There is increasing attention on the research environment, culture and the importance of recognising and welcoming a wide range of talent in research. Just in the last few weeks, the Royal Society of Chemistry released their vision for science culture, the University of Warwick announced a new research centre on this topic, and there has been more news about the direction of the REF28 and preparatory work for that. UKRN’s interest here is in how a better research environment contributes to better, more rigorous and transparent, research. Today we are releasing two documents as a contribution to this sector debate. They have been have been developed in consultation with all of UKRN’s members, but they don’t necessarily represent exactly the formal views of each member. The two documents are a response to the REF28 initial decisions, and a description of an excellent research environment – one that is most conducive to rigorous and transparent research.
UKRN will continue to contribute to national and international discussions on these important topics, for example in November we will start a new project – jointly funded by our members – on the use of research evidence by institutions as they make decisions that affect their research cultures. We look forward to further working in this area, where possible in collaboration with others.
Links to documents on OSF: