Hierarchies and power dynamics within research environments impose structures and assumptions on interactions across University research activities, often limiting opportunities for collaboration, achieving the best real-world impacts, and harmonious and productive working environments. Hierarchies manifest in lots of different ways: between academics at different career stages; between research enabling staff and academics; between disciplines, where STEM subjects often lead interdisciplinary work; and between researchers in the Global North and Global South, see Cascant Sempere, 2022; Tandon, 2021. These hierarchies are exacerbated by inequalities of ethnicity, gender, disability and perceptions of expertise, with the academic research community dominated by certain demographics, see Hattery et al., 2022.

This presentation will draw on the Wellcome Trust-funded Valuing Voices for Equitable and Responsible Research project at the University of York to present delegates with ten practical steps for universities to adopt to address hierarchies within the research environment. Exploring issues such as representation, recognition, establishment of a team ethos, leadership models, skills identification, language and communication, this presentation will draw on the latest research to suggest simple ways to break down hierarchical barriers for the benefit of all in the research community.

Co-created by the North-East Research Culture Managers Network and the Research Culture Enablers Network (RCEN) Committee, ‘Research Culture Islands’ is a creative workshop designed to explore through metaphor how our collective ideas can cultivate a thriving research culture.

Through the design and illustration of interactive maps, participants will contribute their ideas on how a healthy research culture ecosystem and environment flourishes. The workshop aims to express challenges and opportunities to research culture through the creation of a metaphorical island. It offers, through the use of geographic and poetic language, the opportunity to analyse and evaluate the strengths and threats to the island and consider and debate through themes and locations which avenues, correlations and insights demonstrate commonalities and opportunities across the groups.

Using the maps crafted by participants as a springboard for strategic conversation, workshop leaders will foster roadmapping-inspired discussions across tables. These discussions will be captured through the use of post-it notes and flipcharts with pointers for debate. This will enable us to develop recommendations for the next steps, guiding us from the flourishing ecosystem of our created 'imagined' island to debating and evaluating how the themes, opportunities and concerns expressed can inspire improvements to our real-world research culture.

Research culture crosses boundaries; it spans traditional domains of expertise and governance in research organisations. Supporting a positive culture requires coordination across people-related functions, research-enabling functions, and strategy and policy expertise, and across different parts of an organisation’s structure.
To illustrate coordination in a complex setting, we use the example of the University of Oxford Research and Innovation Support Network and its Research Culture Community of Practice.
As a case study, a collaborative project from this network developed a suite of resources to support researchers writing narrative CVs. Narrative CVs have been introduced to support the evaluation of varied contributions to research, aiming to reward a broader set of activities, achievements and career paths, improve diversity and inclusion, and encourage responsible use of metrics. But this change can be daunting for researchers. The success of the project depended on an engaged network of professional services colleagues, including contributions from: research facilitators in different disciplines; experts in research culture, public and community engagement, and equality, diversity and inclusion; and careers advisors, as well as researchers.
We discuss the value of working across specialisms in the research culture arena, and how addressing specific need can become a springboard for wider culture change.