The Pitch competition: ideas to positively change research culture

The competition

The Pitch competition provided the opportunity to pitch an idea or scheme to improve research culture in the UK and potentially receive a small grant to support its implementation. Submitted ideas were shortlisted and the groups or individuals behind the top ideas were invited to pitch them on stage at the Research culture: Changing expectations conference. A panel of judges challenged each pitch before deciding whether to award a small grant of £1000 to support its implementation.

The judges

• Chair: Professor Dame Wendy Hall FRS, Professor of Computer Science in Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, and Director of the Web Science Institute
• Rebecca Endean, Director of Strategy for UK Research and Innovation
• Dr Steven Hill, Director of Research at Research England
• Dr Magdalena Skipper, Chief Editor at Nature
• Professor Paul Walton, Professor of Chemistry at York University, which is celebrating ten years of Athena SWAN Gold award, the longest held award at this level

The judging criteria

The finalists pitching their idea to the panel were judged on:

• Plans for implementing their idea
• How the grant will be used to support the implementation of their idea