Get involved
Getting involved in Reclaim Research
Take part in the Reclaim Research project at your university
For the Reclaim Research project to be successful, we need you to uncover the corporate influence at your own university. In this way will be able to map out a broad picture of the relationship between universities and corporations, on which we can base a powerful campaign.
For your university to be included in the project you, or anyone else at your university, will need to carry out at least one semi-structured interview with someone who will be able to bring to the project the information needed.
Handy resources to download
Who should I interview?
When picking someone to speak to you must bear in mind not only who knows what you want to know, but also who is likely to tell you.
You can speak to anyone at your uni who is involved in research and who you think will be a source of information on corporate funding of research. You may chose someone with lots of responsibility such a head of research or a research group, research support staff, a head of department or a head of funding.
You may feel however that you are likely to get a fuller picture from interviewing someone involved in research in a less official, or ‘lower down’ capacity such as a professor or a post-graduate research student.
Carrying two or three interviews with different people who are involved in research in differing capacities would create a stronger picture of the relationship between corporations and university funding. A single interview however would still be very valuable for the overall project, so if you are short on time or volunteers do pick one target and go for it!
What should I ask?
The professional researcher who is working with us on the project has designed an outline for a semi-structured interview which you can use to guide you.
The questions are grouped into four general sections so that you can be flexible with the interview, using the sections to guide you but allowing conversation to lead you in interesting directions without holding tight to a schedule.
Download the semi-structured interview schedule to help guide your interview.
Tips for a really successful interview
We have put together some hints on how to make your interview run smoothly and gather as much information from it as possible.
Before the meeting:
Location: Pick somewhere neutral like a cafe to keep the interview comfortable and informal, but ensure that someone else knows where you are.
Timing: Confirm the time and date beforehand and plan for roughly one hour. Swap numbers in case one of you has a problem getting there on time!
During the meeting:
- Attitude: Be casual and interested. Let the person you’re interviewing know you’re listening through your body language, and allow them to talk about themselves!
Recording information: Take brief notes but use a dictaphone (your mobile phone will do if it has a recording function) to record the interview. Ask the person you’re interviewing if they mind you recording it for note-taking purposes to avoid the situation being intimidating!
Getting through everything: Decide what to probe and what to let slip.
After the meeting:
Writing up notes: Do this promptly while the interview is fresh in your mind.
Feedback: Fill in our feedback form so we can collate the information, and email it to us at corporatepower@peopleandplanet.org. Include any hints or tips on what worked and what didn’t, to assist other interviewers.
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Join the Reclaim Research working group
If you want be more involved in the project you can become a member of the working group to help design, pilot and implement the nation-wide research programme. Your role will involve supporting volunteers who are carrying out interviews at their own universities, and submitting Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to gather quantitative data for the project.
If you would like to get involved in this way email us as corporatepower@peopleandplanet.org to have an informal chat about the role.
