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21 inclusive research culture projects funded by I-REACCH

Over the Summer we launched our second funding call to support inclusive research culture projects at the University of Leicester. Following an overwhelming response, with 73 applications across all four colleges and professional services, our reviewers had some very tough decisions to make about which projects we could fund this time round.

We’re very pleased to announce that 21 projects have received funding. 16 of these projects, totalling £25,000 were from our main funding call and 5 more (totalling £10,000) were part of our mirror scheme.

Celebrating Research and Researchers

A vital part of research culture is recognising researchers and so many of the projects are doing this in creative ways. Responding to researcher burnout, Zoe Swann (Medical Sciences) will be hosting a Joy in Research series of events. Recognising that failure is something we all experience but don’t talk about, Cleo White (Medical Sciences) is organising Failure Fest.

Researchers come from all over the world and Abdul-Munim Bashir and Le Wang (Arts, Media and Communication) will be hosting an event which celebrates this diversity through food. However, researchers from the Global Majority can often feel sidelined within institutions. So, Manuela Trejo (Engineering) will be celebrating minoritised researchers through art. With Black researchers under-represented at all levels, Fiona Imbali (Geography, Geology and the Environment) is planning a podcast to celebrate Black scholarship at Leicester.

Communities of Researchers

Many of the projects focus on the needs of different communities of researchers as a way to promote inclusion. Jingyi Mao (Economics) is carrying out a survey into gaps in disability support.

While initiatives like the Athena Swan charter have instituted progressive change, some subject areas continue to see significant disparities. Jingyi Mao, Nermeen Harb, Nadia Zakir and Efthymia Argyraki (Economics) are focusing on the under-representation of women in academic economics, finance and accounting through discussion groups and a workshop. A team from the School of Chemistry (Elijah Bridge, Molly Keal and Christiane Reick) are planning a conference on trans* inclusion in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM) which aims to improve the visibility and inclusion of trans and non-binary researchers.

Projects also focus on researchers at particular career stages. Justine Anthony and Jemaine Stacey (Psychology and Vision Sciences) are working on ways to support Early Career Fellows in their School. Yimei Zhu and Roland Wang (Arts, Media and Communications) plan to host some workshops for international postgraduate and early career researchers. Faezeh Zangiabadi (Medical Sciences) and Duncan Stanley (Doctoral College) are also looking to bridge cultural barriers between international postgraduate researchers (PGRs) and supervisors through café conversations and workshops.

A team of PGRs in the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (Sanghoon Lee, Amelie Courtine, Christopher Jeavons, Isabel Callazos Gottret, Saloni Pradhan, Judith Lopez Acevez, Alvaro Ortega Gonzalez, and Le Wang) are putting on workshops for fellow PGRs. Likewise, Dhruva Teha Nandipati (Economics) is working on a careers event for PGRs.

Technicians’ Commitment to Research Culture

Four of the projects are technician-led. As a signatory of the Technician Commitment, Leicester is committed to supporting the visibility, recognition, career development, and sustainability of technicians and technical expertise. Technician-led projects include grant-writing workshops (Gemma Black), a poster networking event (Gemma Black and Nina Bhanji (Geography, Geology and the Environment)), and best-practice exchanges for researchers and technicians on the International Ocean Drilling Programme (Tayyaba Khurram, Sarah Davies, Tim van Peer and Benjamin Palmer (Geography, Geology and the Environment)). Another project led by Tayyaba Khurram, Sarah Davies, Gemma Black and Benjamin Palmer (Geography, Geology and the Environment) is also planning to develop a technician-led framework for accessible research environments.

Technology and Research Culture

Artificial Intelligence is changing how research is conducted. Recognising this new challenge, Kehinde Aruleba (Computing and Mathematical Sciences) and Kike Ladipo (Education) are working on ‘belonging centred digital practices’ for international PGRs. A team of researchers is looking to use technology to improve research culture by developing a research constellations web platform which can be used to gather and share information about researchers’ experiences (Sai Mattireddy, Mahesh Kumar Ola, Himanshu Kaul (Engineering) Gez Williams, Hashish Sarin, (Medical Sciences) Chang Xu (Arts, Media and Communications), Chidinma Mbaegbu (HyPIR) and Eylul Oguz (RED)).

Training Opportunities

Projects also respond to particular training needs. A team from the Black Student Experience Project (Claire Ashdown, Ebony Harding and Nora Musyoka) are planning to deliver cultural competency training. Christina Kent and Natalie Darko (Biomedical Research Centre) are co-designing training with neurodivergent researchers and delivering this to staff at Leicester.

Changing the Culture

There were many other fantastic project proposals which we weren’t able to fund this time round showing the creativity and commitment to positive research culture by everyone at Leicester. We will share opportunities to get involved with these projects and are excited to share the outputs with you as researchers work together to change research culture for the better.