long-term funding, actively supporting the workforce, joining-up digital and other research efforts and improving industry engagement.

This won’t affect your average person on the street. Except that the research and innovation that is supported by NRI ultimately does affect your average person and that’s why it’s important.

I’m proud to have worked on it.

Find it here: 2021 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap