Today’s main focus was participating in the Mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Pengurusan (JKP) of the Research Management Centre (RMC), a vital platform for steering UTM’s research ecosystem towards greater impact.
The day began early, at 7:30 am, with me settling the Laporan Perkara Berbangkit (LPB) for the JKP RMC. This preparatory work was essential to ensure that every outstanding issue from the previous meeting was properly documented and ready for discussion.
At 2:00 pm, we convened in Bilik Mesyuarat 1, Aras 2, RMC for the Mesyuarat Pentadbiran Pusat Pengurusan Penyelidikan Bil. 11/2025. The session, which lasted until 6:00 pm, was packed with updates, approvals, and strategic deliberations.
The agenda reflected the breadth and depth of RMC’s role:
- Postdoctoral & Junior Visiting Researcher Reports – assessing talent contributions and outcomes.
- Blueprint@enVision 2025 Achievements – measuring progress towards our institutional research vision.
- Division Performance Updates – from Research University & Impact (RUID) to Governance (GD), ensuring every arm of RMC is aligned and delivering.
- Approval Requests – including the organization of a Data Analytics course using Google Sheet & Looker Studio, and operational matters such as office phone provisions.
- Outstanding Issues – tackling technical challenges like the RADIS system tickets and the closure of completed research grants.
- Other Matters – ranging from strategic workshop resolutions, budgetary needs, and NYR appointments to collaborative grant proposals and contract research criteria improvements.
The importance of this meeting cannot be overstated. It is here that several technical decisions within RMC’s scope and power are made to shape UTM’s research direction, resolve operational bottlenecks, and approve initiatives that strengthen our capabilities. Every discussion and decision has a ripple effect on research funding, execution, governance, and ultimately, impact.
Following the JKP RMC, we moved straight into the JKPBPP meeting, ensuring that the day’s momentum in research governance continued seamlessly.
By the end of the day, the hours of discussion and careful deliberation left me feeling both intellectually enriched and deeply aware of the collaborative effort it takes to keep a research institution running efficiently.
Some other tasks accomplished today include meeting with my ex-student, SG (image above), who has completed his bachelor Chemical Engineering studies and will fly to Australia early September 2025. I also had a discussion with my Postdoc about several projects, and also settled other RMC related tasks and also JKPD LPB.
#20242025 Day 042
#Monday
