Rouages: "To be as close as possible to the research"

Delphine Petit and Magali Puech both work in the Department of Research and Doctoral Studies (DRED). Delphine Petit heads up the department coordinating research structures and resources, while Magali Puech heads up the indicators and steering department. This month, as part of the " Rouages " video series, they tell us about their jobs.

The DRED is located on the Triolet campus. In Building 7, fourteen people in 4 departments and an office contribute to this essential mission: implementing the University's policy on doctoral training and research. Delphine Petit and Magali Puech are both heads of department in this department, which works in close collaboration with Jacques Mercier, Vice-President in charge of research.

A management team at the service of research policy

Our work at Delphine and I is linked to research and doctoral training," explains Magali Puech, Head of the Research Steering and Indicators Department. Still in Building 7, we move on to Delphine Petit, who heads the 4-strong " Coordination of research structures and resources " department.

It's a bit of a mouthful, so we prefer to call it the SRECH. In short, my department oversees research structures - in other words, laboratories, platforms, etc. - and the resources allocated to them," explains Delphine Petit. Most of the dossiers we examine are then voted on. This vote refers to the Research Commission, a body of the Academic Council where the University's research policy is decided and voted. " It's up to our two departments, Magali's and mine, to define this policy, with me focusing on the structural, financial and contractual aspects in conjunction with research organizations and schools, and Magali on the indicators, outreach, open science and other aspects ".

Magali Puech, producing indicators to improve UM's visibility

And indeed, for Magali Puech, whose work includes responding to surveys and producing indicators, her day-to-day routine is most often based on " absolutely gigantic Excel spreadsheets that require a great deal of rigor ". In particular, membership indicators take up a good part of her time. " I make sure that researchers mention their affiliation with the University of Montpellier in their publications, and there are over four thousand of them every year. It's a key factor in the University's international reputation.

Central and indispensable if we hope to climb the international rankings such as Shanghai, which are based, among other things, on the number of publications signed by UM researchers. Researchers are often still in the habit of mentioning their laboratory or university hospital, which represents a loss for us," she adds. Things are gradually changing, and today we have 85% to 87% of correct signatures," doubling in 10 years.

The HAL portal is an open archive in which researchers can deposit their publications in order to make them accessible to the international scientific community ", explains Magali Puech, now co-administrator of this portal with Laure Lefrançois, who is in charge of the "research support" mission at the joint documentation service. A practice that continues to grow in importance under the term "open science" or " open access", to which a vice-presidency has been dedicated for the past three years, under the responsibility of Anne Laurent. " The University is developing a real policy in favor of open science, and this represents a major project for my department.

Delphine Petit, coordinating research structures

" My department oversees and monitors the 73 research structures and 16 technology platforms at the University of Montpellier. This translates into various actions, starting with the updating of all information relating to these structures in the Strech application", explains Delphine Petit. Designed and developed by the DRED and the DSIN, Strech is a tool accessible via the ENT that enables real-time consultation of the identity cards of the structures, in particular their supervisory and management bodies.

As its name suggests, Delphine Petit's team is also responsible for allocating financial resources to research structures, in accordance with the votes of the Research Committee. " This concerns allocations to research units or doctoral schools, and doctoral contracts. It can also involve exceptional resources voted by the committee.

Another important mission of this department is to prepare evaluations of research structures by the Haut conseil de l'évaluation de la recherche et de l'enseignement supérieur (HCERES), an independent administrative authority. " My department has piloted this campaign in 2019 and 2020 for all research units and doctoral schools. This means producing a lot of documents, carrying out preliminary surveys to identify any restructuring, and liaising with other supervisory bodies," explains Delphine Petit. Once these assessments have been completed, we carry out the entire process of setting up the structures within the institution, and contractualizing them.

Two scientific profiles

While Magali Puech's and Delphine Petit's respective jobs are administrative in nature, they also have very specific profiles: both come from research backgrounds. Basically, I have a doctorate in biological and medical engineering," begins Magali Puech. At the start of my career, I worked in a laboratory in Lille, then after a period of parental leave and a move, I moved into administration". As for Delphine Petit, a chemical engineer, "I also worked in a laboratory, but by choice I turned to research-related administration. First at DIPA, then at DRED".

These backgrounds, they are sure, still provide them with many assets in the exercise of their functions: " In our day-to-day work, knowing the research environment is a non-negligible basis, but to really know it, i.e. to understand the difficulties and constraints, you need to have practiced it a minimum; this is felt in the way we interact with our contacts ", they conclude.