[Portrait] Valérie Salin, Administrative Manager of UMR 7300 ESPACE

What is your job?

I studied law and started my career in the legal department of a public research organisation. Subsequently, I held a number of different positions, for example in an HR department, but always in the public research sector.

My current role is to coordinating the laboratory's administrative and financial activities (UMR 7300 Study of Structures and Processes of Adaptation and Change in Space - ESPACE), consolidate data from our four sites, ensure compliance with procedures and regulations, etc.

What is its link with Research?

The overall objective is toprovide support for research staff the laboratory on aspects that are not their core business, in particular by interfacing with central services, for example when drawing up a partnership agreement. All the data (financial, HR, administrative, etc.) that I include in my dashboards are linked to the laboratory's research activities. Although I don't take part in this research myself, I try to facilitate it and simplify interactions between researchers and administration.

What does it mean to you to work at a university?

It's a new experience, as I've always worked in research organisations before, so without the teaching and student life dimension.
So I had to familiarise myself with this new environment, which is specific both from a regulatory point of view and because of the very open nature of an establishment welcoming students, which makes it a very dynamic place.
On a more general level, I started out in public research by chance, but I was immediately attracted by this context ofinnovation and by the passion that some researchers put into their work.

What advice would you give to people who want to work in research support?

You have to get to grips with the day-to-day life and constraints of researchers and lecturers. They are generally overworked and not very keen on administrative procedures... 😊 Flexibility, autonomy, anticipation are essential, as is the ability to deal with emergencies and unforeseen events of all kinds. The working day rarely goes as planned! 😊 But it's a very rich and stimulating environment.

What object or image from your business best illustrates you?

Juggling the day's various tasks without losing sight of emergencies, priorities and core missions...