Short abstract

This paper will focus on how research culture projects at several UK HEIs are working with different change theories.

Long abstract

Change is an integral part of metascience: as it ‘explodes into the mainstream’ and ‘new initiatives and alliances are set up’, change is required by institutions to rethink, adapt and redesign the systems, infrastructure and practice of research. Institutions face multiple and substantial challenges as they seek to foster environments which are fair, inclusive and supportive through the implementation of initiatives to improve culture. Although what we want to change is often easily articulated, how we effect change is often more difficult. Leadership-driven change directives often have no traction, while bottom-up change can struggle to have sufficient influence on effecting change. How can we draw on change theories to successfully implement metascience initiatives and change research cultures? This panel will focus on how funders and funded research culture improvement projects at several UK HEIs are working with different change management approaches to overcome the challenges of change at both the sector level and within large organisations and across multidisciplinary teams. Our proposed paper will feature colleagues working directly on funded projects at several UK institutions, as well as funders, who are grappling with how to create change across the research ecosystem. It will cover projects working to: enhance leadership capacity to build safe and inclusive research environments; review fixed-term research contracts and pilot new employment models to reduce precarity; improve institutional decision-making by facilitating evidence-informed practice, to promote research excellence; and build a body of evidence to support and inform sector initiatives to foster equitable, diverse and supportive research environments.