The outgoing head of a pioneering Japanese research institute dogged by employees discontent has insisted it was her determination to step down from the presidency – and that the initiative can nonetheless be a hit.
In one in all her most in-depth interviews since taking the job, Karin Markides, president and chief govt of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), instructed Times Higher Education that she is leaving early to deal with taking OIST’s mannequin “to the world”.
OIST introduced earlier this month that Markides will conclude her time period on the finish of March, two years earlier than her contract was because of expire, and transfer right into a newly created place of govt adviser till May 2028.
Set up on a distant island within the Pacific Ocean in 2011, the distinctive graduate faculty guarantees academic staff five years of funding before they must pass peer review, eradicating the stress to chase grants. It boasts a extremely worldwide employees physique and punches above its weight in producing world-leading research, however is dealing with a essential authorities evaluation that may form selections about its subsequent part of development.
Markides, former president of Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology and the American University of Armenia, took over at OIST in June 2023. She has confronted complaints about “lack of vision” underneath her management – with critics pointing to employees satisfaction surveys that confirmed very low religion in administration and lack of readability on funds processes.
Managers on the institute have constantly blamed a “small group” of disaffected employees for such considerations, stressing that they don’t seem to be consultant of the broader tradition on the faculty.
Markides mentioned that the transition to a brand new function was her own concept. “It was my suggestion, and the board worked with me to make it workable,” she mentioned.
She defined that she had made the choice as a result of “I had recruited a good team of executives…I felt that now is the time. It was very important for me to give that freedom to the new leaders to take on this responsibility,” she mentioned.
As govt adviser, Markides will deal with selling OIST’s mannequin internationally and constructing partnerships and worldwide collaborations, in addition to fundraising and alumni relations.
Physicist Daniel Zajfman has been appointed OIST’s interim president whereas its board begins the seek for a everlasting successor.
The new leader will be a part of because the establishment awaits the outcomes of an exterior evaluation commissioned by Japan’s Cabinet Office, anticipated later this yr.
Markides mentioned the approaching yr would show pivotal in figuring out what OIST does subsequent and whether or not it decides to broaden or consolidate.
Originally aiming to recruit 300 principal investigators (PIs) – senior college who lead research items – OIST scaled again its ambitions and desires to succeed in 200 PIs by 2045. It presently has 96 and intends to have 100 by the tip of this yr.
Markides mentioned the 200 PI goal was not a forecast however “a backcast scenario” submitted to the federal government to check what could be required.
“We made several scenarios to see, is it even possible to go to 200? What does it take?” she mentioned.
She added that growth past roughly 100 PIs would require constructing one other lab and a shift in funding assumptions.
Having beforehand offered beneficiant public funding, the federal government’s enthusiasm has cooled of late, that means below-inflation funds will increase, and Markides acknowledged that financial sustainability will be a central challenge for her successor.
“Right now we get almost 90 per cent [of funding] from the government,” she mentioned. “In this scenario, let’s say we get 30 per cent from external funding. Is it possible to build up to 200 in a decent time?”
She described reaching 200 PIs as doubtlessly transformative. “We see that there is some kind of magic around 200,” she mentioned. “Then our researchers can cluster around challenges in a different way. We can be more attractive for larger grants from foundations that we cannot do when we are smaller.”
Markides mentioned she had been drawn to OIST to assist consolidate the establishment after a interval of speedy development and to put the foundations for the following stage of its growth.
She mentioned the college should turn out to be “self-sustained to a higher degree” and “have resources and connections to more than just the government”. Research actions and collaborations “need to be more and more diversified”, she added.
A present professor on the college, who requested anonymity for worry {of professional} repercussions, mentioned the management modifications marked a watershed second after extended dissatisfaction inside components of the college.
“Many of us raised considerations for years about governance, technique and scientific imaginative and prescient, typically with out seeing significant change. This scenario was not sustainable. The current transition displays that actuality.
“What matters now is that we have a new president who is a first-rate scientist and who can reconnect leadership with research and the academic community.”
Staff and former employees have additionally privately questioned whether or not the extended tensions may push senior researchers to look elsewhere for jobs, damaging its capability to draw the top-level scientists it wants to attain its ambitions.
Markides rejected options that her departure may set off an exodus of senior researchers, saying she noticed “rather that more people want to be here than want to leave”. She famous that OIST accepts solely 4 per cent of graduate candidates and attracts sturdy Japanese researchers, too.
She referred to as OIST “a success” and mentioned, when research output is normalised for measurement, it’s “actually the best institution in Japan at this moment”. “I am very, very positive about the future,” she concluded.