Supporting research culture activities across the University of Leicester

In December 2024, we launched our first funding call to support inclusive research culture activities at the University of Leicester. And, well, we were completely bowled over by both the quantity (in total we received 48 applications) and quality of the proposals.

With a total budget of £25,000, we unfortunately couldn’t fund them all. Here’s an overview of the projects we were able to support this round, and some tips for our second round, which we’re planning to launch in the next academic year.

Research culture for Global Majority researchers

I-REACCH is particularly focused on the ‘leaky pipeline’ of reducing diversity throughout academic career progression. Several of the projects we funded in this round sought to meet this challenge. This included a project by Dr Lin Feng and Dr Yan Ying in the School of Arts, Media and Culture to provide spaces for migrant researchers in the Colleges of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (CSSAH), and Business (CoB) to share their experiences of research culture. Also in CSSAH, a group from the BAME Graduate Teaching Associate Studentship cohort will be organising networking events and a workshop for Global Majority PGRs.

Dr Vasileios Paschalis, a postdoc in the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology, is gathering researchers together to find out ‘What is the story of your name?’, celebrating the multi-cultural research environment in the Colleges of Life Sciences (CLS) and Science and Engineering (CSE). Meanwhile, Dr Victoria Adedeji is establishing the EMERGE network to provide mentoring for Global Majority researchers in CLS.

Research culture for postgraduate and early career researchers

Many of the projects we funded focused on improving research culture for postgraduate and early career researchers. This included a social café and a conference for ECRs in CSSAH organised by Dr Anna Davies-Barrett and Dr Priscilla Vitoh. Dr Reshma Chauhan is planning informal networking, peer support, and themed discussions for ECRs in CLS. Anna, Priscilla, and Reshma were also part of a collaborative bid with Prof. Sarah White (CLS), Dr Ruoying Zhou (CoB), Dr Tim van Hasselt (CLS) and Prof. Richard Thomas for activities hosted by the Fellowship Academy which supports internal and external researchers applying for funded fellowships at Leicester.

The experiences of postgraduate researchers are a vital part of our research culture, but often PGRs feel they don’t have a route to voice them. In the School of Psychology and Vision Sciences, Helen Waters, Sian Fei, and Dr Ruth Hatcher will be holding conversation cafés and a conference for PGRs. Within the School of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy, Dr Claire Davis is hosting a workshop for PGRs on ‘resilience’, supported by expertise within the department.

Research culture and institutional structures

Some of the projects we funded focused on challenges posed by changes at the institution. The restructuring of CLS is seeing the merger of teaching-focused Schools and research-focused Departments. And so Dr Charlotte Jones and Dr Sion Scott in the School of Healthcare are working on establishing an inclusive research culture within the School.

Departmental mergers can bring lots of great opportunities for collaboration, especially when positive cultures are established from the outset. Dr Nuala Morse (School of Museum Studies) and Dr Jan Haywood (School of Archaeology and Ancient History) are working on a project to establish an inclusive research culture for the new School of Heritage and Culture when it launches in August 2025.

Nurturing inclusive research cultures

Colleagues across the university have come up with interesting and innovative ways to address barriers to inclusion. Recognising that researchers experience research environments in different ways, the BRAIN initiative is a project led by Dr David Guttery, Professor Carolyn Tarrant, and Rod Morris to support neurodiverse researchers in CLS. Their aim is to promote a neuroinclusive research culture.

A group of researchers in the School of History, Politics and International Relations led by Dr Zeenat Sabur (with Dr Myriam Fotou, Dr Zoe Groves, Dr Helen Dexter, Dr Kelly Staples, and Prof. Laura Brace) are using decolonial methods to explore the lived experiences of researchers. Also in CSSAH, Prof. Gowan Dawson has a project on how more established researchers can learn from ECRs about inclusive research methods and cultures.

As well as identifying barriers, funded projects are celebrating the inclusive research cultures which already exist. A team of researchers, technicians, and professional services colleagues in (Harshawardhan Sukhadeo Borde, Vanessa Neo, Dr Thomas Wong Hearing, Dr Padmasini Behera, Ed Thomas, Matt Dishman, Andrea Vear, and Prof. Jens Zinke) from the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment are hosting a photographic exhibition entitled ‘Where we work’ which showcases the research process within the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution.

What we learned

It was inspiring to read the funding applications. It was also an important learning process for the project team. We learned a lot about some of the barriers to inclusion which exist across the university and the ways which researchers think these can be addressed. We learned that researchers, like those in the soon-to-be-launched School of Heritage and Culture want to build inclusion within departmental research culture from the outset, which is inspiring. But we also learned from the process, and what we can do to support colleagues in applying for funding in the future. We plan to share these in more formal outputs in the future.

These lessons are important for us in our work to pilot interventions to create a more inclusive research environment at Leicester. But, they’re also important for our ability to support colleagues to address barriers to inclusion they see and experience. We will be announcing a second round in the next academic year, so please look out for news from I-REACCH.