Amidst the celebrations of major grant successes, high-impact journal publications, and prestigious fellowships, failure is not always visible in academia. Newcastle University’s research community has identified 'failure' and its stigmatisation in the academic environment as a significant issue impacting their research culture and we want this to change.

To highlight the prevalence and normality of failure, the Newcastle Research Culture and Funding Development Teams have launched the ‘Failing Forward’ project. The project includes a video series of accomplished academics sharing their personal experiences with failure and importantly, their advice on how they handle it (Failing Forward video seriesLink opens in a new window). We hope these videos can be used as a tool to start conversations about the topic more openly in future. However, we recognise that these videos won’t solve the problem alone and there is more that we can do, not least in addressing the topic for non-academic members of our research community. Join us for this interactive session to hear more about the project and crucially to share your ideas about how we as a community, and as members of our own institutions, can help to destigmatise failure in the research environment.