Changing Research Culture - online attendance of keynote talks

In anticipation of REF2029’s heightened emphasis on People, Culture and Environment, ‘research culture’ is increasingly coming into scope as a focus of attention for UK institutions. But critical and reflective work is needed to avoid the term becoming, like ‘excellence’ itself, a floating signifier that obscures the genuine conditions, processes and limitations of academic practice.

This one-day workshop will address this task with a particular focus on practices around openness and transparency. With reference to UKRIO’s component principles of research integrity, we will examine the degree to which open practices present a necessary condition of a culture of research integrity and inclusion and explore the extent to which embedding and facilitating open practices offers a significant mechanism of culture change.

While the majority of the event is in-person only, the keynote talks will be streamed online. If you would prefer to attend in person for all of the event, please use this link to book. 

This event is FREE and open to researchers and research-related colleagues from both within and outside the University of Sheffield.

Please find below details of the keynote talks you will be able to attend online:

10.15-11.00 Keynote 1:

Dr Tanita Casci, Director, Research Strategy & Policy Unit, University of Oxford

Research culture: making it stick

Better research, and better trust in research, depends on making sustained improvements to our day-to-day research habits, including how we implement the highest standards of practice in the design, planning, execution, and reporting of research findings. Our practices, however, are too often shaped by the somewhat narrow and traditional way in which we evaluate quality, support careers, and recognise contributions made to research.

Research funders and REF are increasingly holding institutions and PIs responsible for demonstrating positive and supportive research cultures — now is therefore the right time to promote positive practices across institutions, funders, publishers, and the wider sector.

​​Biography

Tanita is the Director of the Research Strategy & Policy Unit at the University of Oxford. The Unit leads on institutional strategies and initiatives to further strengthen Oxford’s research and research environment. From 2015–2021, Tanita was the Head of Research Policy at the University of Glasgow, where she was also institutional co-lead for research culture, co-lead of Lab for Academic Culture, and co-author of the university’s 5-year research strategy (2020–2025). Previously, Tanita launched a Wellcome-funded facility for the analysis of ‘big data’ in biology, and for 12 years worked as a commissioning editor at Springer-Nature.  She has a PhD in Genetics from the MRC-LMB/University of Cambridge, UK.

2.20-3.00 Keynote 2:

Professor Stephen Curry, College Consul and Professor of Natural Science, Imperial College London, and Chair of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
Weaving the threads of a revitalised research culture

Plans to place greater emphasis on People, Culture and Environment in the UK’s next Research Excellence Framework represent the latest strand of work worldwide to reform research culture. These include efforts to address research issues such as assessment, integrity, openness, and diversity & inclusion, which have emerged from many different parts of the academic landscape. In my presentation I will argue that these strands need to be woven together through inspiring and action-oriented leadership if we are to create the fabric of a revitalised research culture that is focused on the challenges of the 21st Century.

Biography

Stephen Curry is a Professor of Structural Biology at Imperial College London where he now serves as a College Consul. From 2017-23 he was the university’s first Associate Provost for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. For many years he has also been a writer and campaigner on a range of scientific issues including open access, research assessment, research funding and science policy. He is a cofounder of Science is Vital, served for six years on the board of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, and served as chair of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) from 2017-23, which has drawn attention to the intersections between research evaluation reform and the drive for equity within the academy. In October 2023, he was appointed as Director of Strategy at the Research on Research Institute (RoRI).

The full programme for the event can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tCexuUiaGawAxTqNHi02amcfKO-XzPJuC10EIwbhOik/edit?usp=sharing (please note that only the keynote talks will be streamed online)