IRCC26 Conference Programme - Wednesday 23rd September

Location:OC0.01

Facilitators: Taryn Bell and Hanna Groothuizen

Research culture is increasingly featured in grant applications, but its real impact depends on what happens after funding is awarded. If commitments to team working, career development, inclusion, open research and responsible leadership are assessed only at application stage, they risk becoming part of winning funding rather than delivering research.

Building on Monday’s funder panel, this workshop will bring together participants from universities and funding organisations to explore how research culture commitments can be sustained throughout the post-award grant cycle. Focusing on award set-up, project delivery, monitoring, reporting and future funding decisions, participants will consider accountability, incentives and proportionate follow-up.

The session will produce a co-created set of practical principles, accountability mechanisms and shared responsibilities for institutions and funders.

Location: OC0.02

Facilitators: Sarah Masefield, Amy Mayfield, Cathal Rogers

This challenge-led workshop will bring together the research culture community to explore approaches to data capture and evaluation, while providing a peer-learning space for participants looking to build skills and confidence. The session will begin with presentations from Taru Silvonen (University of Bristol) on evaluating research culture projects and support needs; Jayne Hope (University of Edinburgh) on research culture and EDI data, benchmarking and evaluation; and Adam Partridge, Suz Garrard and Maedbh King (Trinity College Dublin) on research culture data capture and evaluation across disciplinary contexts.

Participants will then join a world café discussion on the challenges and opportunities of generating and using research culture evidence and insight. Coordinated by the RCEN Data Capture and Evaluation Working Group.

Location: OC0.04
Facilitators: Rika Nair, Alys Kay, Julia Schoonover, Shareefa Fadhel, Louise Saul

Research depends on many contributions that often remain hidden or under recognised within current research systems. This interactive session will explore how we can make these invisible contributions more visible and valued. It will begin with a facilitated discussion and short panel bringing together diverse perspectives on recognition in research. Speakers will highlight contributors at the interface of academia and society, including independent researchers, community partners, and others whose expertise may not always be formally acknowledged. The session will also recognise the crucial contributions of research professionals and research methodologists.

Participants will hear emerging findings from the Research Culture Enablers Network Working Group, which is examining reward and recognition practices across the UK to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement.

A collaborative mapping activity will encourage collective reflection, identify priorities for change, and generate practical actions to support more inclusive, equitable, and comprehensive approaches to recognising the full range of contributions that enable excellent research. h.

Space: OC1.01
Facilitators: Elena Riva, Amber Tout, Tania Maria Villanueva Cabello

Researcher wellbeing and healthy research cultures are increasingly recognised as global priorities, yet institutional responses vary across contexts. This interactive workshop will bring together researchers, research culture practitioners, professional services colleagues, and institutional leaders to share experiences and learn from one another.

The session will begin with emerging findings from Warwick’s Re-Well programme, including a UK study exploring organisational drivers of researcher wellbeing and occupational stress, alongside a mapping exercise of institutional responses across higher education. These findings will provide a platform for discussion and comparison.

Through facilitated discussions and collaborative activities, participants will explore approaches to wellbeing, workload, inclusion, career development, and research culture, identifying lessons learned, evidence gaps, and effective practices. The workshop will foster international exchange, future collaborations, and comparative research opportunities, and will conclude with an arts-based wellbeing activity led by Warwick’s Words4Wellbeing team.

Location: OC1.04
Facilitators: Vicky Strudwick, Karisha George, Aaron Andrews, Abimbola Ayorinde, Etlyn Kenny, Jasdeep Singh

Drawing on examples of pilot interventions and emerging frameworks for addressing racial inequity in research environments, participants will explore the structural, cultural and procedural barriers that can limit progress, as well as gaps in existing policies, support mechanisms and institutional approaches. Through facilitated discussion and collaborative problem-solving, they will identify priorities for action and opportunities for shared learning across organisations. These insights will be used to co-create a practical action plan, setting out recommendations, responsibilities and next steps for accelerating collective progress towards more equitable and inclusive research cultures.

Location: OC1.06
Facilitators: Rachel Lewis; Miranda Raven; Annie Bryan; Courtney Crocco; Ayten Alibaba; Harriet Richmond; John MacArtney

A positive research culture depends on creating environments where all researchers can thrive. While frameworks such as the Vitae Research Culture Framework recognise that risk-taking, setbacks and failure are integral to research, the systemic impacts of non-success remain underexplored. This workshop will examine how failure is experienced and understood across research environments, moving beyond individual wellbeing to consider relational, structural and cultural dimensions.

Participants will share practical examples of initiatives that address the wider impacts of rejection, setbacks and non-success, and explore how responsibility can be more effectively shared across institutions. Using creative, participatory methods, the workshop will co-produce recommendations for embedding healthier approaches to failure and fostering a more supportive and inclusive research culture.

Location: OC1.08

Facilitators: Felicity Boardman, Kirstie Haywood, Helen Luckhurst, Sophie Staniszewska, Helen Wheatley

This workshop will begin by reviewing what is known about the competencies required for conducting public, patient and community involvement (PPCI) in health and care research. We will then explore with delegates the similarities and differences to other disciplines.

Delegates will discuss the following questions:

·What skills and knowledge are required for PPCI across all disciplines, and which ones are particular to certain fields?

·Which competencies are relevant to professional services roles and do these vary by the area or type of research?

·What factors affect people’s confidence in conducting PPCI?

·Which competencies are likely to be more useful in creating sustainable collaboration?

Location: OC1.09

Facilitators: Dr Federica Coluzzi; Jason Snow; Dr Scott Summers; James Parry

Artificial intelligence is already influencing how research is designed, carried out, evaluated and communicated. It is becoming clear that responsible adoption of AI depends on research culture: the relationships, values, practices and policies that shape how AI is understood and used.

In this interactive 90-minute workshop, we will explore how AI is reshaping the ways that researchers and research professionals connect, communicate and collaborate within and across research. Drawing on emerging evidence and shared real-world experiences, we will examine the opportunities, tensions and trade-offs that AI creates for key research culture priorities, including community, belonging, inclusion, and accessibility. Participants will then consider how these changing practices challenge institutions to rethink their approaches to AI practices, policies and governance; to enable them to maintain integrity in research when AI is used.

Through discussion, reflection and practical examples, we will invite participants to explore how their own institutions can shape AI-enabled research cultures and governance that strengthen, rather than diminish, collaboration, human connection and research integrity.