(S7E8) Evolution of Research Culture: Career Paths and Strategic Roles

Intro:

Welcome to the Research Culture Uncovered podcast, where in every episode we explore what is research culture and what should it be? You'll hear thoughts and opinions from a range of contributors to help you change research culture into what you want it to be.

Emma Spary:

Hi, it's Emma and for those of you who haven't met me yet, I'm the head of researcher development and culture at the University of Leeds. My podcast episodes focus on research culture and research leadership. Now, you may have already listened to my previous episode where I was talking to members of the Research Culture Enablers network on how the network was started and what they hope it will bring to the sector. In this episode, I'm talking to more members from that group, but this time we're focusing on their career journeys and how they ended up in their current research roles. So I'm going to start with a quick round of introductions and ask Yasmine, Tish and Ellen to briefly introduce themselves and to tell us a bit about their role and how their research culture is structured in their different institutions. So I'm going to come to you first, Yasmine.

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

the university as of January: 2023

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

tee. They were formed in late: 2022

Tish Kriznik:

he university as of September: 2023

Ellen Cole:

I've been in post since June: 2021

Emma Spary:

Brilliant. Thank you all very much. So now on to the reason that we're here today talking about how we ended up

Emma Spary:

We are.

Emma Spary:

So I think for many of us working in research culture, we certainly didn't end up thinking this would be our chosen career path. And I think for many, including myself, it's been more of an evolution. So what I'd like to ask now is a bit about your career journey and what made you apply for your current positions in research culture.

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

the University of Bristol in: 2022

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

Through this, I worked on a variety of different projects at Bristol and provided kind of overall program management for our portfolio of work during this time. This was a really great opportunity to meet so many interesting and passionate individuals across the university who were kind of real experts in their areas. I think there's so much scope within this area of work, which is incredibly exciting. And although institutional change is quite challenging at times, I think there's so much engagement from people to get it right. And this has ultimately led me to be interested in being involved in leading the strategy at Bristol and feeling that I could contribute to ensuring its success in this area.

Tish Kriznik:

So I completed my PhD in: 2015

Tish Kriznik:

And this has made me really passionate about ensuring that everyone who contributes to research, in whatever role that may be, is appropriately supported and recognised. So that's kind of how I've come to where I am now, and it's also one of the reasons why I'm part of the research culture enablers network.

Ellen Cole:

scholarly communications. In: 2019

Ellen Cole:

I've seen that happen in my time here, so I've got a sense of kind of what's possible and that this can be a really exciting space to work in.

Emma Spary:

Brilliant.

Emma Spary:

Thank you. As Ellen's just said there, research culture is such a big area, I think there's no shortage of things for us to do. But across the sector, we are seeing a bigger push for positive change, and this includes growth within our own institutions with new emerging strategic plans. But also there is the new emergence of research culture funding and sector wide initiatives like the inclusion of people, culture and environment in ref, the research excellence framework, and of course, your own research culture enablers network. I will also put links into the show notes. So if you want to find out more about the research excellence framework or the network that we're talking about today, the research culture enablers network, you can find all of the information in the show notes to accompany this episode. So what do you think? A lot of this work and these pushes are going to help us progress in research culture.

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

the research and development: 2021

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

I think it was people and culture strategy, an inclusive and kind of welcome research culture was the focus of that. And obviously we've seen a lot of interest and drivers from researchers themselves who are of course really engaged and really passionate about many key issues relating to job precarity, access to professional development opportunities, kind of increasing open research and embedding diversity, just to name a few. As you said Emma and Ellen talked about earlier, this is, or can feel like a daunting remit and can be all encompassing. So I think it's important to note that research culture is kind of used as an umbrella term that covers a range of different areas that shape the environment in which research is undertaken. And while there may be some overlap with kind of people or organizational culture maybe sitting within human resources departments, there are specific things that are relevant to research and that do need to be addressed. So although we've seen some organisations choosing to deliver on research culture by adopting this into the remit of human resources or EDI staff or staff development, as opposed to creating kind of new individual, centralized teams, that we've also seen other kind of organizations creating those individual roles. So there isn't really a one size fits all. There are kind of different approaches, I think, that institutions are taking to delivering on this work and we don't yet know kind of what is the best approach, that kind of best practice.

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

Evidence is still ongoing as to how we can tackle this, and it's likely to vary based on kind of institutional characteristics as well, and linked to that.

Tish Kriznik:

And in support of all the things that Yasmine's just said, we've also seen obviously some examples of direct funding and investment in the research culture space, which I think has really influenced institutions to put more emphasis and focus in this space. So obviously two notable examples have been the Wellcome Trust's institutional fund for research culture, and in England at least, Research England's Enhancing research culture fund. So these have allowed institutions to dedicate time and resource to initiatives supporting positive research cultures, including in some cases looking at funding specific posts to look at institutional research culture. Many institutions have also chosen to use these resources to look at developing strategies for addressing research culture within their own contexts. Although obviously we're all at different stages, as Yasmine said, we're all at different points on the journey here. So some, for example, have got fully formed action plans that we know about, others are still finalising their action plans, and others are perhaps even early in the development. But having access to specific resources to dedicate time to this I think is really, really key in pushing the agenda forward with respect to research culture.

Ellen Cole:

d in the initial decisions in: 2023

Emma Spary:

Brilliant.

Emma Spary:

Thank you so much. In there around the drivers, some of the things that we're going to be expected to respond to as well, and collectively, how we can ensure that all of these things remain collaborative and don't become yet another thing that we're put into competition with each other on. So we are nearly up to time and what I'd like to do now is give you an opportunity to have the last word and maybe that shout out for why people should get involved and more important, how they can get involved with what you're doing.

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

Well, thanks, Emma. So I'll go first. My key message. So I suppose, key takeaways, that this kind of area of work isn't just one person's role or responsibility, even though we might have that title or you might not have it in your job title. I think it's a whole team approach that will really lead to that change. It's an institutional approach, needs to be collaborative. We need buy in, we need a sense of community, and there are lots of opportunities to be involved in shaping a positive research culture and people might not realize that they are actively contributing to that research culture. So I just encourage listeners to think about how they could shape research culture in their space.

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

Yeah.

Tish Kriznik:

And we're, of course, very much aware of this within the research culture enablers network, which comprises colleagues from a diverse set of roles, from a range of higher education institutions across the UK. And we found that as we're meeting with one another, we're starting to build up a bit of a picture of all of these different kinds of roles and the contributions that we make to research culture. So some of the roles might be more strategic level, while others are more sort of on the ground, as it were, working with researchers on day to day activities related to research. While we may not all have the same job titles, we're still enabling that research to take place and we're hoping to somehow capture this within the network, to bring this knowledge together to help others working in the research culture space within the sector, to be able to better recognise and acknowledge their contributions to research culture within their own organisations.

Ellen Cole:

So anybody who has a research culture enabling role, whether that's all or some of your role, whether you have a passion for the whole piece or just one specific area, you're very welcome to join the network, to contribute to and build on that perspective. You can build partnerships with like minded colleagues and hopefully we can translate some of our experience into best practice, developing a body of professional knowledge and actually taking some leadership in this research culture space. So there will be a link to the network in the show notes where you can find out more and hopefully sign up. You'd be very welcome. Great.

Emma Spary:

Thank you. And just one final reminder, if you do want to find out more about the network, there is the episode that we did earlier on, and again, I'll put a link in which talks about how the network was formed and what its hopes are for changing the sector. So that is us done for today. I would like to thank Yasmine, Tish and Ellen for joining me and give them the opportunity to say goodbye.

Yasmine Rhoseyn:

Thanks Emma. Bye everyone.

Ellen Cole:

Thanks everybody.

Intro:

Thanks for listening to the Research Culture Uncovered podcast. Please subscribe so you never miss out on our brand new episodes. And if you're enjoying the discussions, give us some love by dropping a five star rating and written review as it helps other research culturists find us. And please share with a friend and show them how to subscribe. Thanks for listening and here's to you on your research culture.