Supporting a positive research culture

The report from a two-year study of research culture at the University has been published.

Over the last few years there has been a progressive move towards thinking about the way the quality of our research environment is judged, not only by its outputs, but also in the way that we conduct and support research.

With many universities responding to the call for action to improve research culture, the University Committee for Research and Innovation (UCRI) decided to ask our research community what it defined as a positive culture and how it perceived our research culture in order to understand the actions we can take to improve it.

Led by Kevin Money, Carola Hillenbrand, Sam Lawal and Natalya Radko from Henley Business School, focus group discussions were followed by a survey of academic and professional services staff.

The study revealed a coherent picture and shared understanding of research culture by staff and clear consistencies between perceptions of academic staff and professional services staff. There were some broadly positive messages about research excellence, impact, collaboration and integrity and on the whole, colleagues perceived their working environment to be collaborative and cooperative.

The findings indicate that both academic and professional services staff identify IT/technical support, perceptions of fairness, and time for research/research support as low rated areas of their lived experiences of research culture, with academic participants rating time for research particularly low.

Academic staff indicate a lived experience free from bullying and harassment, followed by perceptions of excellence and collaboration as their highest ratings. The two highest scores for professional services staff are for a lived experience free from bullying and harassment and perceptions of excellence, followed by perceptions of research integrity, impact and ambition.

Professor Parveen Yaqoob, Pro-Vice Chancellor Research & Innovation said: “The opportunity to take stock of how researchers and research support colleagues perceive research culture at the University has been immensely valuable. We are dedicated to creating a positive research environment that is supportive, collaborative, ambitious and fair, providing equality of opportunity and which values and recognises the contributions of everyone that is engaged with it.

“This work has enabled us to understand what research culture means to our community and we now have a duty to respond to the issues raised. We will do this through a programme of engagement and activity, which we will develop through consultation and co-production. We all have a role to play in supporting a positive research culture and this report is intended to encourage open dialogue about how we achieve it.”

Results of the survey have been summarised and presented to senior leaders at the University of Reading, with the insights being used to improve research culture. We are currently recruiting a Research Culture Manager who will play a key role in developing and implementing a long-term institutional strategy that will make a positive impact on the University’s research culture.

Download Perceptions of Research Culture at the University of Reading.