The Technician Commitment: its emergence, enactment and impact

Technicians, who are often referred to as an ‘invisible workforce’, are key to research and teaching in universities. Given that a thriving technical workforce is critical to achieving the UK government’s post-Brexit ambitions for research and development, including making Britain a science superpower, the UK higher education sector needs improved knowledge and insight of its technical workforce. Historically, roles have been ill-defined and technicians’ contributions to the sector have not been well understood. Furthermore, an aging technical workforce means that large numbers of highly-skilled technicians are retiring every year with insufficient attention being paid to attracting a new generation of technicians to the sector. Consequently, recent reports have highlighted a shortage of technicians across all sectors in the UK. This thesis arises from a sustained programme of research, advocacy and national change leadership in support of the technician workforce in universities. In particular, the thesis explores the emergence, enactment and impact of a sector-wide intervention to improve the culture and environment for technicians working in UK higher education and research – the ‘Technician Commitment’. The Commitment was introduced and widely adopted in 2017 with the aims of enhancing visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians, technologists and skills specialists working in higher education and research. It was hoped that this in turn would help to improve recruitment and retention of younger technicians. I was centrally involved in the genesis, development and launch of this initiative and this thesis offers unique insights into how such initiatives work, reflects on the advantages and disadvantages of being an insider researcher, and considers the challenges of aligning research and practice. This study syntheses the literatures on technicians working in higher education. It begins with an analysis of literatures that examine technician roles in the history of science, proceeding to the developments in universities through the late 20th century, and then to current trends in an ever changing higher education landscape. The review explores both the international and national literatures on technicians working in higher education and the recent wider sector focus on improving research cultures. An important contribution of the thesis is an autoethnographic exploration of the events and experiences that led to the emergence of the Technician Commitment. This account draws on years of personal records, reflective journals and research notebooks maintained through my doctoral journal, which itself coincided with the timeframe of the Commitment. The remainder of the research design is based on a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews in seven institutions implementing the Commitment, selected because of their different starting points, position in the sector and approach to implementation. The interviews explore the lived experiences of the Technician Commitment leads who are quite differently positioned, supported and empowered in their organisations. The thesis examines the positioning of technicians within universities prior to the introduction of the Technician Commitment and explores the institutional motivations for engagement. The research explores the initial impact of the Commitment and analyses how various enabling factors and practices have led to some positive change for the technical community. My professional and scholarly work is rooted in pragmatist ontological traditions that do not align strongly with a particular philosophical tradition and understanding of reality. Therefore my approach to this research analysis is inspired by the principles of grounded theory, in particular constructivist grounded theory (CGT). The thesis culminates in a novel conceptual framework for understanding the implementation of the Commitment. This framework resonates with theory of change models that have becoming increasingly common in the design and evaluation of large scale organisational and system change over recent years. Although the Technician Commitment intervention was not designed on the basis of a theory of change, I have come to understand that this approach is particularly relevant and so use my conceptual framework to develop a logic model. The thesis concludes by identifying issues for future research and policymaking, and also draws parallels between the Technician Commitment and other UK higher education sector initiatives that are attempting to drive positive change, such as the UK Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Athena Swan and Race Equality Charters. I consider how the analytical framework could be used more widely to explain how institutions experience and enact such sector wide concordats, charters and commitments, and to demonstrate some of the key drivers and enablers for influencing change in higher education institutions

The Technician Commitment: its emergence, enactment and impact

Technicians, who are often referred to as an ‘invisible workforce’, are key to research and teaching in universities. Given that a thriving technical workforce is critical to achieving the UK government’s post-Brexit ambitions for research and development, including making Britain a science superpower, the UK higher education sector needs improved knowledge and insight of its technical workforce. Historically, roles have been ill-defined and technicians’ contributions to the sector have not been well understood. Furthermore, an aging technical workforce means that large numbers of highly-skilled technicians are retiring every year with insufficient attention being paid to attracting a new generation of technicians to the sector. Consequently, recent reports have highlighted a shortage of technicians across all sectors in the UK. This thesis arises from a sustained programme of research, advocacy and national change leadership in support of the technician workforce in universities. In particular, the thesis explores the emergence, enactment and impact of a sector-wide intervention to improve the culture and environment for technicians working in UK higher education and research – the ‘Technician Commitment’. The Commitment was introduced and widely adopted in 2017 with the aims of enhancing visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians, technologists and skills specialists working in higher education and research. It was hoped that this in turn would help to improve recruitment and retention of younger technicians. I was centrally involved in the genesis, development and launch of this initiative and this thesis offers unique insights into how such initiatives work, reflects on the advantages and disadvantages of being an insider researcher, and considers the challenges of aligning research and practice. This study syntheses the literatures on technicians working in higher education. It begins with an analysis of literatures that examine technician roles in the history of science, proceeding to the developments in universities through the late 20th century, and then to current trends in an ever changing higher education landscape. The review explores both the international and national literatures on technicians working in higher education and the recent wider sector focus on improving research cultures. An important contribution of the thesis is an autoethnographic exploration of the events and experiences that led to the emergence of the Technician Commitment. This account draws on years of personal records, reflective journals and research notebooks maintained through my doctoral journal, which itself coincided with the timeframe of the Commitment. The remainder of the research design is based on a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews in seven institutions implementing the Commitment, selected because of their different starting points, position in the sector and approach to implementation. The interviews explore the lived experiences of the Technician Commitment leads who are quite differently positioned, supported and empowered in their organisations. The thesis examines the positioning of technicians within universities prior to the introduction of the Technician Commitment and explores the institutional motivations for engagement. The research explores the initial impact of the Commitment and analyses how various enabling factors and practices have led to some positive change for the technical community. My professional and scholarly work is rooted in pragmatist ontological traditions that do not align strongly with a particular philosophical tradition and understanding of reality. Therefore my approach to this research analysis is inspired by the principles of grounded theory, in particular constructivist grounded theory (CGT). The thesis culminates in a novel conceptual framework for understanding the implementation of the Commitment. This framework resonates with theory of change models that have becoming increasingly common in the design and evaluation of large scale organisational and system change over recent years. Although the Technician Commitment intervention was not designed on the basis of a theory of change, I have come to understand that this approach is particularly relevant and so use my conceptual framework to develop a logic model. The thesis concludes by identifying issues for future research and policymaking, and also draws parallels between the Technician Commitment and other UK higher education sector initiatives that are attempting to drive positive change, such as the UK Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Athena Swan and Race Equality Charters. I consider how the analytical framework could be used more widely to explain how institutions experience and enact such sector wide concordats, charters and commitments, and to demonstrate some of the key drivers and enablers for influencing change in higher education institutions

Understanding university technicians’ role in creating knowledge exchange routines and capabilities: a research agenda

Knowledge exchange (KE) is becoming a strategic imperative for universities globally. Research examining KE has tended to focus on a limited and select group of stakeholders. This paper builds on calls for a wider consideration of KE activities and other contributors to the KE agenda. The technical community is one such group that has received little attention or acknowledgement of their part in KE. We argue that the technical community makes a significant yet overlooked contribution to a broad array of KE activities. Technicians are problem solvers that often undertake work that their academic counterparts could not do—as users and managers of complex equipment to enable innovation. To date the literature provides limited understanding of the technician’s role and a lack of conceptualization of the contribution of technicians in KE. Adopting a micro-foundation approach, we present a conceptual framework which draws on the multi-level categories of individuals, processes and structures. We take a broader perspective of KE by including activities such as working with external businesses, enabling access to facilities and providing analysis, and contributing to public engagement and training. By synthesizing contemporary research with recent policy work we reveal the potential contribution of technician’s talent, know-how and boundary spanning activities. We conclude with a structured agenda and conceptual framework to help guide future research, showing how investigating the integration of individual, process and structural factors affecting technicians can help reveal new insights into KE capability development at the university level

Methionine Adenosyltransferase 1a (MAT1A) Enhances Cell Survival During Chemotherapy Treatment and is Associated with Drug Resistance in Bladder Cancer PDX Mice.

Bladder cancer is among the top ten most common cancers, with about ~380,000 new cases and ~150,000 deaths per year worldwide. Tumor relapse following chemotherapy treatment has long been a significant challenge towards completely curing cancer. We have utilized a patient-derived bladder cancer xenograft (PDX) platform to characterize molecular mechanisms that contribute to relapse following drug treatment in advanced bladder cancer. Transcriptomic profiling of bladder cancer xenograft tumors by RNA-sequencing analysis, before and after relapse, following a 21-day cisplatin/gemcitabine drug treatment regimen identified methionine adenosyltransferase 1a (MAT1A) as one of the significantly upregulated genes following drug treatment. Survey of patient tumor sections confirmed elevated levels of MAT1A in individuals who received chemotherapy. Overexpression of MAT1A in 5637 bladder cancer cells increased tolerance to gemcitabine and stalled cell proliferation rates, suggesting MAT1A upregulation as a potential mechanism by which bladder cancer cells persist in a quiescent state to evade chemotherapy

α-Tocopherols modify the membrane dipole potential leading to modulation of ligand binding by P-glycoprotein

Journal ArticleThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ASBMB via the DOI in this record.α-Tocopherol (vitamin E) has attracted considerable attention as a potential protective or palliative agent. In vitro, its free radical-scavenging antioxidant action has been widely demonstrated. In vivo, however, vitamin E treatment exhibits negligible benefits against oxidative stress. α-Tocopherol influences lipid ordering within biological membranes and its derivatives have been suggested to inhibit the multi-drug efflux pump, P-glycoprotein (P-gp). This study employs the fluorescent membrane probe, 1-(3-sulfonatopropyl)-4-[β[2-(di-n-octylamino)-6-naphthyl]vinyl] pyridinium betaine, to investigate whether these effects are connected via influences on the membrane dipole potential (MDP), an intrinsic property of biological membranes previously demonstrated to modulate P-gp activity. α-Tocopherol and its non-free radical-scavenging succinate analog induced similar decreases in the MDP of phosphatidylcholine vesicles. α-Tocopherol succinate also reduced the MDP of T-lymphocytes, subsequently decreasing the binding affinity of saquinavir for P-gp. Additionally, α-tocopherol succinate demonstrated a preference for cholesterol-treated (membrane microdomain enriched) cells over membrane cholesterol-depleted cells. Microdomain disruption via cholesterol depletion decreased saquinavir's affinity for P-gp, potentially implicating these structures in the influence of α-tocopherol succinate on P-gp. This study provides evidence of a microdomain dipole potential-dependent mechanism by which α-tocopherol analogs influence P-gp activity. These findings have implications for the use of α-tocopherol derivatives for drug delivery across biological barriers

Practical detection of a definitive biomarker panel for Alzheimer's disease: comparisons between matched plasma and cerebrospinal fluid

Previous mass spectrometry analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has allowed the identification of a panel of molecular markers that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The panel comprises Amyloid beta, Apolipoprotein E, Fibrinogen alpha chain precursor, Keratin type I cytoskeletal 9, Serum albumin precursor, SPARC-like 1 protein and Tetranectin. Here we report the development and implementation of immunoassays to measure the abundance and diagnostic capacity of these putative biomarkers in matched lumbar CSF and blood plasma samples taken in life from individuals confirmed at post-mortem as suffering from AD (n=10) and from screened ‘cognitively healthy’ subjects (n=18). The inflammatory components of Alzheimer’s disease were also investigated. Employment of supervised learning techniques permitted examination of the interrelated expression patterns of the putative biomarkers and identified inflammatory components, resulting in biomarker panels with a diagnostic accuracy of 87.5% and 86.7% for the plasma and CSF datasets respectively. This is extremely important as it offers an ideal high-throughput and relatively inexpensive population screening approach. It appears possible to determine the presence or absence of AD based on our biomarker panel and it seems likely that a cheap and rapid blood test for AD is feasible

Practical detection of a definitive biomarker panel for Alzheimer's disease: comparisons between matched plasma and cerebrospinal fluid

Previous mass spectrometry analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has allowed the identification of a panel of molecular markers that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The panel comprises Amyloid beta, Apolipoprotein E, Fibrinogen alpha chain precursor, Keratin type I cytoskeletal 9, Serum albumin precursor, SPARC-like 1 protein and Tetranectin. Here we report the development and implementation of immunoassays to measure the abundance and diagnostic capacity of these putative biomarkers in matched lumbar CSF and blood plasma samples taken in life from individuals confirmed at post-mortem as suffering from AD (n=10) and from screened ‘cognitively healthy’ subjects (n=18). The inflammatory components of Alzheimer’s disease were also investigated. Employment of supervised learning techniques permitted examination of the interrelated expression patterns of the putative biomarkers and identified inflammatory components, resulting in biomarker panels with a diagnostic accuracy of 87.5% and 86.7% for the plasma and CSF datasets respectively. This is extremely important as it offers an ideal high-throughput and relatively inexpensive population screening approach. It appears possible to determine the presence or absence of AD based on our biomarker panel and it seems likely that a cheap and rapid blood test for AD is feasible

Chapter Ten - Informing marine spatial planning decisions with environmental DNA

Marine management areas provide a key tool for efforts towards sustainable development, reconciling socio-economic goals with those for biodiversity conservation. Decisions about where and when to establish spatial management areas in the oceans are currently hampered by the uncertainties of incomplete, or overly general, information about biodiversity. The analysis of environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a potentially powerful tool to overcome this lack of data in the future. Here we present directions to develop robust approaches to integrate eDNA and spatial planning processes, aiming to provide guidance to underpin tool development. The potential of eDNA use in conservation is widely recognised, although direct applications almost exclusively focus on detection of invasive or threatened species and not spatial management decisions. The implementation of broader interaction between the fields of conservation science and eDNA analysis could create substantial benefits to biodiversity conservation and management. In particular, eDNA analysis can provide information on biodiversity over spatial-temporal scales that are currently prohibitive in spatial planning studies. Here, we provide an overview of how eDNA is currently used in conservation practice, in addition to understanding its limitations and benefits within the context of spatial planning. With the goal to harness rapid technological developments in both molecular and conservation sciences, we provide a horizon scan of the future of eDNA analysis and its application to inform biodiversity conservation in a rapidly changing world

Determinants of recovery from post-COVID-19 dyspnoea: analysis of UK prospective cohorts of hospitalised COVID-19 patients and community-based controls

Background The risk factors for recovery from COVID-19 dyspnoea are poorly understood. We investigated determinants of recovery from dyspnoea in adults with COVID-19 and compared these to determinants of recovery from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea. Methods We used data from two prospective cohort studies: PHOSP-COVID (patients hospitalised between March 2020 and April 2021 with COVID-19) and COVIDENCE UK (community cohort studied over the same time period). PHOSP-COVID data were collected during hospitalisation and at 5-month and 1-year follow-up visits. COVIDENCE UK data were obtained through baseline and monthly online questionnaires. Dyspnoea was measured in both cohorts with the Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify determinants associated with a reduction in dyspnoea between 5-month and 1-year follow-up. Findings We included 990 PHOSP-COVID and 3309 COVIDENCE UK participants. We observed higher odds of improvement between 5-month and 1-year follow-up among PHOSP-COVID participants who were younger (odds ratio 1.02 per year, 95% CI 1.01–1.03), male (1.54, 1.16–2.04), neither obese nor severely obese (1.82, 1.06–3.13 and 4.19, 2.14–8.19, respectively), had no pre-existing anxiety or depression (1.56, 1.09–2.22) or cardiovascular disease (1.33, 1.00–1.79), and shorter hospital admission (1.01 per day, 1.00–1.02). Similar associations were found in those recovering from non-COVID-19 dyspnoea, excluding age (and length of hospital admission). Interpretation Factors associated with dyspnoea recovery at 1-year post-discharge among patients hospitalised with COVID-19 were similar to those among community controls without COVID-19. Funding PHOSP-COVID is supported by a grant from the MRC-UK Research and Innovation and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) rapid response panel to tackle COVID-19. The views expressed in the publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service (NHS), the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. COVIDENCE UK is supported by the UK Research and Innovation, the National Institute for Health Research, and Barts Charity. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funders