Skills Required for Managing Research Equipment

Abstract

Skilled instrument staff ranging from scientists, operators, technicians and engineers can enhance safety, productivity and extend the lifespan of equipment, as well as its components in addition to generating new knowledge and innovation. Skilled staff remains a critical and scarce resource in many countries including South Africa. For instance, discussions across the globe on this subject have revealed that instrumentation staff are not only a scarce skill, but are the hardest positions to fill in any research institution. Considering the scarcity of skillful staff, it becomes increasingly difficult to attract and retain such experts. 5.1 Staff Scientists Staff scientists are usually responsible for managing labs, facilities (e.g. radio telescope), or specific equipment (e.g. microscopes.) with the intent to acquire new knowledge through research. These experts tend to be academically qualified, typically with a doctoral qualification and tend to be employed on academic grades, such as associate or full professors. In general, staff scientist lead research programmes and investigations, generate data, interpret the data and publish manuscripts. Additionally, staff scientists (i) train students; (ii) pursue grant applications; (iii) generate publications; (iv) develop new innovations, techniques, systems and methodological protocols; and (v) operate and maintain the research equipment. 5.2 Operators In addition to the staff scientist, an operator plays a key role in managing the research equipment. One of the key roles of an operator is that of training and advising postgraduate students, researchers, postdoctoral fellows and other users on how to utilise