What to say when they ask you about Research Culture

By Dr Rachel Herries, Research Culture Manager

‘Research Culture’ is a phrase that has come to represent and allude to so much. As the sector’s focus on research culture continues to shift, and evolve, keeping track of the latest news, updates and language is a job in itself. This detailed guide has been put together to help demystify research culture at the applied level. It’s a result of our collective reflections on how our colleagues react and respond to a big question such as ‘How will you contribute to a positive and inclusive research culture?’. This question comes up at interview, within REF, on conference panels, and very frequently these days, in funding applications. We’d like to help you understand the question and answer compellingly and authentically.

Funders are putting a greater emphasis on the importance of research culture (AKA ‘research environment’) within research and innovation, recognising their role in initiating culture conversations and their responsibility to ensure that the people and projects they fund take responsibility for the culture they create (UKRI 2024; Wellcome 2025).

Wellcome Early-Career Awards is an example of explicit inclusion of research culture within grant assessment criteria. Accounting for 25%, applicants are asked to articulate: (i) How your research environment(s) will support you to deliver your research programme and develop as a researcher, (ii) How your administering organisation will help you develop your project and management skills and (iii) How you will contribute to a positive and inclusive research culture.

There are culture coded questions in many more funding types, for example DTP/CDTs require extensive detail of how you will ensure the quality of the PGR learning environment, and any ‘Capability to Deliver’ and ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ sections require you to talk about how the team has the skills to include, engage and develop and set standards for the collaborators, partners and communities attached.

Demystifying research culture

• What is research culture? How do I define it?
• How is culture different to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)?
• How do I ‘do’ research culture?
• How do I articulate my successes and ambitions for research culture?
• How do I connect local research culture work to institutional strategy and sector frameworks?

Using Glasgow’s Research Culture Priorities as an anchor, our activity below provides a framing for the big questions above. Work through some or all of the questions below. This can be done solo or with colleagues. This is an activity to help you unpick key concepts, spark ideas, and help you find your role in culture development.

Definition, just the start

Let’s start with the definition. Building on concepts in Evans (2011), Glasgow’s definition is: “A research culture is the collective result of the way we think, feel and act. The culture is created by the choices we make and the responsibilities we uphold, and the way we behave towards each other to enact them. It is a product of the way we define, support, evaluate, and reward success in research, and who we recognise as having contributed to that success.”

It’s a start, but next we must ask “a culture of what?” What do we want to cultivate?

What do you want to cultivate?

• What do you value? What is fundamentally important to you? What are the rules, standards and boundaries you want to live by? What do the members of your team and the colleagues around you value?
• What are your research ambitions? What kind of culture would support those to come to fruition?
• What does a good culture look like and feel like toyou? To achieve your ambitions, what experiences, opportunities, relationships and resources do you want to ensure for yourself, your team, your colleagues and communities. 
• What are the good research culture standards for your discipline? A good culture ensures research is robust and of high quality, in line with the norms of the discipline, and the needs of the people who do the work.
• What does a good research culture mean to your organisation? Look at your organisational Research Culture Action Plan (more below), your Equality and Diversity policy, your Wellbeing Strategy (UofG login required), your Inclusive Research guidance, your Sustainability comittments. How do your values and intentions align to these? How are you influenced by them? What opportunities do they provide?
• How will you enact the above?Your approach is important and brings in your personal style and preferences and draws on your experience and skill set.
• Who is included in the culture? Who are the beneficiaries of your efforts to cultivate a good culture? Can everyone access those benefits equitably?
• How can you activate your communities. What communities do you have access to or are a member of? How do you draw down value from them to support your endeavours? How do you help to shape their culture?

Aligning with the Glasgow priorities

Glasgow’s five research culture priorities are the result of ongoing cycles of consultation with the University of Glasgow research community, asking “what does a positive, supportive and thriving research culture look like to you?” The priorities target issues that are specific to the way we do research, and the way we support research careers, and are matter of prime importance to research funders. Focused questions are asked below, to help you be specific in how you articulate your research culture contribution.

[1] Research Recognition.

We will have succeeded when: All colleagues are valued for their varied contributions to a diverse range of research activities and outputs.

• How do you enact ‘responsible research assessment’ reducing reliance on a ‘metrics-only’ approach to understanding which research and researchers are ‘excellent’.
• How do you encourage your team (in the widest sense) to recognise the full breadth of their diverse contributions to research? The narrative CV format can help as a reflection and career development tool.  
• What is your responsibility to ensure responsible assessment of research and candidates as a reviewer, interviewer or on a funding panel?

[2] Collegiality and Teams.

We will have succeeded when: People actively work together to support each other and their teams to succeed.

• What is your approach to enacting collegiality, and how does it benefit you, and your community?
• How do you foster the concept of ‘Team Research’ (AKA ‘Team Science’) and are you including research professionals (technicians, managers, administrators, developers) in your ‘team’, as specialists in their own disciplines?
• How do you lead and manage others to succeed in research? Consider your research leadership using the narrative CV framework.

[3] Research Integrity and Ethics.

We will have succeeded when: We engage with and produce research that meets the highest standards of ethics and integrity.

• How do you role model and foster good research practice across the whole research lifecycle?
• What is your approach to giving appropriate credit to all who contribute to your research ideas, processes, assets and outputs?  
• How do you encourage a culture where it’s safe to fail and to acknowledge mistakes?

[4] Open Research.

We will have succeeded when: We are all committed to openness, transparency, rigour, and reproducibility. 

• How do you make your research findable, accessible, interoperable and reuseable (FAIR)?
• How do you make all aspects of your research (methods, outputs, data) open across all different stages of the research project?
• What’s your approach to the communication of your research findings beyond journal or book publishing, what are your measures of success?

[5] Career Development.

We will have succeeded when: We support all members of our research ecology to advance in their chosen career path.

• How do you enable a culture of career development and progression. In what ways do you create opportunities for career focused discussions?
• How do you engage with your own ongoing development, recognising that development happens through many modes, not just ‘training’.
• How do you demystify the unwritten rules of academic work and research careers, translate and mentor others to help them access the hidden curriculum?

As you work through the ideas above noting your active contribution to building a collegial, engaging and fair research culture, remember to note the areas in which you would like to improve your approach further, how you will do that, and why this is important to you.

We welcome the increase in culture-focused conversations across the Glasgow research ecosystem, and we hope this guide will help to spark more – every small action counts. In working through the guide, we hope that you feel empowered to make change, to influence change, and of course to articulate your role, responsibilities and intentions for the research culture you work in, to whomever may be asking.