Research culture
The success of the UK research system is dependent on its people. The Royal Society works across a number of areas of policy and practice to positively influence research culture.
Research culture encompasses the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of our research communities. It influences researchers’ career paths and determines the way that research is conducted and communicated.
The UK has a long history of shaping global research culture, from the times of the Enlightenment scientists, the foundation of the Royal Society and the frameworks of publishing and peer review.
Building on this history and the strengths of research culture today, the Royal Society has been undertaking significant work across a number of areas of policy and practice. You can find out more information on our activities below.
Through the Royal Society’s grant funding activity, individual researchers are supported to progress through the research and innovation system. The Society offers a number of early-career fellowships including the University Research Fellowship and the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship which are complemented by other research grants, fellowship and career development opportunities.
To facilitate porosity between academia and industry, the Society funds Industry Fellowships and Short Industry Fellowships. The Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence scheme helps increase knowledge and awareness in UK universities of cutting-edge industrial science, research, and innovation, as well as support the translation of science into commercial impact. The Society also organises skills focused activities and events to support research careers.
The Royal Society is a partner of the first UK-wide national Young Academy. The UK Young Academy is a network of early-career researchers and professionals. The initiative, in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences, British Academy, Learned Society of Wales, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Irish Academy, and Royal Society of Edinburgh, aspires to connect emerging leaders with different knowledge and expertise and include their voices in local and global policy discussions.
The Society is a formal supporter of the Technician Commitment which aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines.
The Society has introduced the Hauksbee Award and Research Culture Award to celebrate outstanding achievements in science by those working mostly ‘behind the scenes’ and to recognise outstanding contributions to the wider research community by improving research culture. The Society also worked with Research England and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) to ensure public engagement with research is better recognised in the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
The Royal Society’s Changing Expectations programme aimed to understand how best to steward research culture through a shifting landscape. The focus of the programme was on the assessment of research and researchers, researcher career development, and open science. You can see the videos recorded throughout the Research Culture: Changing expectations conference.
The Society works continuously to imbed diversity and inclusion at the centre of its work and strategy. We have a Diversity and Inclusion Committee who oversee the Royal Society’s diversity and inclusion strategy and related activities. Following cross-sector roundtables and reports commissioned by the Royal Society on ethnicity in STEM academic communities, the Society launched the Royal Society Career Development Fellowship, a four-year, postdoctoral research fellowship that aims to support the retention of researchers from underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As part of the Society’s strategy to identify and address barriers to participation in STEM, the Society launched the STEM Research career roadmap. The roadmap provides a comprehensive summary of roles in STEM and has been designed to support current and prospective researchers, including those from underrepresented groups, to explore academic career pathways.
All researchers are welcome in the Society’s journals, as editors, authors, reviewers and as readers. A global panel of early career researchers advise on how the Society’s journals run, guiding their development to best meet the evolving needs of the research community. Outreach events, explaining how to participate in the journals, are held at universities around the UK and at disciplinary conferences worldwide on occasion.
The Society is committed to making its journals Open Access, enabling everyone to read what is published without barriers. At present, 66% of articles published in the Society’s journals are Open Access. The intention is to make that 100% in the near future. Waivers already allow researchers in more than 100 countries in the Global South to publish Open Access in the Society’s journals without any charges.
International mobility is important for the flow of talent. The Royal Society has written widely on removing barriers to researcher migration and mobility including visa costs and is an endorsing body for the Global Talent visa.
The Society also seeks to support international research collaborations which are enabled by the Society’s International Exchanges, International Collaboration Awards, and JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships, as well as Royal Society grants such as Newton International Fellowships and Royal Society Wolfson Fellowships which enable outstanding international researchers to conduct research in the UK.