Developing a new model for collegial research leadership

By Dr Kay Guccione, Head of Research Culture and Researcher Development.

“Collegiality is instantiated in the relationships that emerge within departments and in the manner in which members of the department interact with and show respect for one another, work collaboratively in order to achieve common purposes, and assume equitable responsibilities for the good of the unit as a whole.” (Cipriano & Buller, 2012: 46).

Across the University of Glasgow, as for all universities, there are fantastic examples of research leadership that is inclusive, collegiate and creates a positive research culture. Glasgow’s annual ‘People Make Research’ initiative highlights some of this hidden work, documenting the positive impact of supportive mentors, and naming Academic Staff, Research Professionals and Research Staff alike.

Work like this has two obvious benefits. It allows us (a) to say a well-deserved thank you to the people doing this important work (which creates even more positive impact), and (b) to understand how ‘collegiality’ is perceived by our researchers, what kinds of actions are collegial, and how collegiality has real impact on their experience of the university and their career development.

Mobilising our data on collegiality

We have been looking for additional ways to deploy the themes and understanding we have gained from these hundreds of accounts of collegiality, and we have already fed the learning arising into our Talent Lab programmes, into our Research Professional Staff Network, and into our Research Leaders (Supervisors and PIs) development activities. Moving forward we are going to be refining our guidance around how to evidence collegiality in promotion applications too.

A university’s overall research culture is a function of individual localised cultures, creating a patchwork of different micro-cultural contexts, enabling some, but not all, to thrive. Even though we have a growing suite of policies and development activities designed to enhance our culture through inclusive and collegial practice, there can be significant variation in the application of these practices. Whilst individual commitment to collegiality is warmly welcomed, dispersed and unconnected efforts are insufficient to create momentum for organisation-level change. So how can we connect things up?

Our recent news is that we are expanding the collegiality work in exciting new ways which include the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews as equal partners in an ambitious new programme of work. Our partnership has been awarded a £3 million grant from Wellcome to do this work. The grant will support the development and testing of a new model of research leadership which enhances positive research cultures for more people and more projects. The two-year initiative will gather hundreds more examples from across the three institutions, amplifying and learning from communities where positive research culture flourishes. The collaboration has been funded by Wellcome, through its Institutional Funding for Research Culture programme and ours is the only multi-partner project to receive this backing.

What will we spend £3 million on?

The project will use this grass roots collegiality data from St Andrews, Edinburgh, and Glasgow to develop a new framework for collegial research leadership, and to fund a swathe of new research leaders to help us test the model and accelerate change by tailoring and evolving our work for many different disciplines and contexts. Uniquely, the framework will not divide people into ‘Academic’, and ‘Professional’ staff groups, recognising that research leadership exists across a range of roles, and collegial leadership is a unifying mode of practice.

A £1.2 million Culture Catalyst Fund will resource community projects and pilots that test the developing framework. Small awards will be made, giving preference applicants who embrace collaborative approaches. Importantly the eligibility criteria are open, so that anyone with a great idea can be supported to win funding, be they Academics, Research Professionals, PGRs, Technical Staff, Facilities Support Staff, Postdocs or any other staff grouping with an interest in the research environment.

A team of experts in a new Culture Community Knowledge Hub will support and develop our new leaders and they will also identify the coherence and common issues across all of the diverse projects we fund. All of the materials, methods, and outcomes we develop will be openly available, and we will share as we go, so that our works in progress can be used and discussed across the sector. Overall, we want to support all universities to be able to:

• Embed a common framework for ‘collegial research leadership’ that will support the creation of specific people development packages and reward structures.
• Widen the definition of who is a ‘research leader’ to include Research Professional Staff, and Research-only staff who often have significant leadership and management responsibilities.

We are very excited to be get started on this important work with our partners at Edinburgh and St Andrews, and with people across the entire research ecology at our three universities. Would you like to be part of our team? Please look out for a wealth of posts and secondment opportunities (at all three partner universities) coming out over the next six months! And do please get in touch to find out more about the project.

Cipriano R. E. & Buller J. L. (2012). Rating faculty collegiality. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 44, 45-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2012.655219