Developing Evidence-Informed Approaches to Culture Change

Developing evidence-informed approaches to culture change, through support for evaluation strategies within and across research cultures. This will allow us to assess the engagement with and impact of our activities, and make progress through iteration.

Current activities and initiatives: Maturity Matrix: we will develop a maturity matrix for research culture to provide a structured framework to enable the assessment of progress at institutional, School, discipline, UoA and even individual research group level. By focusing on key areas such as openness, integrity, inclusivity, leadership, collaboration, and innovation, and breaking these complex themes down into manageable pathways, the matrix will support the assessment of progress so far, and offer a clear route to follow in making further improvements. The maturity matrix will be developed during 2025.
Sector Standards: The PCE indicators project will provide insight into how the REF exercise will ask HEIs to describe and evaluate their research culture work. The sector report is expected in November 2024.
External links and resources: SCOPE Framework for Research Evaluation: developed by the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS), the SCOPE framework is a five-stage model designed to guide responsible research evaluation. It assists research managers and evaluators in planning and conducting assessments that align with core values and contextual considerations.

The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE): is the national body which champions the public engagement agenda and influences culture change within and across HEIs.

EDGE Tool: Developed by the NCCPE the EDGE tool is a maturity matrix self-assessment tool to help institutions and individuals to take stock and plan future work. This is a useful guide as we explore developing a maturity matrix for research culture.