IGDC wins Professional@York Award 2018

Laura (IGDC Administrator) and Lauren (IGDC Research Support Officer) were nominated for the award for Outstanding Support for Research and Impact alongside 20 other support teams from across the university. The winners were announced at the award ceremony on the 13th December and we are delighted that the IGDC team won!

Here are some of the things that have been achieved with their help, and also with the support of the wider IGDC team and numerous other teams and individuals across the university:

‘Laura and Lauren were the first appointments when the IGDC opened in February 2018. Their first achievement was turning an empty seminar room with a leaking roof into a superb office for the new Centre in double quick time, ensuring it was painted and furnished and that there were spaces for quiet reading, study space, meeting visitors and desks and computers for the researchers who were about to arrive. They had only been in the job for a few short weeks when they took charge of organising other new appointments and settling us all into Derwent College. Since their first day - since their interviews even - they have provided outstanding support to the Centre, bringing fresh ideas, sensible advice, bowls of fruit and packets of biscuits whenever needed. They have set the positive and can-do tone that we all try to live up to in the Centre, and shaped its ethos and practices. It is thanks to their amazing team work that it all now works so well and has grown so quickly to over 80 members. Laura and Lauren have, together, helped shape our priorities and have set out the most efficient ways of working for everyone to work together. They have established and designed our brand, our logo, our twitter account and our external presence. The standards they set for all our marketing materials and for the website have garnered praise, and sometimes imitation, from colleagues across the University. Both have design backgrounds and used this to huge effect in ensuring that all our materials are amazing - and that they came in below budget!

Both Laura and Lauren have exceeded all expectations of what doing a fantastic job means. To offer just five illustrative examples:

1) the launch event for which they organised photographers, a video, external speakers, made sure everything ran on time and delivered a hugely important event for the Centre and the University.

2) the photography competition launched by IGDC in October 2018. This was their idea. They even approached local businesses to ensure that the prizes (£100 travel vouchers for example) are outstanding.

3) internships. The IGDC hosted four interns over the summer, supervised by Laura and Lauren. They interviewed them, managed them, trained them and cared for them.

4) a visit to a local school for children with disabilities, organised in super-fast time by Lauren when we had visitors from Brazil who wanted to better understand disability support in the UK. Lauren contacted the school, got all necessary permissions, organised transport and accompanied the visitors to the school.  

5) a school placements programme. Having successfully managed a first placement in summer 2018, they have led on plans for a regular school placement programme.'

The IGDC would like to offer its congratulations to both Laura and Lauren, a truly well deserved win for all their hardwork and achievements over the past year.