Supporting research talent - University of Birmingham

Through Research England's Quality-related Research (QR) funding, we are supporting researcher and research-related career development and progression. See examples below for a snapshot of researchers and research-related staff's work.

Supporting women in policy engagement

Women with Impact

Transcript

The Women with Impact programme was developed to help address some of the gender disparity in terms of academic involvement in political and policy engagement.

We worked with colleagues from across the University including HR, EDI, the Public Affairs team, and the Research Communication team to help select a cohort of 20 early and mid-career researchers and develop a programme of training which would help them on their journey in terms of policy impact.

The programme itself had a number of different strands of activity, this included formal training with an external agency, in terms of public affairs and understanding the political landscape.

There were networking opportunities to meet with and hear from some of the women who are already doing incredible work in this area and also find out what opportunities there are for support from the Public Affairs team.

The programme also included the development of tools and frameworks and guides to help people along their policy engagement and their impact journey.

For me one of the most exciting parts of the project, it was a project which was sponsored by Preet Gill MP, as part of the project we were able to take the cohort down to parliament for the day, where they met Preet Gill, had a tour of parliament and were able to actually see how policy works in action.

One of the other outputs from this programme was an Impact in Action event, this brought together female academics, professionals and business leaders to discuss the challenges which they faced, in terms of regional policy impact.

This was a really fantastic event, and we got really good feedback from the guests and the participants.

Through Women with Impact, female early and mid career researchers built their understanding of UK parliament as well as their confidence and networks in policy engagement. To address gender disparities in achieving research impact through policy engagement, these researchers learned from academic peers and public affairs and policy engagement specialists. Those who participated also had the opportunity to visit Parliament and learn first-hand from Preet Gill MP.

Led by research communications and public affairs colleagues, the project culminated in an event that brought together several researchers from the University with a strong track record in policy engagement with those from business and other researchers to share insights and discuss specific challenges to policy engagement in and for the region. Learning and insights from the project are available internally for others to use.

Leading to Engage

Leading to Engage delivered tailored training and development opportunities to over 200 researchers, improving understanding, capability and confidence in public and community engagement. The Public and Cultural Engagement team tailored opportunities to academic staff and postgraduate researchers. This included a year-long leadership course that has led to 11 new community partnerships, two school outreach projects and five new artist-led commissions.

The development of a new internal community of practice was unplanned but now includes over 70 members who are working together to create a cross-institutional vision for community engagement with research.

Leading to Engage

University of Birmingham Public and Cultural Engagement team

Transcript

[Lauren Deere] The leading to engage programme has been designed to enable established academics at the University of Birmingham, who are already doing public engagement activity, to take some time out over a year to reflect on their practice and learn from others.

That includes others at the University, from other disciplines that they might be able to share ideas with, learn from community organisations based here in the city of Birmingham and also further a field from other academics at other leading universities across the UK.

[Adam Matthews] I applied for the leading to engage programme to develop my own practice in public engagement.

[Adam Ledger] How you can best facilitate people to go out and make changes through engagement, is something I wanted to actually have some strategies for.

[Katie Reilly] ... and I thought the training opportunities on leading to engage were perfect for what I wanted to do and the directions I wanted to take my work in as well.

[Sandra Agyapong-Badu] I sort of like the approach where we are linking with existing communities, to see what we can use our own research findings to develop.

[Adam Ledger] You are dealing with real people, with real lived experiences, with real challenges in their lives, often with fantastic things that they want to say and they want to do.

[Sandra Agyapong-Badu] What I'm learning with every session that we've had, is how not to sort of lose track of that focus. That the ultimate is really be able to get my research out there.

[Adam Matthews] As a result of the programme, I think I've changed in my outlook towards public engagement and how we can integrate that with our teaching and research. So, not seeing it as something separate, but how you can pull that together.

[Katie Reilly] Having a more universal terminology to describe my ideas and my approach for how I do things to other researchers is useful. So, before I'd have the ideas, but maybe not the concise way to describe that to other people and I think the training from this has really helped.

[Adam Ledger] I think a lot more people should be doing engagement and to do a programme like this, which is not a short programme. It's a very long programme, so you get a lot of time to to meet people and to shape your ideas.

[Alice Roberts] When you bring people from different disciplines together you create sparks and it helps you, alter your own perspective on your research. The University of Birmingham is a global University, it's a university of immensely high standing. We're publishing internationally recognised research, but that shouldn't lift us away from Birmingham. It's really really important for us to continue engaging, yes at the international scale, at the national scale, but also importantly at the local scale as well. With communities in and around Birmingham and the West Midlands. So you can apply for for small grants to get a public engagement activity off the ground, all the way through to much larger grants. Have a look, apply and just start doing it. It's never too soon to start doing some public engagement.

Enhancing postgraduate researchers’ public engagement skills

Over 450 people engaged with the Graduate School's two public-facing exhibitions showcasing postgraduate researchers’ work: The Postgraduate Research Almanac and Enquiring Minds. A culmination of a project to develop and enhance researchers’ skills in sharing their research with non-academic audiences, the exhibitions featured more than 50 postgraduate researchers' work with the latter aimed specifically at children. Both exhibitions acted as a pilot that could be replicated in the future to benefit new cohorts of postgraduate researchers.

Connecting research and clinical practice

Lorraine Harper, Professor of Nephrology, led a project that strengthened communication between Birmingham Health Partner organisations and highlighted the links between foundational research and its clinical applications.

Over 200 attendees from Birmingham Health Partner (BHP) organisations participated in online and in-person workshops that brought together clinicians and allied health professionals. The workshops showcased opportunities for pursuing research careers including funding, how to apply for research positions and how to design and run clinical trials. To continue these workshops with the ultimate aim of improving the shortage of clinical academics and scientists in the UK, a Programme Officer has been recruited.

Expanding opportunities in STEM

An Astronomy Summer School hosted in summer 2023 helped those who are often underrepresented in STEM disciplines to access and participate in research.

Through an eight-week summer research internship, a diverse cohort of undergraduate students supported real research projects with guidance from academic mentors and received additional access to expert-led seminars and specialised training. Feedback has been positive; students enjoyed their research projects and at least one has gone on to further postgraduate study.

Enhancing research culture in astronomy

A Stellar and Planetary Initiative for Research Enhancement (ASPIRE) enhanced underrepresented researchers' visibility and skills to improve future career prospects. Through the project, early-career researchers and PhD researchers had the opportunity to share their research and grow their own networks, participating in training and week-long overseas study schools and seminars. Other activities include building a Lego orrery used for open days and outreach events, which led to the research group becoming Royal Astronomical Society members and attending the largest international conference for those in the exoplanet field.

Improving inclusivity and diversity in geography and environmental sciences

Sam Giles, Professor of Palaeobiology, led the EQUATOR2 project to increase participation and retention of Black, Asian, and other minoritised postgraduate researchers in Geography, Earth, and Environmental Sciences (GEES).

33 researchers from underrepresented backgrounds participated in a week-long research school in July 2023. The summer school helped to improve their perceptions and knowledge of GEES research, instilled a greater sense of belonging and increased skills and understanding.

A mentoring programme ran from January to May 2024, pairing 17 mentees with 27 mentors from academia and industry, increasing diversity of representation and post-PhD career awareness, as well as improved retention and student experience.

The EQUATOR2 research summer school is a sanctuary for underrepresented people like myself in research. Information and resources provided gave me the confidence to pursue a career in research.
EQUATOR2 participant

Creating a supportive postgraduate research culture

The University Graduate School has provided tailored wellbeing support to postgraduate researchers, creating a supportive culture within which they can thrive.

Working with two external partners, postgraduate researchers could participate in twice-weekly online group coaching sessions with the PhD Life Coach and mental health workshops with Bloomwise. These opportunities created space to explore common issues such as procrastination, overwhelm, imposter syndrome and energy management, as well as mental health generally to help researchers navigate challenges.

The online group coaching programme has been recognised by the sector as an example of good practice, including at the UK Council for Graduate Education International Conference.

Enhancing research culture for medicine and health

Professor Daniel Tennant, Deputy Director of Research – College of Medicine and Health, led a comprehensive research culture project that has reached over 1,000 colleagues, predominantly early career researchers. The project included several strands of activity: a series of workshops and events, a dedicated career adviser to improve career management support in line with the Researcher Development Concordat, access to and support for training on researcher integrity, and the introduction of a journal club for researchers to discuss reproducibility and open science. Feedback from workshops on topics such as research integrity, project management and academic careers has been positive, and the research festival will become a regular fixture in the college's calendar of events.

Demystifying postdoctoral academia

Led by Professor Klaus Richter, Professor of Central and Eastern European History, Demystifying Postdoctoral Academia involved two workshops focused on addressing the needs of postgraduate researchers from underrepresented groups, clarifying key skills and activities and providing a safe space to share experiences and concerns. This has improved efforts to make research culture and training opportunities more accessible to all postgraduate researchers, including distance learning students in the College of Arts and Law and beyond.

Progressing the careers of minority ethnic postgraduates in higher education

Kalwant Bhopal, Professor of Education and Social Justice, led a project in the School of Education to encourage students from minority ethnic backgrounds to pursue academic careers beyond taught Masters courses. The project identified barriers that minority ethnic students faced and promoted good practices to improve access and participation in academic careers.