Our research culture

From Mon 22nd June - Wed 1st July, the University of Bristol will be hosting its first Research Culture Week with over 60 sessions!

This week intends to bring together a wide variety of activities, workshops, and training led by groups from all across the University, related to our broad priority themes (view these further down the page).

Whilst most applicable to those involved in the research environment, the week is open to all staff and students across all Schools, Faculties, and Divisions.

See the webpage or internal SharePoint for a preview of sessions you can expect to see across the programme.

Full schedule to be published in early May.

In our Research Culture Vision, we set out our aspirational, medium-term vision for research culture at the University of Bristol – the end state we hope to reach by 2030.

To move us towards realising our vision, the Research Culture Committee have published an annual implementation plan that will include specific areas of focus for that year, and how success will be measured against pre-defined criteria. This will allow us to constantly refine our approach, and update our objective and indicators of success, as we as an institution progress and the sector evolves.

Within these, we identify five priority areas, outlined below.

In 2021, the University of Bristol created the role of Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Research Culture in recognition of the importance of fostering and sustaining a positive environment for research, and supporting those engaged in the research process.

In 2022, the Research Culture Committee was established as the main body that now leads on research culture activity across the University. Made up of academic researchers, research professionals, technicians and others, the committee aims to ensure a positive research culture supported by a cycle of continuous improvement. It is responsible for creating a vision, strategy and annual action plan for improving
research culture.

There are various groups that feed into the Research Culture Committee, which itself feeds into the University Research Committee. This structure gives staff and post-graduate students the power to escalate their thoughts and concerns related to the research environment which can lead to institution-wide changes.

We have received continued funding from Research England to support activity to improve research culture since 2021.

A number of diverse projects have been carried out thanks to this funding; you can find more information about our work across the priority area subpages.

Here you can read our blog covering our programme of work in 2024/25: Developing a positive research culture at Bristol – our programme of work in 2024/25 – The Research Culture Blog

Each year we host our Festival of Research Culture to bring colleagues from across the University together for a day of talks, interactive sessions and networking.

We share our progress towards building and maintaining a positive research culture, give colleagues information on how they can contribute and invite attendees to view and contribute towards our ever-evolving vision and strategic plan.