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Boluwatife Ajibola

Boluwatife Ajibola

Profile

As Deputy School Manager (Research) for the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, my work straddles three core areas:

  • Research management
  • Impact management, and
  • Supporting the School Manager in managing the School’s Management and Administration Support Service (MASS).

On the research and impact side, I work with researchers within the school and external stakeholders to implement the School’s research and impact strategies. I co-develop and support the delivery of the School’s research and impact strategy, working with the Director of Research and Innovation, Director of Impact, the REF Unit of Assessment Leads and the Faculty research management colleagues. I manage the curation of internal and external funding opportunities and support the capture and delivery of grants. This further involves promoting impact literacy in the school and supporting academics in building impact into their research, as well as training on impact tracking and evaluation. I am a member of the School Research and Innovation Committee, as well as the Impact Advisory board, where in addition to contributing, I support overall administration, manage communications, and liaise between the groups and other teams within the university.

I support the School Manager in areas of marketing, research communications, human resources and budget approvals, among others. A core part of the research communications aspect is the promotion of research done within the school as well as the impact of those research. As such, I interact with the works of academics, in collaboration with internal university marketing and communication teams, to give soundings to our research and impact, not leaving out the quality of our teaching.

Qualifications and Experience

I have a background in Political Science (First Class) from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and a Masters degree in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics, UK.

Before moving into research and impact management, I worked as a researcher on projects funded by, for example, the defunct UK Department for International Development, US President’s Malaria Initiative for States (US PMI-S), International Council for Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Before these, I had worked as a Research and Administrative Assistant at Redeemer’s University, Nigeria. Additionally, subsequent to completing an Entrepreneurship Development Training – a programme funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria and implemented by the Africa Leadership Forum – I expanded by experience working as a Business and Leadership Consultant.

Research interests

My research interest cuts across areas of social movement studies, international development, Information and Communication Technologies for Development, and governance. Some of my recent publications have explored theoretical and practical dimensions to the targeting of legislatures by protesters, as well as how state actors respond to protest violence. I have presented my research at various international conferences, including conferences organised by the Development Studies Association, UK; Political Studies Association, UK; Southern Political Studies Association, USA; and Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, among others, some of which were fully funded.

In the future, I would be interested to engage with, and collaborate on, projects, activities and training on research impact and informing policy through research. Completing short courses, such as the Policy Engagement Kickstart, and Building Impact into Research here at the University of Leeds has sparked my interest in exploring several possibilities in policy and research impact domains. Happy to connect and collaborate with people that share similar interests. Please do get in touch.

Publications

Book Contributions

Opinion pieces