What led you to apply for this role? Was there a professional or personal turning point that made you passionate about research culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n I came to this role following three years as Academic Director (Doctoral) (ADD) at the University. I loved my time as Academic Director and the people I had the privilege of working with. The Associate Pro VC (Research) role provides a new set of challenges for me professionally, as well as allowing someone fresh to come into the ADD role. It also felt like an exciting time to take on the Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) (APVC(R) role with a refreshed university strategy, featuring updated research ambitions around research quality, internationalisation, and impact.<\/em><\/p>\n Whilst in the ADD role, we created various initiatives to support research culture. These included doctoral supervision workshops, an annual doctoral celebration evening, and a doctoral festival of ideas among others! I really enjoyed that part of the ADD role, supporting and celebrating the outstanding doctoral community and the various contributions they make to our university. My own research and doctoral role have also given me insight into the essential work of our research policy, governance, and integrity team, so I was keen to take on a role that provides strategic institutional leadership for these areas.<\/em><\/p>\n To me, research culture is about creating an environment where people feel valued and supported to thrive and produce their best, most innovative work. Research culture can be complex though, offering different challenges and opportunities across various research groups, centres, institutes, departments, faculties, the school, and the wider institution.<\/em><\/p>\n My overarching vision for research culture at Bath is that we create and maintain a recognised, collegiate and enabling environment that both:<\/em><\/p>\n In doing so, we can position ourselves as a university that recruits and retains the most talented individuals. Not just because of the high-quality research that we produce, but also because of how this is enabled.<\/em><\/p>\n Notwithstanding the importance of REF, I believe it is essential that our research culture is driven foremost by the needs of our university community, not solely by the REF's requirements and timescales.<\/em><\/p>\n As many will be aware, we participated in the REF People, Culture, and Environment (PCE) pilot exercise, both as an institution and across three units of assessment. Completing the pilot provided valuable insights, but we still await full confirmation of exact indicators and criteria of the new Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) element of the REF. So, in line with the above, our approach is not to wait for the confirmation of exact SPRE requirements before we improve our research culture and environment. Instead, we will continue to implement the actions from our Research Culture plan and deliver what we believe will be best for Bath right now, and in the future.<\/em><\/p>\n Essentially, I would like to see changes in our research culture and environment because they are needed and deemed important to us as a community, not just because of REF. Many of our university community will have been involved in the consultations that were conducted to inform our RC Action Plan<\/a>, with example upcoming actions including:<\/em><\/p>\n You can read more about the projects awarded Enhancing Research Culture funding for 2025\/26 in our recent ERC funding news announcement<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n As well as our research culture consultations, I also love the idea of us doing more of our own rapid evidence assessments to inform our future evaluations, planning, and decision making in this space (see here<\/a> for more). Additionally, it will be vital for us to share learning within and outside of the University. To enable this, the Research Culture team are in the process of planning a potential research culture festival later this year, so watch this space!<\/em><\/p>\n Being a performance psychologist affords you the great opportunity of working across high-pressured domains. So I have been fortunate to work with stakeholders from various sectors and occupations, from elite sport to healthcare, emergency services, and business (see here<\/a> for some specific examples). Given this background, I am a huge advocate of cross-sector collaboration and the benefits it can bring for research culture and beyond. Our Institutes and Research Centres at the University are also vehicles that can support c<\/em>ross sector and interdisciplinary collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n Cross-sector collaborations often require interdisciplinary thinking which necessitates a connected and collegiate research environment where ideas and resources can be exchanged with respect and kindness. By working with stakeholders in sectors outside of academia, our research can be <\/em>grounded within real world application and relevance. I have personally seen this bring benefits in the co-design of research to address pertinent challenges being faced by the stakeholders involved, the mutual consideration of responsible research and innovation, and the dissemination of findings in a way that is most accessible, transparent and impactful for that sector. In relation to the latter, working across sectors can help us to recognise and celebrate the wide range of inputs to and outcomes of excellent work. Finally, building partnerships across sectors can also unlock new funding opportunities to support high-quality research which, if successful, can offer possibilities for us to recruit and co-develop the careers of researchers (e.g., PDRAs, technical staff), providing academic and applied experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m familiar with funding landscapes from my own research experiences, where I\u2019ve been fortunate to have had some successful grants but also my fair share of rejections to process and learn from! For early-career researchers (from my own experience\u2026), I think it is essential that we provide them with support to align their funding pursuits with the delivery of desired and aligned high-quality research, rather than chasing every opportunity. As I have spent longer in academia, I have also witnessed first-hand the power of teams when it comes to funding applications both in writing applications and delivery if successful. A particular example I draw from here was the excellent support offered by a GW4 community<\/a> I was involved in when we were devising and submitting a large research council grant. Specifically, with support from University of Bath professional services staff for bid planning and writing, our community was able to come together in a supportive and productive manner.<\/em><\/p>\n With regards to ensuring grants do not compromise wellbeing, I was delighted to learn recently about an upcoming action on our research culture plan to offer more support for (funding) setbacks. Additionally, the tight timeframes for responding to some grants can also place a strain on researchers. So, anything we can do to support earlier writing, in tandem with lobbying funders for more appropriate timescales and deadlines would be beneficial.<\/em><\/p>\n I am fortunate to work with excellent teams, both in the APVC(R) role and in the Dept for Health. So far, both have supported me brilliantly when I\u2019ve needed to switch between the two roles. I have two young children, so in taking on both the ADD role previously and now the APVC(R) role, I have maintained quite strict boundaries about switching off from work to be present with them when I finish work and switch fully into mum-mode! I am also a keen sportswoman and former hockey player, so try and ensure exercise is a regular feature of my week.<\/em><\/p>\n I am finding the new role has a lot of meetings and committees, so I was very grateful recently when someone put a campus walking meeting in the diary! I may try and move more meetings into that format where possible in the future, given how blessed we are with our beautiful campus surroundings.<\/em><\/p>\n The PVCR and ADRs through the Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee have been emphasising for some time now about the need for high quality outputs rather than large quantities of less high-quality outputs. Supporting this position was an article I recently read from our Deputy VC Marcus Munaf\u00f2<\/span><\/span> on the need for less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons<\/a>. So my first hope would be that as a University, we could fully pivot to a position more akin to this where we have more focus on high-quality, globally excellent research with impact.<\/em><\/p>\n In an earlier answer, I have outlined what my overarching vision is for research culture at Bath. Beyond this, my biggest hope five years from now is that we are all working in an environment where we feel supported to develop and succeed, and where excellent research conducted to the highest standards of integrity, rigour, and transparency is not only designed and enabled but recognised and celebrated within and outside of Bath! I really look forward to working alongside the university community in these endeavours.<\/em><\/p>\n Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Rachel. If you have any questions or thoughts on how we can enhance our research culture at Bath, we'd love to hear from you.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat does research culture mean for you now that you\u2019re leading the implementation of our Research Culture Action Plan? How would you describe your overarching vision for research culture at Bath?<\/h4>\n
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With REF 2029 placing more emphasis on research culture, how do you see this influencing the day-to-day research environment at universities like Bath - and what practical changes might we expect to see as a result?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Your work has spanned academic research and consultancy roles, from elite sport to healthcare. How can cross-sector collaboration enrich our research culture?<\/h4>\n
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<\/p>\nAs someone who is very familiar with funding landscapes, how can we better support colleagues to navigate funding pressures, without compromising their wellbeing or values?<\/h4>\n
With such a busy role, how do you personally maintain your own wellbeing and balance?<\/h4>\n
Finally, what\u2019s your biggest hope for the research community at Bath five years from now? What would success look like to you and for us?<\/h4>\n
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