Wellcome Trust Reimagine Research Dundee Townhall 12th February 2020 – Dr Natalie Homer
The research sector is widely seen as producing great work. However, there are concerns about the culture that has developed to support it. Last year the Wellcome Trust released a report on Research Culture – https://wellcome.ac.uk/reports/what-researchers-think-about-research-culture. It contains the results of a literature review, interviews, workshops and a survey of over 4000 researchers. It describes what researchers think of the research culture in the UK.
Kelly Vere from Nottingham University and the Technician Commitment has been interviewed by WT about this very topic – https://wellcome.ac.uk/news/more-just-technician-why-we-need-recognise-everyone-research-team
In response to their report, Town Hall events have been held at Universities across the country in the early part of 2020 and on Wednesday 12th February I attended the Wellcome Dundee Townhall – Reimagine Research meeting at Dundee University. There were approximately 80 there to discuss some of the major themes that the report brought out: ‘Security’, ‘Teamwork’, ‘Research, Quality and Accountability’ and ‘Wellbeing and equality of opportunities’
The role that technicians play in higher education was discussed at this event. My table had PhD students, technicians, research grant administrators, early career researchers and senior PIs. Each table was encouraged to have a good open discussion, structured on the themes.
After an introduction from Professor John Rowan (Vice Principal, Dundee University – Research, Knowledge Exchange and wider impact) the first round-table discussions began, with strict time keeping. The tables were encouraged to discuss each of the four subjects in turn. Each table had someone from the Wellcome Trust to write down discussions on the headed paper and to encourage the conversation. A group of cards which contained key facts and figures and anonymised personal statements from the Research Culture report were associated with each of these four themes.
Under Security we discussed job security for early career researchers, but also within other job types in higher education. The competition for limited numbers of jobs and how funding limitations or uncertainties can increase unhealthy competitiveness in any job type. Under the heading Wellbeing we discussed bullying and harassment officers, mental health first aiders, dealing with grant rejections and paper rejections and the impact of that on mental health. The importance of mentoring for all staff was also raised. Under Teamwork we discussed the demand of being a people manager early on in PI development. Discussed externally hosted lab management courses for early PIs and making people management an essential part of that training. We also discussed lab management and the role that experienced technical staff can play in research groups. Under Research Quality and Accountability, we discussed Research Integrity leads, using PubPeer – post publication peer review process to find out if papers have anonymous comments.
After a short coffee break there was a Q&A panel discussion. Stuart Fancey from Scottish Funding Council, Annalu Waller, Dundee University; Ben Bleasdale from Wellcome Trust, Carol Mackintosh – Head of Postgraduate Studies, Dundee University and Rachel Cox from Vitae. Things discussed at this included use of ISFF funding to generate positive working environments, consideration of alternative career paths in higher education, the Researcher Development Concordat and the importance of technicians in research groups and core facilities (e.g. microscopy, computing)
A second round-table started with ‘A good research culture has……’ and considered the report outcomes and how each institution can change to achieve a better research culture. Questions we considered on our table were ‘How to reward good management in academic careers’ and the need for policies and policy enforcement.
The afternoon was closed by Prof Inke Nathke, Associate Dean of Professional Culture, University of Dundee, and Dr Beth Thompson, Research Culture Lead at Wellcome Trust.
In summary the responsibility to change research culture lies with the whole research community (Publishers, professional bodies, funding bodies, institutes) – to make them more desirable places to work. There is a recognition that changing to a more positive research culture will be a generational change. A suggestion that we should be looking to industry e.g. Pharma is research intensive and can display excellence. The discussions and points raised at this event and other Townhall events across the UK will be summarised at a Reimagine Research Solutions Summit on 18th March, at the Barbican Centre. It was good to be able to contribute to this TownHall event and important to recognise that research culture across the UK is in need of change.
Dr Natalie Homer manages the Mass Spectrometry Core within the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility. You can hear more news from Natalie via her Twitter pages: @EdMassSpecCore @zinghomer
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