Developing a positive research culture at Bristol – our programme of work in 2024/25

By Yasmine Rhoseyn and Eirini Triantafyllou

Yasmine is Research Culture Strategy Manager at the University of Bristol. She supports the Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research Culture, Marcus Munafò in leading research culture activity across the university, and monitors the implementation of the research culture strategy. She also sits on the committee for the Research Culture Enablers Network based at Warwick, which is a solutions focused group dedicated to exchanging and challenging ideas to improve research culture and drive meaningful change.

 

Eirini is a Project Officer at the University of Bristol. She oversees the process of funding allocation to the Research Culture projects, monitors spending and offers support and guidance for all finance-related matters. Eirini also supports the Policy Support funded projects and Participatory Research projects in the same capacity.

 

 


Over the last couple of years, our research culture programme of work has been led by many talented colleagues and students from across the university, as well as partners and stakeholders beyond.

This academic year, we have a varied programme of different projects, aligned with our research culture vision and strategy that aims to support a positive research environment and culture here at the University of Bristol.

You can find a summary of the projects, and who is leading these below. More detail on project aims, outputs and impact can be found in this PDF or on our research culture sharepoint.

Promoting openness and transparency in how we work

In 2024, we funded the creation of an Open Research Community Manager role at the University to support open research training, work collaboratively with the UK Reproducibility Network and improve open research practices at the university. You can find out more about Lavinia Gambelli’s role and work in her recent blog.

Along the themes of openness and open research, a few of our funded projects focus on research ethics and these important processes and practices. Work has been undertaken to improve signposting to existing tools and practices, as well as co-design collaborative solutions when it comes to the ethics of public engagement (Dee Smart and team).

Another important facet is teaching research ethics , which Jo Rose and team have been exploring at the PGT level, including how change in teaching practice happens at a local level and lessons to be learned.

In terms of the research ethics process itself, Patricia Neville and team have been investigating where sustainability in research considerations could be made and incorporated into our online Research Ethics Management System, and what this would look like, which feeds into the wider UoB research strategy and its commitment to sustainability.

Empowering staff and students through effective leadership and management at all levels

We believe leadership can and should be encouraged at all levels (regardless of role title); to support this the Leadership Ethos framework has been developed. This framework is being embedded into leadership programmes and resources curated by the Staff Development teams, and this work is led by Izzy Frazer-Veli, Bethan Turner and developed by Nadia Soliman.

Relevant to the framework is the concept of transformative leadership – this has been a focus of Alf Coles and team who have developed resources and run workshops over the last couple of years. They are now focusing on adding this programme to the training offered by the Staff Development team, which includes development of a workshop accessible via Develop.

Leadership at postgraduate research level is crucial for developing skills and equipping our future leaders for success. Maya Al-Khouja and team at Bristol Students’ Union have developed a student research leaders programme looking at developing innovative solutions to local challenges and working with local mental health charity Changes Bristol.

To support postgraduate research culture, PGR supervisors play a critical role. At the heart of this is ensuring training and support for PGR supervisors is adequate and practical (Ros O’Leary and team) and that guidance exists to help supervisors navigate supporting their PGR students (Stephanie King and team).

Bristol Students’ Union staff and UoB students gather for launch of student research leaders programme

Providing a range of stable career opportunities for those involved in research

PEER LEAD aims to empower PGR students as trainers equipping them with new skills (coding and research ethics) themselves but enabling them to learn how to teach and support their peers in these areas, developing valuable skills for future employment (Harry Mellor and team). Similarly, Alice Ferns and team have been focusing on careers support for PGRs including development of An Insider’s Guide to Academia available via LinkedIn Learning and a video series about applying for a PhD.

In the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Emma stone and colleagues are establishing a community of Early Career Researchers, which includes connecting with Research Concordat Champions, and equipping ECRs with the skills and connections needed for career transitions through working with external partners. On the Researcher Development Concordat, Lydia Klimecki is putting together an engaging film to make the concordat accessible to staff across the university.

Ros O’Leary and team are providing more support to staff to engage in pedagogic research through training and a central hub of resources, which will in turn help this research culture to thrive and develop and retain staff talent. Staff and students are also being provided with retreats to help develop key skills necessary for their careers, with Claire Wrixon running retreats for black female academics participating in WHEN100 and early career researchers.

Embedding diversity in research and those involved in research

Several projects within this programme of work are looking at diversity and inclusivity across the university and beyond. Caroline McKinnon and Claudia Gumm are further developing and launching the inclusive research toolkit on external platforms to be accessed by the HE sector.

Inclusive Research Toolkit poster

Daniella Jenkins and team are investigating the lived experiences of people of colour among the PGRs and non-academic staff populations, with the view to develop actions to improve the research culture for these groups.

Winfred Gatua, Amanda Chappell, Lawrence Osei Owusu and Helen Natukunda are developing a PGR network for students of Black and White/Black dual heritage to foster community, develop links with Black alumni, showcase examples of academic innovation, enhance career relevant skills and address career trajectory inequities.

Research to Reward, led by Kit Bartlett and colleagues aims to improve commercialisation support for female and non-binary researchers and promote diversity in research innovation by providing funding and recognition for innovative ideas led by these underrepresented researchers.

Professional services staff contribute significantly to research, and Helen Curtis, Charlotte Verney and their colleagues are continuing their work to understand the research activities of these staff at Bristol, implementing some of the recommendations from their prior report to help professional services navigate and feel supported in conducting research.

Antonia Tzemanaki and team build upon the work of Jenny Crane and Erika Hanna to embrace parenthood in research and higher education, looking at three distinct strands 1) community, 2) implementation of positive change and 3) research collaboration.

Helen Thomas Hughes continues her work on the experiences of mature PGRs by developing and implementing a comprehensive suite of resources to address challenges faced by this group and foster a more inclusive research environment. Stephen Gray also leads work on improving the experience of postgraduate students through implementing interactive 3D tours of key spaces on campus, supporting accessibility and the needs of neurodivergent students.

Encouraging internal and external collaboration and fostering innovative approaches

Collaborative and innovative ways of working are key to a thriving and positive research culture. Work is underway to develop and launch an action-focused, reflective framework – the Working Well Together resource – which has been co-produced with over 700 members of staff at the university and led by Sarah Campbell and team. Expanding on this, Alice Beck has been exploring utilising the developed resources among PGR communities and building upon these to develop resources to cultivate a positive research culture.

Attendees at Working Well Together launch, October 2024

Networks and research groups at the university play an important role in contributing to the wider institutional research culture as these create their own ways of working and positive practices. Pau Erola and team have been focused on developing a Health Data Research Network to drive innovation through collaboration by holding best practice workshops, events and sustaining a steering committee. Oscar De Mello and team have been focused on research culture in ‘The Sheds’, working with Artists in Residence and creative practitioners to inform operation of The Sheds so they are an open and collaborative space for relevant communities, and establishing working and business models that could be best practice exemplars for wider University hubs.

Creative thinking, idea generation and innovative practice is a key area of focus. Giovanni Biglino, Bec Gee and team have been building upon their previous work ‘The Department of Imagination’ and are developing research culture and imagination labs for early- and mid-career researchers, supporting them to explore innovative and imaginative approaches to research and the benefits this can have for collaboration. The Exploratory Facility Fund, led by Olivia Gaitonde and Anne Westcott provides access to Science and Engineering TRAC facilities to researchers facing barriers (ECRs, those returning from research breaks and those exploring new research areas) to help bring new and innovative ideas to life that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible due to a financial gap.

Working in partnership and developing collaborative links is fundamental to sustaining a positive research culture. Anthony Manyara and team have been exploring a more equitable partnership with Global South research partners and are creating pragmatic interventions to address visa and passport inequities, as well as promoting equitable budget spends and allocations for Global South research projects.

Focused on community engagement and community researchers, Sabi Redwood, Mari-Rose Kennedy and team have been supporting these researchers to build a community of practice to aid in co-produced research. They are developing training and support for community-based researchers and university-based researchers to facilitate more equitable and effective collaboration during research projects. Ruth Badru and team have also focused their efforts on community research, with their work focused on engaging the community and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, through the lens of understanding the impact of transport disparities on socio-economic opportunities. They are working with local authorities, transport providers and community organisations to co-produce actionable solutions that can be enacted in Bristol.

Find out more and get in touch

As demonstrated above, there is a varied programme of ongoing work comprising of many different projects that are working to enhance the research culture here at Bristol and within the HE sector. This work is led by passionate and talented colleagues and students and we are excited to share more of their work, including outputs when these are developed over the coming months.

You can find more detail on project aims, outputs and anticipated impact on our research culture sharepoint site. If you have any questions about the projects, please do get in touch via researchculture-projects@bristol.ac.uk so we can support and link you up with the relevant leads.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Researchfish…

By Marcus Munafò

Marcus is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research Culture at the University of Bristol and incoming Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost at the University of Bath. He leads on research culture activity across the university, providing direction and vision, working across the institutional landscape, and identifying key challenges and opportunities. He is also institutional lead for theUK Reproducibility Network. 

 


According to MyERP, I officially started working at the University of Bristol on the 1st March 2005 – although I remember coming in a day early because 1st March was a Tuesday and what else was a young lecturer going to do with a Monday…? Not exactly the best role modelling by someone who would – many years later – devote much of his working week to improving research culture. 

And now, after almost exactly 20 years I will be leaving the University of Bristol. On the 1st May I’ll start a new adventure as Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of Bath. It’s been an incredible two decades – I wrote grants (a few of which were funded!) and papers, built collaborations, made plenty of mistakes (and tried to learn from them), helped build a research group, and completed my fair share of Researchfish submissions… 

Most importantly, I made many friends. There are far too many to name them all, but my co-directors of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group (TARG) – Angela Attwood, Olivia Maynard and Ian Penton-Voak – have been the most important, simultaneously keeping my feet on the ground and keeping me sane. When we started to build TARG it was clear that it shouldn’t be critically dependent on one person. When I leave, it will barely miss a beat – the culture and structure we’ve developed will ensure that. 

Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, University of Bristol

Which brings me to my role as APVC for Research Culture.

Back in 2019 I set up the informal Research Improvement Group, which brought together academic, technical and professional voices with an interest in reflecting on our research practices and identifying ways to improve these. This was partly in support of Bristol’s membership of the UK Reproducibility Network (which we currently host), but more broadly in response to growing sectoral interest in how academia can ensure the quality of the work it produces, and the health and vibrancy of the environment it creates to support that.

In 2021, our then PVC for Research and Innovation, Phil Taylor, was creating APVC roles to create a similar structure to the one that existed for education and give him more capacity to deliver against key agendas. One of these was research culture – and, given the natural proximity to my research improvement role, I applied. I formally began in the role in early 2022, and almost immediately we learned that we would receive an Enhancing Research Culture allocation from Research England (as did all English institutions that received REF funding).

That funding allowed us to constitute a research culture team, led by Yasmine Rhoseyn, with support from (variously – as people have moved in and out of roles) Sean Gilligan, Pat Humphries, Leah Jones, Gurjeet Kaur, Lumina Kemp and Eirini Triantafyllou. With that team in place, we got to work… Research Improvement Group became Research Culture Committee, eventually a formal sub-committee with delegated authorities in key areas such as open research, and we developed plans to spend our allocation.

Attendees gather at the Festival of Research Culture, 2024

Our early strategy had to be developed rapidly given that the funding had to be spent by the end of the University financial year in July. We identified some major areas of focus – such as open research and leadership – but a large proportion of the budget went into an open call to provide seedcorn funding for grassroots projects. We were struck by not just the number but also the quality of applications we received, and – as intended – this gave us a picture of what was already happening across the University.

Over the years we have continued this scheme, adding a separate call for continuation funding, helping to grow projects and support them either to completion or to the point where they can become self-sustaining. This also helped us to build a community that we bring together at an annual Festival of Research Culture. And this community was also central to the next phase of our activity – the development of a research culture vision and strategic plan to take us to 2030.

This vision and strategic plan is now in place, supported by an annual implementation plan that brings a tactical element – outlining what we will do this year that will move us in the right direction (and how we will know). It is the result of extensive development and consultation, and – I think – something we can collectively be proud of. The next step will be to bring this to life on the ground, by engaging the research and research-enabling community.

Front page of the Research Culture Vision and Strategy document

But why do we do this in the first place? Why does research culture matter? In my view, there are moral, pragmatic and selfish reasons. It is right to create an environment where people feel supported and are able to develop and thrive. But by creating that environment we will also create the conditions where people can do their best work. And in turn that environment will allow us to recruit and retain the best talent in a way that will ensure the long-term health of the University.

Bristol is rightly world-recognised for its teaching and research, but we should always be looking to reflect and improve. By maintaining a positive research culture, and an environment that supports this, we can become known for something else – the ways in which we support people at all career stages, across all career pathways, and from all backgrounds to excel in ways that are meaningful to them. In other words, we can be known not just for what research we do, but how we do it.

Making the most of the micro: distilling research culture through interactions and behaviours

By Dr Jess Pilgrim-Brown

Dr Jess Pilgrim-Brown is a Senior Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Bristol and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford. She previously worked in professional services, in elite sports coaching, and as a consultant researcher. She focuses predominantly on the relationships between working-class professional services staff and administrative staff in UK higher education although her interests also include equalities agendas, cultures and behaviours in higher education, and expanding access to higher education for people from traditionally marginalised backgrounds. She fervently advocates for collaborative, supportive research cultures in higher education and university spaces.

Research culture in the UK

The notion of research culture and the relationship between research culture and higher education has become increasingly important over the course of the past twenty to thirty years. We often conceptualise research culture in a variety of different ways; the mechanisms, frameworks and administrative systems which are in place to either support or prevent positive research cultures; the volume, nature and standard of research outputs as being reflective of positive research cultures and environments; the formal behaviours, values and expectations that are often encapsulated through university legislation, concordats and agreements.

These kinds of manifestations of research culture might be considered ‘macro’, large scale actions and activities which are focused on the institutional or organisational level. Reporting research culture and research environment through these kinds of activities can be supported (as in the case of the Research Excellence Framework) through additional data collection activities including focus groups and surveys on research careers, staff satisfaction, mentorship practices and evidence and the presence and proliferation of policies around work-life balance as an exemplification of positive research environments. However, and what this blog argues, is that the manifestation of research culture can be examined directly and powerfully through the microscopic lens of personal interactions and behaviours; behaviours which not only magnify the status of hierarchy and position in the institution but that directly reflect the nature of research culture within an institution.

Research culture, relationships and different actors in the academy

From 2021-2023 I conducted research which focused specifically on the experiences of professional services staff and administrative staff in Russell Group universities in the UK. One of the key findings from this research was concerned with the nature of interactions between professional services or ‘non-academic’ staff and their counterparts working on academic trajectories. In this small-scale research project, the professional services group largely referred to their relationships with other professional services colleagues and management as supportive, whilst often referred to interactions with academics as ‘the worst part of my job’. In other instances, they explained that they were treated ‘like scum’, exemplifying examples of negative and demeaning behaviours, shouting, and an over-exaggeration of academic hierarchy in relation to their own career positions and career ambitions. Focusing on such relationships helps us to understand how negative policies, frameworks, legislation and formal practice collaborate with one another, resulting in the manifestation of such behaviours which go unchecked, uncontested and without retribution. At present, in some institutions and environments these kind of behaviours continue to persist (as they might have done some decades ago) despite changes to formal process and practice across the landscape of higher education in the UK (Pilgrim-Brown 20\24).

Moving forwards: addressing relationships at the heart of research culture

Attendees at the University of Bristol’s annual Festival of Research Culture, which is open to academic, technical, and professional services staff

It might be pertinent to suggest that often, in pursuit of completing statements on research culture and research environments, that universities largely conduct isolated, small-scale data (particularly concerning qualitative experiences) which fails to capture the extent, expanse, and full tapestry of phenomenon that exist within the university, faculty, department, or unit more specifically.  Collecting systematic data of this nature within our institutions on these kinds of interactions can serve to help us understand what the impact of policies and procedures, legislation and concordats really is on the people who work within research environments on a day-to-day basis.

To be effective, this needs to be ‘joined-up’, complimentary, and harmonised within the institution, across units and faculties; and to be analysed whilst considering the cross-tabulations between demographics, disciplines and career stages. In magnifying the micro in this way, the proliferation of research cultures and their impact, may be both easier to discern, to identify, and to resolve.  As such, a call for university management to create systematic, rigorous evaluations of the research culture as evidenced through such micro actions and initiatives is highly recommended.

Building an Open Research Community at the University of Bristol

By Lavinia Gambelli

Lavinia is the Open Research Community Manager at the University of Bristol, supporting trainers at UKRN Open Research workshops. She has ten years of research experience in microbiology across various countries.

 

 

 

In the summer of 2024, the University of Bristol introduced an updated suite of open research policies designed to make open research practices more accessible and actionable. These policies aim to provide a clear, practical guide for researchers and research enablers, while also emphasising the University’s role in supporting the adoption of these practices. Key to this support is the commitment to providing the necessary infrastructure, funding, and training to embed open research skills into the professional development of staff and students, ensuring these practices become an integral part of academic life.

In March 2024, my position as Open Research Community Manager was created to help share these practices and policies through building a community of Open Research trainers. Being part of the Research Support Team within Library Services and serving on the Open Research Working Group, I have a unique vantage point. I’m involved in strategic conversations shaping open research and research culture at the University, while also staying connected to the grassroots efforts led by our trainers. This dual perspective highlights the importance of aligning top-down institutional strategies with the on-the-ground realities faced by researchers and trainers alike.

UKRN Open Research Programme

As the Open Research Community Manager, one of my key responsibilities is to recruit staff for open research workshops and support them throughout the process, from their initial training to the delivery of their own sessions. As part of the Open Research Programme, an initiative led by the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN), we offer training on a variety of open research topics.

This programme follows a train-the-trainer model: staff who attend a UKRN workshop become open research trainers themselves, enabling them to deliver similar workshops at the University. This approach not only amplifies skill-sharing but also fosters a culture of collaboration and continuous learning. Upcoming workshops delivered by our open research trainers are shared on the Open Research Training SharePoint site and on the dedicated Develop page.

Once they have attended one or more UKRN workshops, trainers join the University’s Open Research Trainers group. This network offers ongoing peer support, particularly during the development and delivery of their workshops. Trainers and all University’s staff and students have access to resources such as slides and materials developed by previous trainers (accessible through the Open Research Training SharePoint site), fostering a sense of collaboration and continuity.

Now in its third iteration, the training programme has been met with interest and engagement from across the University community. By integrating open research practices into daily work, participants not only enhance their professional workflows but also unlock valuable opportunities for career development. Trainers can improve their training skills, gain recognition for their contributions to the development of colleagues, and bolster their promotion applications with tangible evidence of their impact on research culture.

Carlos Ayala who attended the UKRN workshop titled “Data Management for Reproducibility”, said:

“[The training is] very interesting and valuable for research projects in terms of implementation, impact and dissemination”

“This workshop has supported my role as Data Manager within the research project I am currently coordinating.”

Become an Open Research Trainer

Since the first series of workshops in spring 2024, 25 staff members have joined the Trainers group, delivering six sessions across the University so far. If you’re keen to join this training but missed the latest recruitment round, don’t worry! We’ll soon be seeking new trainers for another series of workshops this summer. Be sure to keep an eye on the SharePoint site for the latest announcements and updates, or contact me if you’d like to receive an email when the registrations open – we’d love to have you on board!

This sunburst chart illustrates the uptake of UKRN Open Research workshops in 2024 at the University of Bristol. Inner circle: represents Faculties, Professional Services, and Research Institutes. Outer circle: represents Schools, Professional Services, and Research Institutes within these groups. Numbers in brackets: indicate the number of workshops attended by each group.

Other opportunities for you to get involved

The UKRN open research workshops are just one part of the open research training opportunities available to you at Bristol. A variety of sessions – independent of the train-the-trainer model – are offered throughout the year by professional services teams (such as the Library, People Development, and the Division of Research, Enterprise and Innovation) and academic departments (including the Bristol Medical School and the Jean Golding Institute). Whether you’re a beginner or looking to deepen your expertise, there’s plenty to explore to expand your knowledge of open research.

To further strengthen this growing community of open research practitioners, we hosted our first in-person lunch with the inaugural cohort of open research trainers in autumn 2024. This was an opportunity to exchange ideas, reflect on experiences, and build connections within the group. As the trainers’ network expands, there is significant overlap with the Bristol Reproducibility Network – the local network of UKRN – which shares a similar ethos of fostering open and transparent research.

Back in February, we took part in the first-ever “Open Research Community Event”, bringing together members from both groups. It was a fantastic turnout, sparking plenty of insightful conversations. One of the highlights was the session in which our guest speakers shared real-life examples of how embracing open research practices has boosted their careers. We also explored ways to strengthen open research at Bristol, gathering valuable feedback and fresh ideas. Have a look at Richard’s event highlights if you’d like to read more about it.

Picture taken at the Open Research Community Event in February 2025.

As we look to the future, our focus remains on expanding the open research community, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that open research practices are accessible and beneficial to all. By building these connections and investing in skills development, we’re not just promoting open research—we’re creating a culture where it can truly thrive. What role will you play in advancing open research at the University? With so many training and collaboration opportunities available, now is the perfect time to get involved and help us make a difference.

Listening – and hopefully learning…

By Marcus Munafò

Marcus is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research Culture at the University of Bristol. He leads on research culture activity across the university, providing direction and vision, working across the institutional landscape, and identifying key challenges and opportunities. He is also institutional lead for theUK Reproducibility Network.

 

For the last two years we have asked colleagues to provide us with suggestions on how we can improve research culture, through a “dropbox” – an online form where any comment, large or small, can be submitted (anonymously, if preferred). Since our internal review of research bureaucracy, we have also had a second dropbox focused on issues of research bureaucracy. These have fundamentally been an exercise in listening, and in providing better connectivity between different parts of our institution.

The comments we have received have highlighted challenges and frustrations related to research support, university bureaucracy, and resource allocation. The issues raised include practical challenges (research support staffing, HR processes, research infrastructure) as well as cultural challenges (leadership, recognition of technical staff). Of course, the nature of the dropboxes means that we are more likely to receive negative comments than positive ones. But this is important. We cannot improve if we shy away from these challenges.

One difficulty is that, understandably, those who submit comments want to know what is being done to address the issues they have raised. Where a name was provided, we have tried to respond – in many cases connecting the person with someone able to discuss the issue they raised (and perhaps help solve it, although that isn’t always possible). But we do read all the comments. They are discussed at Research Culture Committee and, where appropriate, picked up by the appropriate person and explored further.

Our annual Festival of Research Culture provides another opportunity to engage with research culture at the University

Change can be slow, but having a better understanding of the reality on the ground, and the challenges being faced, ultimately helps foster better situational awareness and a culture of continual improvement. We are keen to maintain this. However, in order to simplify the process we have now reverted to a single suggestions dropbox. The hope is that we will continue to receive concerns and complaints but also, where possible, potential solutions. Often those directly affected by an issue are best placed to suggest a solution.

Our culture programme (and my role) is approaching the end of its third year. I think we have made progress – we have supported a range of exciting projects, large and small, and launched our vision for 2030, together with a strategic plan for achieving this. But I have always believed that our research culture is, fundamentally, a reflection of ourselves. It is not something imposed on us, but created by us. That includes being able to offer (and hear) constructive challenge. Please keep the comments coming! Get in touch.

Looking towards the future of research culture at Bristol

By Yasmine Rhoseyn

Yasmine is Research Culture Strategy Manager at the University of Bristol. She supports the Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research Culture, Marcus Munafo in leading research culture activity across the university, and monitors the implementation of the research culture strategy. She also sits on the committee for the Research Culture Enablers Network based at Warwick, which is a solutions focused group dedicated to exchanging and challenging ideas to improve research culture and drive meaningful change.

The people that are involved in research activity at Bristol, and the environment that they work in, are critical to our success.  

The University of Bristol’s vision and strategy for research, enterprise and innovation can only be successfully delivered if it can support the people involved in the research process and create an enabling and supportive research environment. The commitment to fostering a positive research culture is reflected in the creation of the position of Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research Culture, Research Culture Team members and the establishment of a Research Culture Committee, a formal sub-committee of University Research Committee. 

Pictured: Attendees gather at the Working Well Together event in October 2024 (an initiative funded through our research culture programme).

Here we set out our aspirational, medium term vision for research culture at the University of Bristol – the end state we hope to reach by 2030. We also describe our work to date, much of it supported by our Research England Enhancing Research Culture allocation. 

Read the vision 

To move us forward towards realising our vision, we are publishing an annual implementation plan that will include specific areas of focus for that year, and how success will be measured against pre-defined criteria. This annual plan will be overseen by Research Culture Commitee, which will review progress against these objectives at the end of the year, and approve the plan for the next year. This will allow us to constantly refine our approach and update our objectives and indicators of success as we as an institution progress and the sector evolves. 

Read the implementation plan  

The process to put together this vision and implementation plan was very much a collaborative effort – we spoke to hundreds of staff and students in research relevant roles across the University on what ‘good’ research culture looks like, the barriers to achieving it and how we can move towards a more positive culture at Bristol. I would like to thank all the staff and students involved in this process for their valuable time, perspectives and insight, it was truly an eye-opening experience.

Future Research Leaders and stakeholders gather at Bristol SU – Future Research Leaders is a joint initiative with Bristol SU funded through our research culture programme 24-25). Read more on Bristol SU’s blog.

Get in touch

If you have any feedback on the vision and implementation plan, and how this is relevant to your area of work, please get in touch – y.rhoseyn@bristol.ac.uk

Our new policy on open research

 

 

 

A new Open Research Policy (and associated sub-policies) was approved by URC in June this year. Marcus MunafòAssociate Pro Vice-Chancellor – Research Culture explains the importance of Open Research as part of the wider Research Culture Vision and Strategy for the institution.

Open research is the process of making as much of the research process as possible available to others. The most well-known example is perhaps open access publishing where journal articles (and increasingly other outputs such as monographs) are published under a Creative Commons license, meaning they are free to read and (depending on the specific license) can be re-used in a variety of ways. Most funded research in now published open access, and the REF (Research Excellence Framework) requires work to be published open access, either through the publisher making the article available through a Creative Commons licence for a fee or the author making a copy of the accepted manuscript available (in our case via the Pure repository) to be eligible as for REF. Our recent Scholarly Works Policy is the latest effort to increase the extent to which our published work is available to as wide an audience as possible.

But the final output of a research process – the journal article or the monograph, say – is only a small part of what is produced during that process. Study plans and protocols, data sets (which can include anything from numerical data on spreadsheets through to qualitative transcripts or digitized images), code used to analyse those data and so on are all produced in the vast majority of our research activity. And these intermediate research outputs can also be made more widely available – either open or (if they are published on our institutional data repository – data.bris) under more restrictive conditions. This might be necessary if, for example, there are ethical or legal reasons for doing so (e.g., qualitative data may allow re-identification of participants, which would preclude open publication).

The University has always been at the forefront of open research – our repository was one of the first, and continues to have sector-leading functionality (such as the ability to publish under different levels of access). Anything published on data.bris (or on other third party repositories such as Github, Figshare, or the Open Science Framework) is assigned a digital object identified (DOI) and is, in itself, a publication (albeit typically not a peer reviewed one). This is great for those who contributed to the research process; it allows for the early assignation of priority (i.e., publishing our results first!), and – perhaps more importantly – more granular recognition of individual contributions. A researcher may be third author on a paper, but solely responsible for one element.

In other words, there are a range of reasons to engage in open research. There are practical reasons, such as the ability to demonstrate a greater variety of contributions in a more granular way. The transparency afforded by open research allows for greater scrutiny, and for others to interrogate in more detail what you did, what assumptions and choices you made throughout the process, and so on. And it also allows others to use your outputs in a way that can generate new insights. Indeed, methods to use published genetic data to understand cause-and-effect relationships in epidemiology – known as Mendelian randomisation – were developed at the University of Bristol and are now widely used in biomedical research.

There are also moral reasons to make our research as open as possible (but also as closed as necessary!). Around 80% of the University’s funding – from research and teaching – comes from public money, so it’s only right that we make as much of what we do as possible available to those who ultimately fund our work. And we never know how those intermediate research outputs might be used. We know, for example, that secondary schools have downloaded study protocols, information sheets and consent forms, and data sets to use in classroom demonstrations. This all helps with our efforts to be a civic university supporting our local community.

For this reason, we have updated and strengthened our Open Research Policy, with a single overarching policy that supports a range of sub-policies that cover different open research practices. . The new Open Research Policy and sub-policies, in particular, have been designed to be short and accessible – partly a “how-to” guide for those new to the practice. These were developed by the Open Research Working Group of Research Culture Committee, led by Library Services, and with input from a range of voices across the University through an extensive consultation process. The policies were approved by University Research Committee and signed off by Senate, and are now live. Please take the time to look at them if you can!

Of course, open research will look very different across different disciplines, and not all of us will be familiar with different aspects or practices. For this reason, through the UKRN Open Research Programme, we are offering places on a number of open research train-the-trainer courses. These are available to anyone at the University, at any career stage and on any pathway (including professional services and technical staff). After attending a train-the-trainer workshop, trainers will then deliver workshops on these practices that will be open to anyone (we will hopefully be able to offer tailored versions of these across, for example, Faculties and Schools). If you are interested in finding out more about these courses, or the planned workshops, please contact Lavinia Gambelli, our Open Research Coordinator.

Open research is part of our wider ambition – through our Research Culture Vision and Strategy – to be as transparent as possible in how we work, individually and as an institution. The hope is that that transparency will help to foster a trustworthy research ecosystem and institution. We recognise that this is a journey, and our Open Research Policy is an important step on that journey, but just a step. We need to support that with training, incentives (open research is included in the Academic Promotions Framework, and we run a regular Open Research Prize), and – perhaps most importantly – a listening stance that means we continue to develop and improve our policies so that they work for everyone, regardless of discipline, career stage, or pathway.

Open Research for a week (and longer), at Bristol (and elsewhere!)

By Neil Jacobs, Head of UK Reproducibility Network Open Research Programme

Perhaps understandably, a lot of attention has been given to the initial decisions about REF2028 and, in particular, to the direction taken on People, Culture and Environment. “Open research” features strongly here; not only Open Access publishing, but transparency in a much deeper and wider sense (perhaps following last year’s UNESCO Open Science Recommendation, which the UK has signed). This will challenge governments, funders and universities to demonstrate real progress.

In response Bristol has partnered with the universities of Reading and Zurich, the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN), and UNESCO to produce a guide to help institutions implement the Recommendation, which will be released during Open Research Week (20-24 November). In fact, that will be a busy week! The GW4 Alliance has arranged events to help researchers more easily adopt open research practices, and this complements the UKRN’s Open Research Programme (that Bristol leads), which is also stepping up its activities. Those will run to August 2027.

Training is a key foundation for open research. The UKRN Open Research Programme has just released a schedule of train-the-trainer opportunities, covering topics as diverse as open software / code, research collaboration, open research and ethics, and embedding open research in undergraduate practice. There will be more information about these opportunities soon. In the meantime, Open Research Week sees an introduction to open research (see also UKRN’s resources for different disciplines), and events on both open source hardware (see also UKRN primer) and rights retention (see also UKRN primer).

Trainers (both formal and informal) will learn from each other in local and disciplinary communities. The UKRN Programme is launching a national trainer community of practice, and Open Research Week sees several GW4/Bristol events on sharing research data (introductory, sensitive data, qualitative data, life science data) that will strengthen communities here at Bristol that can promote training in open research.

However, training is not enough. Unless researchers feel that being open will help their career, then they may not want to invest their time.

The UKRN Programme is working with a group of over 20 UK universities to reform the way they recruit, promote and appraise staff, to recognise open research practices. Bristol is one of those universities, and there is an event in Open Research Week on making research assessments fairer, as a part of this. UKRN is also working with major international initiatives, such as CoARA and the OPUS Project, to make sure the UK and other countries are coordinated.

But how will Bristol and UKRN institutions more generally monitor progress and see the benefits of open research? One part of this is the digital plumbing. To monitor, we need reliable data, and that means using things like ORCIDs and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) – Persistent Identifiers for people, projects, universities, funders, research papers and so on. You can learn more about these during Open Research Week. They will be at the heart of UKRN’s work with around 15 universities, including Bristol, to develop and pilot some indicators of open research in 2024.

One of the things that universities can do to support their research community in the move to open research is to have the best possible policy, that sets out our aspirations, and the expectations that we can have of each other in meeting those aspirations. Bristol’s draft policy will be released for consultation during Open Research Week. It has been informed by policies elsewhere and by discussions with other universities, enabled by the UKRN ethos of collaboration rather than competition to promote better research.

Research Leave Policy

By Marcus Munafò

The House of Commons Science Innovation and Technology Committee recently released its report on their inquiry into reproducibility and research integrity. One recommendation is that the sector moves towards “A coordinated policy on minimum protected research time for research staff”. This recognises the increasing pressure we are under as student numbers grow, external pressures on the sector grow, and so on. Whereas in the past there was enough slack in the system to allow us to spend a period focusing on our research, planning our next major project and so on, this has gradually been eroded over the years.

Fortunately, Bristol is already taking steps to address this.

The new Structure of the Academic Year is intended to “make changes to when and how we do things in order to deliver our quality educational offering in a manageable and sustainable way following considerable growth in student numbers”. And we have also updated the University policy on Research Leave. The Protecting Quality Research & Enterprise Time Task & Finish Group was tasked with investigating options for a common university approach to Research Leave, with the intention of establishing a common framework for Schools to work within.

The full policy can be found on the Staff HR Sharepoint.

A tablet in a person's hands with Research in large text on the screen
Original Image: Nick Youngson

The policy applies to all Pathway 1 academic staff on core-funded, open-ended contracts who undertake teaching and research. Schools may choose to include Pathway 3 staff (e.g., who conduct pedagogic research) in their policies if they wish, for example if this can be a step towards career progression. In general, Pathway 2 staff are not expected to be included in School policies, or eligible to apply, but can be in exceptional cases where this is appropriate (e.g., Pathway 2 Professors) at the discretion of Schools.

Importantly, the policy is intended to be flexible; it asks Schools to develop a local policy, and provides a number of principles to guide the development of these. One challenge is that individuals Schools may not currently be in a position to offer research leave, for example because it would be difficult or impossible to re-allocate specific teaching to other staff. However, by asking Schools to be explicit about this, we will develop better awareness of the coverage achieved across Schools and Faculties, and what is needed to improve this.

The policy is only one part of a wider framework – we have University Research Fellowships that can support targeted, focused research activity, and a Returning Carers Scheme to help those returning from, for example, parental leave to re-establish their research programme. The hope is that these different mechanisms can, as far as possible, be considered as part of a coherent framework that provides both general (e.g., the Structure of the Academic Year, the Research Leave policy) and specific (e.g., University Research Fellowships, Returning Carers Scheme) mechanisms to address our needs in an integrated way.

 

 

Why is the Time Allocation Survey important, and what is the Transparent Approach to Costing?

By Sophie Collet, Conny Lippert, James Hackney, Marc Strydom and Sarah Everett-Cox 

With many competing pressures on our time at the moment, it is important we know why we are asked to do certain things. One example is the Time Allocation Survey (TAS), which is being carried out during this academic year (2022/23). There are three periods that form part of this return, and the third of these opens for completion from 1 August 2023.

The Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) is a sector-standard methodology used in the UK for costing universities’ main activities (teaching, research, and other). A key part of this approach is the TAS, which captures how our academic staff spend their time across the activity categories. It is a government requirement that all universities collect this data at least once every three years, although Bristol has agreed to run the TAS again in 2023/24 to ensure that the data are as accurate as possible, and that any changes in working practices noted in the current return are not outliers.

TAS return data are used to determine the average time per activity for each School, which in turn determines which activity and sponsor type to allocate institutional income and costs to. Funders have previously recognised that there have been pressures in the HEI system that encourage academics to overstate their time on research at the expense of teaching. The data captured by TAS responses provide one lens to inform our strategic decision-making, including understanding balance of activities and our resources, and allocation of internal funding, enabling the University to achieve its strategic goals.

Our annual TRAC return is also submitted to the Office for Students (OfS) each year and has direct implications for strategic planning decisions made at national level, such as in relation to the public funding of higher education.

It’s therefore crucial that the TAS data we collect are as accurate as possible.

There are a few key points we think are worth clarifying:

  • Conversations around workload planning (eg if you feel you are working excessive hours) should take place with line managers as a separate discussion outside TAS completion.
  • TAS requires a percentage allocation of ALL time worked (ie this should cover all of your working time and not just work completed in traditional office hours).
  • TAS is not an individual performance management tool. It’s designed and intended to show the balance of actual work completed over each period, and the analysis that is performed on this data will be aggregated at School and Faculty level.

University of Bristol colleagues can find further guidance on completing the TAS on the MyERP SharePoint site here, and you can contact tas-support@bristol.ac.uk if you have any questions about the TAS return.

You can find a more detailed explanation of the importance of TRAC and TAS in Why is TAS important, and what is TRAC? (PDF file).