Shane Griffin joins NTDC as International Specialist Advisor

Western Sydney University (WSU) have been an active Partner Affiliate with the NTDC for 4 years and growing the collaboration and relationship with our technical colleagues in Australia has been an important area for the NTDC. Shane Griffin and the technical team at WSU are fully engaged with activities and opportunities presented to partners from attending events, to successful funding applications for projects such as 'Equipment Monitoring using a Visual Dashboard' as well as running the NTDC Technician Survey. We are pleased to announce that Shane Griffin has joined the NTDC as International Specialist Advisor. Having Shane on board to represent us and promote the benefits and impact of our services to support more technical colleagues in the Australian region is a key priority area for us. 

About Shane:

Shane Griffin – Director of Teaching & Research Technical Services (TRTS) – Western Sydney University

Shane is a scientist and his speciality is chromatography and mass spectroscopy. Shane came to Western Sydney University after 10 years in pharmaceutical research and manufacturing. He has spent the last 15 years working Western Sydney. His first role was as a Technical Manager for the School of Science and Health.

In late 2017 Western Sydney decided to make a strategic change to how it approached its school and institute based services and moved to a shared service model where the majority of technical staff were amalgamated into a central department. TRTS currently has approximately 120 technical staff located across 9 campus locations around western Sydney. Within its staffing profile TRTS has a myriad of technical specialists with backgrounds across discipline areas such as Education, Communications, Art, Science, Engineering, Nursing, Medicine, Paramedicine . In this model technical staff are still outposted to various Schools and Research Institutes but are organised into discipline clusters and individual teams that are centrally managed.

Moving to a centralised model has some challenges but has also presented some unique and excellent opportunities. The main challenge in the early days of TRTS was to create an identity and mission that all technical staff could relate to so as to truly bring them together. One of the main advantages of moving to a centralised model is size and visibility. In this model technical staff are now represented at the top management levels of the University. This allows better promotion of what technical staff do and the importance of their role in the support of practical teaching and research support. Being a larger organisation also allows for more opportunities for individual staff in career pathways, cross training, higher duties opportunities etc.

Since inception in 2017 TRTS has maintained a high quality standard of technical support and  has been regularly recognised within the university as one of the most reliable, helpful, collegial and innovative centralised business units with Western Sydney University.