Guidance for InRA Recruitment

Recruiting into the InRA Role

Recruiting Innovation Research Associates (InRAs) requires particular care, as the role differs significantly from a traditional Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) position. To ensure a fair, transparent, and well‑informed process, it is important that everyone involved – panel members, PIs, line managers, and support staff all understand the unique features of the InRA role, its working environment, and the expectations associated with it. The guidance below outlines key considerations, examples of good practice, and illustrative interview styles used across different teams to support effective and equitable recruitment.

Some key differences to consider:

  • The work environment – Where PDRAs will often be embedded in a research group with others in their discipline, InRAs will work across a variety of projects with people from a range of different backgrounds and disciplines. 
  • Promotion Pathway – InRA promotion pathway is something that should be considered before hiring into the role, the skills and speciality required for the role doesn’t perfectly align to a traditional academic promotion path. (e.g focus on impact research support rather than a coherent research portfolio). 
  • The management structure – The InRA’s line manager will be with them for the duration of their employment, but they will have a PI for each project they work on.

Good practice for Interviews

  • Sharing interview questions in advance helps create a level playing field for all applicants and improves accessibility for neurodivergent candidates.
    • Ensure clarity that there might be follow-on questions that are not shared in advance.
  • Clear role descriptions are important, especially for the newly emerging dRTP InRA position. They also help set expectations when recruiting PIs and collaborators.
  • Clearly state the criteria against which each interview question will be assessed.
  • For technical/knowledge questions  it’s important that expectations of additional work and expected answer style is made clear. By this we mean if you’re asking for on the spot thinking, the expectation should be an on the spot answer. If you want a more thought out answer then it’s good practice to give candidates proportional time to prepare (and if sending information in advance then state the expected time to be spent e.g. “we would expect no more than 10 minutes spent considering this problem”.)

Example Interview Style and Questions

IMI:
The IMI present a short video, then proceed with a standard interview panel.

  • You’ve watched in advance the short video with Beate. Please summarise in 1-2 minutes what you think the MIRA role entails.
  •  Give a brief summary of your career up to this point and its relevance to fitting with the MIRA role.
  • Why have you applied for this job and why now?
  • Give an example of work you’ve done that has had the most impact in an area of application and what was the impact?
  • Tell us about a previous project that you really enjoyed and what you enjoyed about it?
  • Tell us about a project that didn’t go so well and what did you do to address it?
  • Often, we are approached by non-mathematical colleagues with research problems that might at first seem quite straightforward. One of the aims of IMI is to develop our engagement with such projects into more mathematically substantial pieces of work that could potentially form a work package in a proposal.
    [Provide a short summary of a potential project that could involve a MIRA including the component requiring MIRA expertise.] How might you approach this problem methodologically and in terms of questions you would ask?
  • Any questions for us?

CAMaCS:
CAMaCS has introduced an assessment centre-style interview process that starts with a classic interview, where the questions are shared in advance with candidates. There are some follow-on questions depending on the answer of the candidates that are not shared in advance. Typical questions:

  • Give a brief summary of your understanding of the InRA role, and why you have applied.
  • Give a brief summary of your career up until this point and its relevance to the InRA role.
  • Tell us about a previous project and what you enjoyed about it.
  • Tell us about a project that didn’t go well, and what you did to address any issues.
  • Any questions for the panel?

Following the interview the candidates meet the existing InRA team who present a case study. A typical case study is shared in advance with the candidates so they know what to expect. The InRA team presents the problem and answers any follow-up questions, helps the candidate to translate the company problem into a mathematical problem, and to think of various ways of addressing these. Then the candidates are asked to use the information presented in the case study text, information and guidance picked up from the InRA team, and present the problem and methods on how they would approach this problem/what their immediate thoughts are.