Research Support Staff Program

Assignment of Research Support Staff

Since FY2017, the University has been assigning research support staff to researchers working on campus who are having difficulty setting aside time for research due to life events, specifically pregnancy, child-raising, or nursing care commitments, as a way to bolster research environment diversity.

Purpose	This program seeks to help researchers who are having difficulty setting aside time for research due to pregnancy, child-raising or nursing care commitments, balance their work with life events by assigning research support staff to complete research-related tasks under the direction of the researchers.
Eligibility	Those among the following main categories who also fulfill the below Application Criteria: 1) faculty members who have signed an employment contract with the University and are conducting most of their research at the University (professors, associate professors, lecturers, assistant professors, assistants); or 2) full-time educational research contract employees at the University (limited to specially appointed faculty members, faculty members offering donated courses, faculty members involved in joint research courses, hospital assistant professors, researchers, special researchers, hospital doctors, and faculty members of the Collaborative Research Laboratory, etc.).
Application Criteria	■Applicants must satisfy requirements (1) through (4) below: (1) Those who are currently pregnant, and/or caring for a child aged 11 or younger (or turned 12 before March 31 of the current fiscal year), and/or the caregiver of the applicants’ parents, spouse, and/or children who are living together with the applicant, and has been certified as requiring long-term care (including individuals certified as requiring support). (2) Those with a spouse working full-time, and/or those living independently, or do not have a spouse. *If the applicant is male, those with a spouse working full-time as a researcher at a university, a university’s joint-use facility, or an incorporated administrative agency, etc. (3) Those not on maternity leave, childcare leave, long-term home care leave, or any other leave. (Note that for those with a spouse, the spouse must also not be on any of the aforementioned leaves or any other leave). (4) Those who have not acquired external funding of more than five million yen over a period of a year.

Excerpt from “Feedback from People Using This Program”

Researchers using this program
Tasks that researchers had their support staff perform	Data collection, data entry, data organization, statistical processing, research assistance, preparation for (and assistance performing) experiments, etc.
Evaluation of work performed by their support staff	・Once I told my assistant exactly what I wanted done, the work was performed to my expectations. ・I had my assistant conduct experiments and analyze data. The work was done just as I expected and the result that the assistant achieved, made a significant contribution to the drafting of my paper. ・I was able to have my assistant take care of data entry with peace of mind. As a result, I was able to focus on data analysis, which helped me save a lot of time. The program was extremely useful. ・My assistant was extremely skilled and made more progress than I anticipated.
Benefits in terms of research	・I was able to make progress in my research while raising my child because my assistant took care of data collection and organization as well as preparing to compile a questionnaire survey and summarizing data, as well as other tasks, all of which take an enormous amount of time. I was able to gain extra time by using the research support staff program, which allowed me to set aside time for thinking, which I’m not usually able to do. ・The program yielded results in terms of presentations at conferences and submission of letters because I was able to assign my assistant certain complex tasks, which allowed me to concentrate on research itself. ・I was able to make progress on other experiments by having my assistant take care of certain tasks that ordinarily require close to two hours of my time every day or every few days. Usually washing glass utensils takes a lot of time, but I was able to make progress on my research by getting started on the next experiment right away because I asked my assistant to take care of that work. ・By having my assistant help with experiments and analyze data, I was able to pursue my research more efficiently. I was able to achieve most of my research goals by the end of the year, to write my thesis, and prepare to present it on time.

Research support staff
Impressions of work	・I feel that I was able to help the applicant balance her research activities and life event responsibilities in my own small way, through my work. This was made possible by the existence of this program, and my impression is that we made progress in implementing cooperative structures more smoothly. ・By working as a research support staff, I was able to learn at a practical level about research methods, which gave me an extremely valuable experience. I also gained opportunities to interact with various researchers. Opportunities to interact directly with researchers and speak with them are unusual, so the experience was extremely instructive. ・By working as a research support staff in the lab to which I was assigned, I saw professors enjoying communicating with their peers even as they conducted their experiments in a serious manner. It became clear to me that working in a research field was an option for my future and as a result, my perspective was broadened. ・I ended up being extremely busy because I carried out my own experiments as well as my professor’s experiments. I gained the ability to take advantage of limited time to conduct experiments in an efficient manner, enabling me to carry out experiments systematically.
Impact on own research and future career path	・I became interested and motivated by the idea of collecting data by carrying out one process at a time and planning how to do so. ・I was primarily responsible for data entry. There was an extremely large amount of data to enter, but I was able to introduce an element of regularity and balance to research time and my work as a research support staff. The data that I was entering was closely related to my own area of interest, and I was able to approach the task in a forward-looking manner despite the large amount of data that had to be entered. ・I gained a new understanding of the importance of reporting, communicating, and consulting since it was necessary to work closely with the program applicant when developing plans for the experimental data we obtained and how it would be used. Although it was hard to pursue the experiment without any issues when it came to interpreting the data we were receiving and future plans, unlike experiments that are only carried out by one person, the experience will have value as I embark on future research activities. ・Working as an assistant impacted my own research by broadening the perspective inherent in my research theme. I learned many lessons that I’ll be able to use in my own research, for example involving the organization of my thesis and how to establish a theoretical framework. Working as a research support staff strengthened my desire to pursue a job in research, and enrolling in a doctoral program is now a more appealing option for my future. ・I was very busy because in addition to my own research I was carrying out my professor’s research. As I worked to complete numerous tasks within a limited amount of time, I began thinking about what I could do to carry out experiments efficiently, and I gained the ability to conduct experiments in a more systematic manner than I could before I became a research support staff. I’m looking forward to taking advantage of these lessons in my own research in the future.