Embedding Researcher & Research Professional Staff Wellbeing into Higher Education (Re-Well HE)

Aim 1

To establish an up-to-date understanding of wellbeing and the key drivers of occupational stress among researchers and research professional staff in UK HEIs.

Aim 2

To identify, consolidate, and map the organisational responses and initiatives being implemented across the sector to address these key drivers.

Aim 3

To examine how these key drivers and associated organisational responses map to the HSE Management Standards Framework for the prevention of work-related stress

A Note on the HSE Management Standards Framework:

The HSE framework recognises six aspects of the work environment that influence the mental health and wellbeing of staff.

1. Demands – workload, work patterns and work environment
2. Control – how much autonomy people have in the way that they work
3. Support – encouragement, resources, and support provided by the organisation and colleagues
4. Relationships – promoting positive working relationships and addressing conflict
5. Role – clarity about job responsibilities and alignment of expectations
6. Change – how organisational change is managed and communicated.

Applying the HSE model to researcher and research support staff wellbeing offers a structured way to identify which aspects of the research environment are well-supported and where gaps remain, thus helping to develop a coherent, evidence-based foundation for further targeted interventions.

Stage 1

The project began with a participatory desk review of the literature to explore what is already known about organisational factors contributing to poor wellbeing and stress in HE, as well as interventions (Cunneen et al., 2026).

Stage 2

A National Advisory Group was established to provide strategic oversight and bring together expertise from funding bodies, professional organisations, sector networks and universities.

Stage 3

Four participatory insight-gathering workshops were held with researchers, research professional staff and sector stakeholders (N = 100). These explored the key drivers of poor wellbeing and occupational stress, as well as identifying current organisational responses being used to address them.

Stage 4

Alongside this, a national researcher and research professional wellbeing survey examined the relationship between occupational stressors and wellbeing across the wider research workforce, including both researchers and research professional staff.

This provides a contemporary picture of working conditions at a time of significant financial pressure across UK universities, while addressing a gap in existing evidence, which has often focused primarily on academic research staff.

Stage 5

A national stakeholder consultation survey captured the policies, practices, programmes and initiatives being implemented across the sector (N = 40 from 20 different UK HEIs).

Stage 6

Key drivers of poor wellbeing and stress as well as organisational responses were then mapped to the HSE Management Standards Framework.

This helped to see how current approaches aligned with established principles of work-related stress prevention and identify opportunities to strengthen preventative action across the sector.

Findings:

12 Key Drivers of Poor Wellbeing & Stress

Participatory insight-gathering workshops (N = 100), complemented by a participatory desk review of the literature, identified 12 key drivers of poor wellbeing and occupational stress.

These drivers were broadly consistent with the existing literature on the wellbeing of academic and non-academic staff working in university environments.