A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the Research Culture consultation earlier this year.

The open and honest input and feedback you shared has helped us develop our key priorities and identify what we're aiming for, what will help us get there, and how we’ll measure progress.

We are proud to launch clear long term aims and an immediate Action Plan that responds to the 21 critical priorities you shared with us across the core pillars of our Research Culture strategy – Collegiality, Career Development, Recognition, Research Design, Open Research, and Research Ethics & Integrity.

As a community, we will all have a part to play in delivering on these priorities over the coming months and years. Please take a look at our Action Plan to see what our strategy means for you in your role and how you can help us deliver on it.

Already, colleagues across the University are making rapid progress on this plan:

  • the returning carers scheme has been extended from academic staff to all staff
  • new career frameworks for technical services staff are in development by HR, and the method will be applied to research enabling roles from next year
  • a reserved area of the Claverton Rooms has been reopened for staff and doctoral students, supporting collegiality.

In addition, this academic year we will:

  • launch a new Academy for research staff development
  • publish new Guidelines for Authorship and Acknowledgement to improve integrity and recognition on research outputs
  • review our approach to research assessment, to responsibly recognise a broader range of contributions to (and outcomes of) excellent research, and update promotions, recruitment and other assessment processes accordingly
  • conduct a workload review to identify colleagues that are consistently over-committed and identify means of support.

We will be holding an all-staff launch event on 23 January, from 12.30 to 2pm. Join us to find out the steps we’re taking to improve our Research Culture at Bath. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask us questions, share your thoughts, and explore ways to get involved.

For further information on Research Culture at Bath, please visit our Research Culture web page.