The new My Warwick Life feature gives an insight into staff and students’ life at Warwick, considering both their work and social life on campus.

Here we hear from Laura Downey, GR:EEN Programme Manager at the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation.

There’s no such thing as a typical day, but, in a nutshell, my job involves…

research programme management is a very varied and exciting job, so everyday really is different for me! My general responsibilities for the GR:EEN project (www.greenfp7.eu) , which explores the role of Europe in the emerging global order, are to manage the project’s research outputs and finances, publicise and promote the project, manage the website and e-communications and manage the relationship between the project and its funders- the European Commission. GR:EEN is a €10 million project which will run for four years and so it requires a lot of time and attention! We have 16 partner institutions all across the world, from Belgium to Japan, and so a lot of my time is spent travelling amongst these partners, advising on financial and research management issues. The best part of my job is the opportunity to travel and meet interesting people and this alone makes the daily challenges rewarding and worthwhile!

I had a really useful meeting recently with …

our GR:EEN colleagues in Milan at the Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale. We are currently planning our first annual conference event which is scheduled to take place in Milan next February. These planning meetings are invaluable with this scale of event and we all benefitted from the trip.

I recently attended an event where …

our colleagues at UNU-CRIS in Bruges hosted the first ever GR:EEN impact instigation event. These events are intended to challenge early level research at the primary stages to ensure that the final output is valuable and reflects the needs and concerns of our stakeholders. This first event was a real success and saw the participation of several notable scholars in the field of regional leadership.

Warwick’s unique because…

everyone I work with is open minded, fair and trusting.

The best thing about working at Warwick is…

the constant opportunity for staff development and training. The Learning and Development Centre offers a wide range of useful and valuable courses. Through them I have been able to take the PRINCE2 project management method qualification, general management courses and even a Meyers- Briggs personality test!

I used my Warwick Learning Account vouchers for…

A Spanish course to refresh my knowledge from my undergraduate years. As well as being an enjoyable weekly activity, it also helps me to improve communications with our Spanish speaking partners in Argentina and Spain.

I recently had lunch at…

The Dirty Duck - it's a regular for our staff lunches! It provides a welcome break from the office and business environment whilst still being only a two minute walk from the office.

I usually travel to campus by…

car share with a colleague from the department. It is an environmentally friendly option and it saves us both some money! It was easy to arrange through the Warwick car share programme and we now have one of the prime car parking spaces too!

I make use of …

the library for my continued study and research. . It has a great business, HR and management section on the fifth floor. The library is an excellent resource but I think people forget that it as a place for staff as well as students