RCEN members have identified the issues where collaboration across institutions and sectors could make the greatest difference to research culture.
The priorities show how closely different aspects of research culture are connected. Leadership affects psychological safety; assessment shapes what is recognised and rewarded, including explicitly rewarding those who invest time and effort in creating better cultures and environments; employment conditions influence wellbeing and career development; and lasting institutional change depends on the people and capacity available to deliver it.
Strengthen leadership and supervision practice across research. Support the development of talent at every career stage, including mentoring and responsible supervision of postgraduate researchers and early-career researchers, and creating collegial leaders in research.
Create environments where people feel able to speak up and challenge constructively. Address bullying, harassment and poor behaviour through clear, accessible reporting mechanisms and meaningful consequences. Tackle precarity and other systemic pressures affecting wellbeing, belonging and the ability to contribute fully.
Develop meaningful and proportionate ways to understand progress. Combine quantitative and qualitative evidence, interpret it in context and avoid measures that create unnecessary burden or unintended incentives. Align holistic approaches to research culture with existing assessment frameworks, including REF, concordats and funder requirements, and move beyond short-term or performative initiatives.
Network discussions have highlighted the value of combination metrics, for example linking available training, staff turnover and self-reported wellbeing, which are more meaningful than any single indicator alone. Members have also explored the concept of “health-warning thresholds”, where a score below a minimum level triggers action rather than simply recording a number. Mixing testimonials and case studies with quantitative data helps tell the fuller story of what is changing and why.
Embed equity and inclusion in recruitment, progression, participation and everyday research practice. Ensure disabled researchers and people from minoritised groups can contribute and thrive. Develop and promote EDI-focused promotion pathways and opportunities that support widening participation across the research community.
Move from short-term projects to sustained change. Build research culture into institutional strategy, governance, induction, decision-making and organisational memory. Develop capacity to preserve institutional learning when staff move on or funding streams end, and create mechanisms that allow good practice to survive beyond individual champions.
Support varied and sustainable careers within and beyond academia. Improve cross-sector mobility and help members of the research community make active career choices and prepare for a wider range of career futures, including roles in industry, the NHS, government and the third sector.
Recognise research as a collective endeavour and value the full range of people, career stages, roles, disciplines, outputs and activities that make excellent research possible. Actively recognise and reward behaviours that foster a positive research culture, not just research outputs, and work towards a sector where contribution to culture is genuinely valued.
Practical levers include the CRediT taxonomy for attributing diverse author contributions, the Hidden REF for surfacing work that falls outside traditional assessment, and using the Technicians Commitment to drive progress on parity of esteem. For open research specifically, members have noted that formalised reward systems need to be carefully designed to avoid turning principled practice into a box-ticking exercise. A minimum set of clear expectations, with recognition for those who go further, may be more effective than blanket mandates.
Support research integrity, openness, reproducibility and trusted research. Strengthen communication and reward practices that make research more accessible and reliable. Uphold high standards of research integrity as a foundation for a healthy research culture.
Build parity of esteem and clearer development pathways for technicians, research professionals and third-space colleagues. Develop upskilling and career progression opportunities and recognise the breadth of expertise that makes research happen effectively, ethically and with impact.
Enable equitable and interdisciplinary collaboration. Break down disciplinary silos and develop team research cultures built on trust and communication. Foster effective approaches to co-production and knowledge exchange, including across industry, the NHS, charitable organisations and other non-academic sectors.
Practical approaches include providing neutral spaces for researchers to meet, such as libraries; “coffee-connect” style initiatives that pair people across disciplines; virtual forums for those who prefer remote connection; and overarching research themes or centres supported over the long term rather than through one-off events. Redefining what genuine interdisciplinarity means, and funding it accordingly, remains a challenge members are actively working on.
The ten priorities remain an important foundation for research culture discourse, but the field continues to change. RCEN discussions and developing partnerships are bringing emerging issues into focus. These themes overlap with the original priorities and will help shape future work.
Explore how environmental sustainability can become part of everyday research practice and decision-making. This includes the impacts of laboratories, travel, procurement, digital infrastructure and events, while recognising that approaches need to work across different disciplines and research contexts.
Address the effects of fixed-term contracts, fragmented funding and limited job security across researchers, professional services colleagues and technical staff. RCEN is supporting wider collective work by the Research Precarity Working Group to map evidence and strengthen the national case for change.
Recognise the specialist expertise of this diverse and skilled community, whose work helps research happen effectively, ethically, securely and with impact. Emerging research from the Research Professional Futures project is focusing on parity of esteem, clearer career pathways, reduced precarity and fuller recognition of these contributions within research teams and systems.
Use metascience, research-on-research, evaluation and learning methods to understand how research systems and culture initiatives operate in practice. Stronger evidence can help institutions identify unintended consequences and avoid repeatedly starting from scratch. Developing shared methodologies, including surveys, focus groups, theories of change and mixed-methods approaches, is a collective priority for the network.
Consider how artificial intelligence and other digital developments are reshaping research practice, skills, workload, authorship, integrity and assessment. A research culture perspective can help institutions respond in ways that are responsible and attentive to unequal impacts.
Ensure research culture conversations reflect the full range of institutions, disciplines and career stages, including teaching-intensive universities, non-STEM subjects and postgraduate researchers. Members have highlighted the importance of hearing voices from outside the dominant higher education research narrative and understanding how research culture challenges differ across contexts.
Uncertainty around research culture funding remains a practical concern for members. The financial difficulties facing the higher education sector are having a direct impact, including on the security of research culture roles themselves, many of which are tied to fixed-term enhancement funding. At the same time, growth in metascience, flexible funding schemes and funder interest in improving research environments creates opportunities for collaboration.
Members have also flagged two persistent practical challenges: finding effective ways to communicate the value of research culture to senior leaders and decision-makers, and identifying resource-light approaches that can deliver real change without requiring large dedicated teams. Interest in responsible research assessment frameworks, including CoARA, is growing, with members sharing experiences of institutional sign-up and implementation.
The network has mapped a range of past funding opportunities relevant to research culture work: the Research England Development Fund; NERC’s Opening Up the Environment; EDI Hub Plus; and the Einstein Foundation Award for early-career researcher-led open research.
Co-producing meaningful and proportionate approaches to data collection; mapping existing research culture indicators and frameworks; and contributing to national conversations on evidence standards and benchmarking within and beyond REF timelines.
Explore the DCE working group
Identifying opportunities for collective advocacy and sector-wide collaboration with funders and policymakers; developing shared messages for constructive engagement; and ensuring the voices of those most affected by research culture challenges are represented in strategic dialogue.
Explore the CACF working group
Championing approaches that reward and recognise contributors to good research culture; mapping and sharing case studies and resources; influencing narratives of excellence to reflect the value of positive culture; developing best practice around allyship; and identifying the change agents and governance structures needed to embed recognition meaningfully.
Explore the RRGC working groupRCEN members regularly share examples of initiatives at their institutions, including things that have worked, things that have not, and ideas that could be adapted elsewhere. A selection of practice examples shared in network discussions is included below. Members are invited to share their own examples at network meetings or by contacting RCEN.
A pilot scheme designed to support researchers who experience a gap between contracts. The pilot identified that limiting criteria, such as requiring a known subsequent contract, significantly reduced applications. The institution is exploring a more flexible version for future rounds.
Contact: researchculture@lancaster.ac.uk
Manchester Metropolitan University used Polis, an AI-assisted tool, to gather views on research culture from colleagues and students at scale. Participants could vote on statements and suggest their own, generating a richer picture of where views converge and diverge than a traditional survey.
One institution shared how it used Research Culture QR funding to run residential writing retreats for early-career researchers. The retreats gave participants protected time to write grant applications or publications, with professional services colleagues available to provide support. They were well received and contributed to successful grant applications and publications.
King’s College London has embedded champions drawn from specific groups, including technicians, research managers, early-career researchers and people from underrepresented identities. Acting as local cultural anchors, champions offer lived experience and context-sensitive insight, reassuring colleagues that their identities and contributions are recognised and valued.
At the University of Bristol, a member reached out to teams simply to ask what they were doing for research culture, even when colleagues did not call it that. Talking to people informally helped identify relevant work, and people who were proud of their activity were more likely to engage when approached directly.
Members from several institutions have found success by connecting research culture conversations to things colleagues already care about, such as specific funding calls, fellowship applications, open research events or grant support. People who would not attend a dedicated research culture event often engage readily when the entry point is directly relevant to their work.
Queen Mary University of London asked applicants to a seed-funding round to describe how they would measure success as part of the application process. This gave the institution a direct window into the measures people value and yielded practical indicators, including the growth and activity of a postdoctoral researcher network, that might not have been captured through a top-down evaluation framework.
At RCEN’s 2025 strategy meetings, members were invited to pitch ideas for what the network could work on together. The following are illustrative examples from that conversation: a wishlist rather than a work plan, reflecting the kinds of questions members care about and the scale of ambition in the room.
If any of these ideas resonate with you, get in touch. The network is interested in hearing from members who want to help shape what comes next.
Members frequently discuss how to build institutional support for research culture work when REF is not the primary lever. Arguments that members have found effective include:
Members have identified a wide range of organisations and sector bodies whose work influences the research culture landscape.
The People, Culture and Environment pilot has informed the new Strategy, People and Research Environment element of REF 2029. SPRE places greater emphasis on how institutional strategy contributes to excellent research.
SPRE will account for 20% of the overall quality profile. It will be assessed through an institution-level statement and unit-level statements covering four areas:
The guidance also introduces a stronger focus on research communities and representation at unit level. Institutions will need to explain the diversity of roles that contribute to their research profile and ensure that their submission represents that community.
This reinforces several RCEN priorities: recognising diverse contributions; building inclusive environments; strengthening the development of researchers, technicians, research professionals and third-space colleagues; embedding culture in institutional strategy; and gathering evidence that is contextual and proportionate.
The UKRI-commissioned mapping study gathered 347 initiatives and found extensive activity across the sector, but also uneven evidence about what works. Evaluation was frequently absent or based mainly on self-assessment.
The report calls for stronger sharing around evaluation and support for collective mechanisms that help the sector build on existing work rather than duplicate it.
The network provides a space to connect evidence with lived experience and turn broad ambitions into work that can be tested and shared. Five principles guide how RCEN engages with these priorities.
This curated library brings together reusable reports, frameworks, toolkits, substantial articles and blogs, podcasts, recordings and resource hubs. Browse by resource type, search by keyword or filter by an RCEN priority.
EDI & inclusion › Guidance
UKRI Good Research Resource Hub guidance on making research inclusive.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Established / mid-career researchers
Hub of curated resources organised around five established-researcher personas.
EDI & inclusion › Toolkits
Searchable EDI in research & innovation resource listing launched at the EDI Caucus symposium.
Doctoral education & supervision › Harassment & misconduct
Evidence-based toolkit for reaching postgraduate researchers with harassment prevention work.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › SPRE
Mailing list/forum supporting colleagues drafting REF 2029 SPRE statements.
Research integrity, open research & metascience › AI & research integrity
AI content detector cited in a post arguing AI detectors are unreliable for academic writing.
Research culture strategy & change › Evaluating research culture
Practical workbook to plan, deliver, evaluate and learn from culture change initiatives.
EDI & inclusion › Disability
Resources from the Wellcome Anti-Ableist Research Cultures project.
EDI & inclusion › Race & global majority
DSA report on EDI in Development Studies grounded in lived experience of racially-minoritised ECAs.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Cross-sector collaboration
NCACE essay exploring the interdependencies between institutions, sectors and roles in research.
Funding, policy & the research system › Peer review
RoRI three-year study (39 interviews with funders, publishers, policymakers): the current peer-review model is unsustainable.
Technicians & technical professionals › Environmental sustainability
Report with 7 recommendations on technicians' role in sustainable research.
Doctoral education & supervision › Supervision
UKCGE/Research England work showing supervising PhD students improves supervisors' own research.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Postdocs
Findings of the Celebrating Postdoc Destinations project on postdoc career trajectories.
Research integrity, open research & metascience › Research security
EU Council paper as research security moves up the EU agenda under the Irish presidency.
EDI & inclusion › Gender
Government good-practice pack accompanying the new voluntary Women in Research Charter.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › Impact assessment
2009 RAND study behind the tool that became Researchfish – shared on Researchfish's demise.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › Impact assessment
Report on Researchfish's role in capturing research outputs and impacts.
EDI & inclusion › Gender
Study of 70,000+ applications across 8 funders: no gender gap in success rates overall, but equal numbers can mask bias.
EDI & inclusion › Disability
'No holds barred' RSC report on disability access in chemistry labs.
Research culture strategy & change › Evaluating research culture
Report on how a funder's research culture policies actually land in institutions.
Research professionals & PRISM roles › PRISM
Report on the growing PRISM role and how to strengthen and support this part of the UK research workforce.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › Assessment & culture
Research Professional News: research assessment shapes research environments – vital amid REF 2029 pushback.
Funding, policy & the research system › Funders
European funders increasingly use metaresearch to monitor and improve their own policies.
Doctoral education & supervision › PhD funding
Research Professional News: stipend rises have squeezed numbers – a 22% drop in new UKRI-funded PhDs over a decade.
Funding, policy & the research system › Financial sustainability
Research Professional News on ARMA findings that resource scarcity is cutting mentoring and pipelines for ECRs/MCRs.
Funding, policy & the research system › Peer review
ESRC doubles down on distributed peer review for its new Connect scheme.
Funding, policy & the research system › UK research policy
Research Professional News report.
Funding, policy & the research system › UK research policy
Research Professional News on R&D budget allocation.
Funding, policy & the research system › UK research policy
Research Professional News on government steering of UKRI funding.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › REF 2029 decisions
Research Professional News on REF debates.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › REF 2029 decisions
Research Professional News on how REF changes align with UKRI objectives.
Research culture strategy & change › State of the sector
Reflection on how UK research culture has already changed, what to celebrate and what still needs protecting.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › SPRE
Optimism about SPRE, but many ingredients of good culture remain hard to see and measure.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Awards
Reflection on whether institutional research awards are tokenistic or can have lasting purpose.
Networks, communities & podcasts › Research Culture Enablers Network
Round-up of RCEN talks, e.g. EDI protections for minoritised staff working in EDI.
Research culture strategy & change › Conferences
Takeaways from ARMA 2026 on research excellence and research culture.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Authorship
Nature piece on credit and accountability in authorship.
Funding, policy & the research system › Peer review
Metascience evidence from a German funding line on partial randomisation.
Doctoral education & supervision › Professional services in doctoral education
Wonkhe: the overlooked role professional services staff can play in PhD supervision.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Established / mid-career researchers
Wonkhe blog: established researchers struggle to find development pitched at their level, especially after non-linear careers.
EDI & inclusion › Disability
Wonkhe piece on making vivas accessible.
Technicians & technical professionals › Data & visibility
Wonkhe: technicians to be counted again in HESA staff data – a win for technical recognition.
EDI & inclusion › Peer review
HEPI blog accompanying the EDI Caucus good-practice guide for reviewing funding applications.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Hidden labour
On the unseen labour – mentoring, convening, improving systems – that makes research environments thrive.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Credit & ownership
How credit, ownership and recognition move through research teams.
Research culture strategy & change › Culture change
Reflection on what is missing to enable and embed research culture change when care, expertise and capacity already exist.
Doctoral education & supervision › Doctoral admissions
Burford et al. article: doctoral applicants are expected to show researcher independence before they even start.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Interdisciplinarity
Why interdisciplinary research gets stuck on forms, signatures and who feels allowed to speak.
Research integrity, open research & metascience › Metascience
Editorial launching a new journal for the research-on-research / metascience community.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › REF 2029 decisions
Opinion (shared by Wellcome) that the new SPRE guidance is good news for people in research.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Leaving academia
One of THE's most-read 2025 pieces, on academics wanting to exit amid sector turmoil.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Credit & success
THE opinion: the 'rocket' model treats junior researchers as fuel for PIs – we need honesty about how success is shared.
EDI & inclusion › Funding
Five projects funded to advance EDI in EPMS research and innovation.
Funding, policy & the research system › UK research policy
Rob Johnson: government demands specialisation with zero investment while UK universities are the least publicly funded in the OECD.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › REF 2029 decisions
Useful summary of the REF 2029 'un-pause' announcements.
Funding, policy & the research system › Financial sustainability
On UKRI changes to funding practice: accurate, transparent costing should be seen as a marker of quality, not 'leaner' bids.
Funding, policy & the research system › Eligibility
UKRI now lets people lead projects based on demonstrated capability, recognising non-linear and practitioner careers.
Research culture strategy & change › Evaluating research culture
Reflections from the UK Evaluation Society Conference: where is the evidence base for research culture work?
Research culture strategy & change › Evaluating research culture
LinkedIn article arguing that evaluating research culture work is one of the sector's most pressing challenges and opportunities.
Research culture strategy & change › Culture & excellence
Blog answering 'will research culture work take time from my outputs?'
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Facilitation
Blog: facilitation happens in supervision meetings, lab discussions and staff circles – not just workshops.
Technicians & technical professionals › Environmental sustainability
ITSS news on technicians as unsung heroes of environmental sustainability in HE.
Research professionals & PRISM roles › Research Professional Futures
Leeds news piece on the Research Professional Futures project and recognising the breadth of research professional roles.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › Narrative CVs
ARMA piece helping research professionals support researchers and funders with narrative CVs.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Career breaks & returners
Announcement of new DSIT/UKRI funding for the Daphne Jackson Trust supporting career returners.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Environmental sustainability
Prompt for researchers to weigh the environmental cost of papers, flights, compute and AI.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Precarity
Choose Europe for Science results: a postdoc scheme that made reducing precarity an evaluation criterion.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Researcher development
Prof Richard Emes on researchers' role in economic growth.
Research integrity, open research & metascience › Research integrity
How academic gatekeeping can shape citations, delay progress and silence valid contributions.
Research culture strategy & change › Culture change
Reposted 2021 blog with lessons on system change that still stand.
Research professionals & PRISM roles › Academic–professional services divide
On outdated identities in academic vs professional services cultures and what that means for leadership.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › SPRE
Briefing: with SPRE worth 20% in REF 2029, researcher developers are strategic, not just 'training providers'.
EDI & inclusion › Race & global majority
Learning from Wellcome's Accelerator Awards for underrepresented researchers; third round announced for May 2026.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Equitable partnerships
How a project navigated tensions between its principles when deciding on international travel.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Equitable partnerships
The universities of Warwick, Monash and Stellenbosch co-founded the International Consortium for Research Culture in 2024 to act as a forum for sharing Global North and South perspectives on research culture. Through a series of three workshops in 2025/26, we’ve sought to understand: What research culture looks and feels like in different institutional contexts across the global North and South; What institutions can do, both individually and collectively, to equitably improve research culture.
EDI & inclusion › Race & global majority
Global-majority early career researchers on belonging, tokenism and frameworks that assume a level playing field.
Wellbeing, workload & emotional labour › Wellbeing literacy
Article on findings of Warwick's Building Wellbeing Literacy project.
EDI & inclusion › AI & language equity
Article on how AI tokenisation disadvantages non-English languages – implications for accessibility and Western over-representation.
EDI & inclusion › Gender
PLOS ONE study on dual-academic couples and what actually helps women's careers.
Wellbeing, workload & emotional labour › Emotional labour
REDS blog on emotional labour experienced by research professionals, based on interviews and focus groups.
Research integrity, open research & metascience › Research integrity
Research integrity sleuths including Dorothy Bishop flag inconsistencies in a high-profile paper.
EDI & inclusion › Sex & gender in research
Coverage of NIHR requiring all applications to consider sex and gender across the research lifecycle.
Doctoral education & supervision › Doctoral admissions
Companion chapter linked alongside the doctoral admissions article (Burford et al.).
Wellbeing, workload & emotional labour › Working conditions
Loving your work shouldn't mean 12-hour days and constant availability.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Established / mid-career researchers
Substack post reframing mid-career as a stage where proven capability earns the freedom to take risks and help others.
Doctoral education & supervision › Supervision
Tamarinde Haven on characterising 'responsible supervision' – useful for redesigning promotion criteria.
EDI & inclusion › Gender
Natural experiment at a national funder: gaps stem from assessments of women as PIs, not their science.
Funding, policy & the research system › Talent & immigration
Samra Turajlić on how immigration policy and instability are pushing scientists away from the UK.
Funding, policy & the research system › Funders
On the unseen work by funders that helps research reach policy and practice.
Research professionals & PRISM roles › Career transitions
Moving from a research career into a research culture manager role.
Doctoral education & supervision › Professional services in doctoral education
Higher Education Quarterly article on the role of professional services staff in doctoral education.
Networks, communities & podcasts › Podcasts
Podcast for and about research-adjacent professionals; recommended as summer listening alongside Research Culture Uncovered.
Research professionals & PRISM roles › Research Professional Futures
Podcast episode with Research Professional Futures co-leads on research professional careers.
Networks, communities & podcasts › Podcasts
Episode with Karen Glerum-Brooks and Andrew Mott on designing research that benefits people and planet. Also on Amazon Music, Spotify and Podbean.
Research professionals & PRISM roles › PRISM
Recordings from PRISMCon25.
Research culture strategy & change › Explainers
Short Royal Society explainer on what research culture is and why it matters – a good starting point.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Environmental sustainability
Recorded training on more equitable, responsible choices about environmental sustainability in research.
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › Outputs
Short Hidden REF video explainer on non-traditional outputs.
Research culture strategy & change › Leadership & collegiality
Full recording of the InFrame Project symposium on collegiality in research leadership.
Research integrity, open research & metascience › Metascience
Helen Buckley Woods and James Wilsdon introduce metascience as a broad, reform-oriented endeavour.
Networks, communities & podcasts › Research Culture Enablers Network
Members' area hosting RCEN session recordings (page may have moved).
Research integrity, open research & metascience › Metascience
Seminar series for early career metascience researchers.
Technicians & technical professionals › Trusted research
Interactive workshop on technicians' role in trusted research.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › ECRs
Webinar from Leeds' Researcher Development & Research Culture team.
Wellbeing, workload & emotional labour › Wellbeing literacy
Research England-funded project co-creating wellbeing learning for researchers.
Wellbeing, workload & emotional labour › Failure
Call for senior academics to be interviewed about experiences of 'failure'.
Networks, communities & podcasts › Research Culture Enablers Network
Join page for the Research Culture Enablers Network (page may have moved).
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Equitable partnerships
Project developing principles and resources for equitable, inclusive and sustainable research partnerships.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Environmental sustainability
Valuing Voices dashboard page on environmental sustainability in research.
Collaboration, recognition & credit › Equitable partnerships
Valuing Voices principles and resources dashboard.
EDI & inclusion › Advocacy
Recruitment of inclusion advocates in EPMS (now closed).
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › Narrative CVs
ARRC randomised controlled trial of narrative CVs in postdoc recruitment.
Research integrity, open research & metascience › AI & research integrity
Social post announcing arXiv's strong stance against unchecked LLM-generated content and fake citations.
Careers: ECRs, postdocs & established researchers › Leaving academia
Free peer network for academics affected by job cuts (c.10,000 UK academic jobs cut in the year).
REF 2029, SPRE & research assessment › SPRE
Official REF 2029 SPRE guidance including key changes.
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