Our Research Culture Roadmap sets out a bold and purposeful direction for strengthening the environment in which research at our institution is developed, supported, and shared. To turn this vision into meaningful progress, we have translated the roadmap into a set of practical, deliverable actions through our action plan, which sets out how we will implement these priorities and drive meaningful cultural change.
Whilst the detailed action plan is in its final stages of development (including the actions, outcomes, outputs, indicators for change, and timescales), you can see below examples of some of the areas of work we are already progressing.
Please note that these actions are subject to further refinement over the next two months as we consult with action owners and the wider community (updated 18/03/2026).
Actions
Strengthen cross-department and cross-faculty connections across the research community, sustaining interdisciplinary interactions and collaborations
Foster sector wide connections, collaboration, and co‑creation through the National Centre for Research Culture to enrich knowledge sharing and impact on research culture initiatives and outcomes
Design and implement an institutional strategy for meaningful public, patient and community involvement (PPCIE) across the research lifecycle
Foster knowledge sharing across the institution to support collaborative approaches to enhancing research culture
Actions
Enable diverse research communities (by discipline, role and grade) to lead grassroots initiatives that respond to the challenges most relevant to them, supporting a wide range of projects that improve research culture across the institution.
Develop evidence base informed by our in-house catalogue of research culture funded activities to support recommendations towards best practice.
Engage with national initiatives and strategic leaders to explore opportunities for addressing career precarity challenges
Recognise and celebrate the diverse contributions that enable research excellence, strengthening the link between positive research culture and research excellence across the institution.
Develop an evidence base to support recommendations for mitigating experiences of failure in higher education.
Embed a culture of continuous professional development, ensuring research staff and students are aware of CPD opportunities and encouraged to engage meaningfully in a range of development activities.
Actions
Pilot, evaluate and embed interventions to address the underrepresentation of Black academics.
Develop an evidence base of priority actions to improve progression and retention of women in academia.
Strengthen wellbeing literacy across research environments.
Lead the Culture work package of the Research Professional Futures (RPF) project to co-create a sector-wide strategic Blueprint that strengthens the visibility, capability and long-term sustainability of the UK Research Professional workforce.
Foster a culture that recognises and values the diverse expertise of our technicians
Actions
Provide support for APC and encourage adoption of Open Access (OA) practices amongst researchers by streamlining APC processes, improving signposting of funder and publisher requirements, and ensuring consistent advice across the research lifecycle.
Ensure transparent, consistent, and equitable recognition of researcher and contributor roles in research outputs, grant applications, and authorship processes.
Ensure researchers and managers act in accordance with research integrity policies, uphold principles of research integrity, and report breaches of research integrity, or incidents of research misconduct.
