2025 is the year to deliver meaningful improvements to research culture

UK university staff working for better research cultures might have returned to the office this new year with a sense of trepidation. After all, 2025 is the year we get to work on evidencing our efforts ahead of the 2029 Research Excellence Framework.

Of course, most institutions are already implementing and evaluating their research culture initiatives, but the forthcoming publication of the REF’s “people, culture and environment” (PCE) indicators will doubtless focus minds. We’ve spent more than a few years defining research culture: this feels like a crucial time for setting our working methods, getting our data in order and putting things into action.

Some fear research culture work will get sucked into gamification through the REF – and in spite of there being ways to disincentivise that, gamers gonna game. However, with a bit of collaboration and calling out, they might even help us demonstrate the advantages of more inclusive cultures.

This year will also see structural changes in research culture teams as the first wave of research culture deans – of whom I am one – come to the end of their first terms. And given the financial storms, institutions are likely to want to develop more efficient models of supporting research culture. My wish is that these will be backed by research funders and foster more cross-institutional collaboration.

One important tactic for research culture work is to draw on the data. Unlike those seeking to drive organisational change in other sectors, we in universities enjoy the privilege of expertise on our doorsteps. Behavioural scientists, economists, historians and experts in disability, employment relations, trial evaluation experts and many others can all provide data and analytic skills to set our interventions on the best course.

Plus, who on Earth made successful culture change about doing things to or for people rather than with them? In line with one of the three principles of the SCOPE framework for responsible research evaluation, we must draw on local data and expertise to ensure methodological rigour and truly shift the dial.

The data-driven approach is already working. For instance, at the University of Leeds, our REDI fund – supporting the career development of groups institutionally under-represented in senior academic research positions – was only possible once we had made an extensive data-driven case for positive action to the institution.

And the data is poised to proliferate. The Research on Research Institute at UCL is generating robust findings through its experiments towards a more efficient research and innovation landscape. The Wellcome Trust’s Institutional Fund for Research Culture is funding institutions up to £1 million to generate data-driven recommendations for more positive and inclusive research cultures. And the government-funded UK Metascience Unit has launched its first round of projects to understand what works in funding processes.

How can we embed inclusion in our research culture for postgraduate researchers?

Still, implementing change will require bravery and doggedness. One of the barriers is the debate about where the responsibility lies for driving culture change. The answer is that it lies at multiple levels. Take the example of bullying and harassment: researchers must interact more humanely and be more active when witnessing bad behaviour. Institutions must develop and implement clearer policies, better equip their managers to tackle bad behaviour, and sacrifice what’s lucrative for what’s right. Funders can incorporate check-ins on PI behaviour through annual reporting. We will only improve by pulling all levers as part of a unified system working in concert.

But research culture workers remain crucial to pushing the process, too. I often meet colleagues critical of research culture work, alleging that it’s tokenistic and watered down. While I understand this perception given the approaches of some institutions, we must counter these claims with bold actions to retain buy-in, make progress and maintain momentum. Examples include meaningfully addressing the under-representation of researchers from marginalised groups; the Royal Society and Wellcome offer targeted fellowships, and UKRI is supporting positive action in postgraduate student recruitment.

The flip side of the research culture slog is the freedom to experiment, a palpable advantage that we in research culture work have over colleagues working in more traditional aspects of the research system. Let’s take courage and use that prerogative (while meticulously monitoring the results, of course).

Research culture work also takes time – but the rewards are there. After more than four years operating as a volunteer organisation, researchers behind the Hidden REF have been awarded £3.6 million by Research England to work with REF 2029 to highlight previously sidelined research activities.

It is important we take heart from these victories. Research culture really is moving in the right direction, and in 2025 we must do all we can to make its momentum unstoppable.

Cat Davies is dean for research culture and professor of language development at the University of Leeds.