PD Sessions @ Zoom: How to deal with Tricky Researchers

Join an engaging ARMS professional development panel discussion exploring how to navigate challenging interactions with researchers. Our panellists will share practical lessons on setting boundaries, managing expectations, using documentation and escalation pathways effectively, and building confidence when faced with difficult situations or complex power dynamics. Discover strategies for handling challenging behaviour professionally, avoiding over-apologising or over-servicing, and maintaining your wellbeing while delivering high-quality research management support.

Event Details

Date: Thursday, 29 Oct 2026

Time: 11:30AM - 1:00PM (Queensland)  / 12:30PM - 2:00PM AEDT (Check your timezone here.)

Format: Online via Zoom

Zoom Access: Provided in your confirmation email

Speaker(s)

Dr Noni Creasey - University of Queensland

Noni Creasey is Senior Manager, Major Initiatives, in the Research Office at The University of Queensland. She works across strategic research development, collaborative funding pathways, researcher engagement, and decision-making frameworks. Noni moved from research into research support around nine years ago, and has since worked across national research infrastructure, research development, and research management roles. This has given her a fairly broad collection of researcher behaviours to draw on, from the genuinely delightful through to the deeply character-building. Noni is particularly interested in how research management professionals and researchers can work together to navigate complexity, build trust, set clear expectations, and reach shared goals without losing sight of the people involved.

Merryn Ballantyne - Australian Cobotics Centre QUT

Merryn Ballantyne is Centre Manager of the Australian Cobotics Centre, an ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre administered by Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The Centre, in its final year of operation, includes 14 university and industry partners, more than 45 multidisciplinary researchers, and approximately $8 million in funding.

With over 15 years' experience across higher education, research and the public sector, Merryn specialises in bringing people together, translating ideas into structured initiatives, and creating the systems and processes that help collaboration succeed. Before moving into the research sector, she worked in university IT transformation and national healthcare recruitment, bringing together technical specialists, clinicians, project teams and professional staff to deliver complex programs. Those experiences shaped her belief that, whether working with surgeons, IT professionals or researchers, successful collaboration depends on understanding people as much as processes. She enjoys building trusted relationships, finding practical solutions to complex challenges, and helping researchers, industry and professional staff work towards shared goals.

Dr Ilaria Stefani - University of Queensland

Ilaria Stefani is Centre Manager for the Gas & Energy Transition Research Centre (UQGET) within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology at The University of Queensland. She works across research operations, strategic initiatives, partnerships, and financial and governance frameworks that support large-scale, multidisciplinary research.

Ilaria transitioned from research into research management over a decade ago, following a PhD and Postdoc position in biomedical engineering. Since then, she has held a range of roles across faculties, institutes, and central portfolios at UQ, building a broad perspective on how research actually happens on paper and in practice.

Her experience spans multimillion-dollar centre management, industry collaboration, and organisational leadership, giving her a healthy appreciation for both the delicate balance and the occasional chaos of the research ecosystem. Ilaria is particularly interested in fostering strong, inclusive teams, supporting researchers to navigate complexity, and creating systems that enable good ideas, and the people behind them, to thrive.

Dr James Reid - QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

Dr James Reid is a Senior Manager, Research Grants at QIMR Berghofer.   After nearly a decade in academia, he started his research administration journey at UQ, where he led MRFF pre- and post- award while also supporting major strategic rounds such as ARC Centres of Excellence and NHMRC Synergy and CRE.  Following that, he held a variety of management and specialist roles covering ARC, miscellaneous grants, early development and pipelining, as well as research contracting.  He then moved to the QIMR Berghofer grants office, where the exceptional team supports over 1000 scientists, staff, and students with grant applications, budgets, contracts, and administration.

Facilitator

Dr Graham Cuskelly - Griffith University

Graham Cuskelly is currently a Senior Research Development Officer with the Griffith University Office for Research and is based on the Gold Coast campus. Graham works predominantly in the support and development of nationally competitive research grants in the Sciences. Graham was granted an Emeritus Professorship by Griffith University after many years service including 9 years in research leadership and development as Dean (Research) in the Griffith Business School. As a research management neophyte he has relied on his academic career experience including CI roles on ARC Linkage projects to inform his practice as a research development professional.

Using Zoom

• To learn how to join a Zoom webinar click here.
• To learn about participant controls click here.
• If you need assistance with accessing Zoom at your office, please contact your organisation’s IT Support.
• We strongly recommend you test your ability to connect to Zoom prior to the session.

Questions

Contact the ARMS Executive Office:

•  ARMSAdmin@researchmanagement.org.au 
• +61 8 8201 5592