Research Culture Uncovered
At the University of Leeds, we believe that all members of our research community play a crucial role in developing and promoting a positive and inclusive research culture. Across the globe, the urgent need for a better Research Culture in Higher Education is widely accepted – but how do you make it happen? This weekly podcast focuses on our ideas, approaches and learning as we contribute to the University's attempt to create a Research Culture in which everyone can thrive. Whether you undertake, lead, fund or benefit from research - these are the conversations to listen to if you want to ex...
(Episode 173) Beyond Town and Gown: The Civic Exchange at University of Leeds
In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Catherine Noakes to explore the Civic Exchange — an initiative at the University of Leeds that's rethinking how universities and communities work together.
We cover:
🔸 What the Civic Exchange is (and isn't) — it's not about doing new things, but about connecting what's already happening across research, education, and engagement
🔸 Moving from "doing things for communities" to co-creating with them — and why that shift matters
🔸 The persistence of "town and gown" and what it takes to break it down
🔸 What Cath's career — from engineering to the SAG...
(Episode 172) Authorship Uncovered: Who Gets the Credit?
Who deserves to be named as an author?
It sounds like a straightforward question, yet authorship remains one of the most contested issues in research. Decisions about who receives credit are often influenced by disciplinary norms, power dynamics, unwritten rules and of course, research culture.
In this episode, Dr Emily Goodall explores four authorship dilemmas drawn from workshops with researchers and research professionals. As each scenario unfolds, you're invited to make your own judgement. Should they be an author? More importantly, what do the answers reveal about how we value different contributions to research?
<...(Episode 171) Supporting Careers With Research - Not Just Careers IN Research (with the Careers in Your Ears team)
Is the job market really as bad as the headlines say? How can researchers better understand and communicate their skillsets? And how can they manage the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with the current employment climate?
In this episode, host Taryn Bell talks with co-host Ruth Winden, as well as King’s College London's Laura Johnson and Anna Favalessa, hosts of the Careers in Your Ears podcast.
Together, they unpack:
How misleading data and clickbait can amplify researcher anxiety, while the data might not actually be as bad as we thinkResearchers' misconceptions about the no...(Episode 170) Can AI Become Your Research Partner?
Episode overview
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of the research landscape—from finding and making sense of literature to supporting academic writing and feedback. But how can researchers use AI productively without losing ownership of their ideas or compromising the critical thinking at the heart of research?
In this episode, Heledd speaks with Dr Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, co-founder and CEO of Thesify, about what a responsible relationship between researchers and AI might look like.
They discuss how AI can support different stages of academic writing, the importance of transparency about its contributions, and ho...
(Episode 169) Navigating Careers Beyond Academia
Episode overview
Exploring a career beyond academia can bring excitement and possibility, but also uncertainty, questions about identity and a sense that moving on means leaving something behind.
In this episode, Heledd speaks with Dr Holly Prescott about the practical and emotional realities of career transition. They explore why researchers may struggle to recognise their skills, why leaving academia can feel like “giving up”, and how careers beyond academia can offer new ways to use your researcher experience.
Holly also challenges the idea that career development is about finding one perfect destination. Instead, it c...
(Episode 168) Navigating the Research Funding Crisis
In an environment of low success rates, rising research costs, and shrinking opportunities, the research funding system appears to be at a crisis point. This isn't just a funding crisis but a culture crisis, intensifying workloads, stress, and precarity, especially for early career researchers seeking funding to stay employed.
A complete overhaul of the funding system is needed - but seems unlikely at present. In lieu of this, what can funders, institutions and researchers actually do to face up to these pressures?
In this episode, host Taryn Bell considers some doable - yet still meaningful...
(Episode 167) Research Impact Heroes – Dr David Phipps on Building Canada's Impact Ecosystem
🎙️In our latest episode, host Dr Ged Hall interviewed another of his #ResearchImpactHeroes Dr David Phipps, Assistant Vice President of Research Strategy and Impact at York University in Toronto and co-founder of Research Impact Canada! Discover how a 40-year journey from HIV research to knowledge mobilisation helped build one of the world's most influential impact networks.
🔹 Hear David's winding path from immunology research during the HIV/AIDS crisis to becoming a pioneer of "knowledge mobilisation" - years before the term even existed. 🔹 Learn why Canada thinks about impact as a "how", not a "what" - and why not having...
(Episode 166) Reflections on a Career at the Heart of Researcher and Academic Development with Jim Baxter
The #ResearchCultureUncovered podcast team is delighted to share a special episode featuring Dr. Jim Baxter, Academic Development Consultant at the University of Leeds, recorded ahead of his retirement after 36 remarkable years studying and employed at the institution.
Join host Ged Hall as he sits down with his long-time colleague and former manager to reflect on Jim's extraordinary career spanning mechanical engineering research, postdoctoral work, a role as a lecturer, and over two decades shaping researcher and academic development — all at the University of Leeds.
• Hear Jim reflect on changes in higher education since the early 1990s an...
(Episode 165) Building Communities for Better Research with UKRN Local Network Lead Dr Eike Rinke
In this episode Nick speaks with Dr Eike Rinke, Lecturer in Politics and Media, Co-Director of the Social Research Methods Centre, and Local Network Lead for the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN).
Eike discusses his academic journey, and reflects on how his experiences as a social scientist led him to become involved in the open research movement. The conversation explores why transparency, rigour and inclusivity matter across all disciplines, and why open research should be considered a universal concern rather than something confined to particular fields.
Eike discusses a research paper he contributed to that examines...
(Episode 164) Technicians uncovered: inside Tech Exchange at Leeds
🎙️ Technicians at the heart of research culture: insights from Tech Exchange at Leeds
In this special episode of Research Culture Uncovered, Dr Emily Ennis hands over the mic to Lily Caprioli, a student ambassador at the University of Leeds, who interviews colleagues across the annual Tech Exchange Fair — a showcase of the people and skills powering research behind the scenes.
What you’ll hear:
Research is a team sport. From senior leadership to lab specialists, contributors emphasise that technicians are fundamental — the people who keep systems running, solve problems, and help teams think...
(Episode 163) Two Identities Postdoc and YouTuber, One Scientist: Inside the World of The Quantified Scientist
🎙️ The #ResearchCultureUncovered podcast team is excited to share our latest episode featuring Dr. Rob ter Horst — postdoctoral researcher and the creator behind the popular YouTube channel The Quantified Scientist!
Join host Ged Hall as he chats with Rob about his fascinating dual life as a researcher and YouTuber, exploring what it means to treat yourself as an experimental subject, running a YouTube channel at the same time as a demanding postdoc and the benefits and challenges of both.
🔹 Discover how Rob's self-tracking journey with weekly brain MRIs, EEG sleep recordings and testing wearables grew from his scient...
(Episode 162) Can we trust the evidence? Spotting problematic research in healthcare
In this thought‑provoking episode, host Dr Emily Goodall speaks with Dr Jack Wilkinson, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Trial Statistics at the University of Manchester. Together, they explore the growing challenge of problematic and fraudulent research polluting the published literature, what it means for trust in evidence, and how the research community can respond.
From “paper mills” to AI‑generated publications, this episode shines a light on how research integrity is being challenged—and what researchers, reviewers, and institutions can do to protect it.
Key themes
The scale of problematic research is growing: Fraudulent and low‑qu...(Episode 161) Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Research Culture in the UAE and Beyond
The #ResearchCultureUncovered podcast team is excited to share our latest episode featuring a fascinating conversation with Professor Adel Ahmed. Adel worked in the UK higher education for over 20 years before moving to the United Arab Emirates in 2015.
Join host, Ged Hall, as he reconnects with his former colleague to explore research culture in the UAE and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
🔹 Discover how higher education in the UAE is strategically designed rather than historically inherited — built around national development priorities, societal impact, and economic diversification, not just rankings and publications.
🔹 L...
(Episode 160) Meta-Research Uncovered: The Role of Research Enablers
What does it mean to do research on research — and what role do professional staff play in it?
In this episode, Alix Brodie-Wray is joined by Dr. Chris Daley (LSE) and Dr. Amy Milligan (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford) to explore the world of meta-research and why research managers, administrators, and enablers have a vital part to play.
We cover:
🔬 What meta-research actually is (and why it matters)
💡 How professional staff bring unique, ground-level expertise to the field
📊 The growing investment in meta-science — including the UK Meta-Science Unit's funding...
(Episode 159) Careers and Skills for Data-driven Research (CaSDaR): a comedy podcast with Dr Louise Saul
In this episode Nick talks to Dr Louise Saul, Network+ coordinator for CaSDaR (Careers and Skills for Data Driven Research), a UKRI-funded initiative aiming to professionalise and build community around data stewardship in the UK.
They discuss shared work through the Open Research Competencies Coalition (ORCC) and Louise’s previous UKRN role as an ORCA (Open Research Coordinator and Administrator) at the University of Southampton, supporting open research training and implementation.
Louise discusses using stand-up comedy to communicate research and open research ideas, and outlines her career path from biotechnology and a PhD in protein cr...
(Episode 158) How to Turn Your PhD Into a Book?
Episode title: How to Turn Your PhD Into a Book
Podcast: Research Culture Uncovered
Host: Heledd Jarosz-Griffiths (Researcher Development Advisor, University of Leeds)
Episode overview
Turning a PhD into a book is rarely a straightforward process. It’s not simply about rewriting or revising a thesis — it involves rethinking purpose, audience, and identity as a researcher.
In this episode, Heledd speaks with Dr Hilary Potter about the challenges and opportunities involved in transforming doctoral research into a book. From the emotional weight of returning to high-stakes work, to developing conf...
(Episode 157) The Gentle Academic: Reimagining Research Culture
If you asked an academic to describe the culture in which they work, 'gentle' is not a word that most would use. But what if academia could be gentler? What would this look like, and how can we get there?
In today's episode, host Taryn Bell is joined by Christine Grove, co-editor of the recent volume 'The Gentle Academic'. They discuss what gentle academia is, what it's not, and how both individuals and academics can become 'gentler' in their ways of working. Far from offering 'lip service' to the idea of culture change, The Gentle Academic offers...
(Episode 156) Valuing Voices: How to Make Research Equitable and Responsible
In this week’s episode, host Emily Goodall speaks with Karen Glerum‑Brooks and Lucy Cheseldine about the Valuing Voices project — a Wellcome-funded initiative co‑created by the University of York and Mahidol University in Thailand that’s helping researchers rethink what equitable, collaborative and responsible research can look like in practice.
Episode highlights:
A practical toolkit for culture change: How the Valuing Voices online tool supports researchers worldwide to design and deliver equitable and responsible research — grounded in the principles of Engagement and impact, Equity and diversity in teams, Strategic risk mapping, Environmental sustainability, Reflection and learning...(Episode 155) What Shapes a Researcher? Reflections from a Worldwide Universities Network Series
🎙️ In our latest episode of Research Culture Uncovered, host Heledd Jarosz-Griffiths explores a deceptively simple question: what actually shapes a researcher?
Drawing on reflections from a Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) series, this episode brings together voices from across global research development sessions — exploring research vision, impact, careers, culture, and identity.
🔹 Why research vision matters — and why it’s so hard to articulate
Hear insights from Dr Jim Baxter on developing long-term direction, and why the pressures of funding, publishing, and short-term goals can pull researchers away from the bigger picture.
🔹 What counts as “impact...
(Episode 154) Cripping research culture: podcasting, disability justice, and counter archives (with Dr Élaina Gauthier Mamaril)
“What if all we have is the now? […] the now is generative and worthwhile.” — Dr Élaina Gauthier‑Mamaril
Host Dr Emily Ennis sits down with Dr Élaina Gauthier‑Mamaril – a disabled philosopher of disability and Research Associate on the Wellcome‑funded Anti‑Ableist Research Culture project at the University of Sheffield – to explore podcasting as method, community, and counter‑archive.
In this conversation:
Podcasting as a research method. From Massively Disabled to Cripping Research Culture, Élaina experiments with sound, affect, and “epistemic brokering” to amplify disabled knowledges and blur the subject/object divide, especially around COVID and long COVID.Rigour with care. Podcasting isn’t “less scholarly”, it’s differently-rigorous. Élaina tal...(Episode 153) How we solved research culture (you're welcome)
In today's final episode of Research Culture Uncovered, hosts Taryn Bell and Emily Ennis discuss how they solved research culture. With no more issues left to fix, and everything running smoothly, they take one last opportunity to sit back, rest, and reflect on how everything went so right...
Just kidding. Happy April Fools!
In this episode, Taryn and Emily look back at what’s been achieved over the last 12 months, discuss some of the ‘classic’ research culture challenges facing higher education, and confront the notion that research culture is a problem that can be solved for go...
(Episode 152) Maturity frameworks for research culture: building buy-in for collective action
In this episode of #ResearchCultureUncovered, host Dr Emily Ennis talks with Dr Amy Mayfield (Lancaster University) and Dr Nicola Simcock (Newcastle University) about how maturity frameworks are helping departments move from good intentions to practical change.
What you’ll hear:
Why a “maturity framework” (name still up for debate!) helps complex organisations reflect honestly on where they are now and where they want to get to, without turning evaluation into yet another top‑down exercise.Local first, institution-wide impact. Newcastle’s pilot runs the tool with units of different sizes to surface priorities, share what already works, and...(Episode 151) Finding Your Tribe: Reflections from the First Impact Ignite Conference
🎙️ The #ResearchCultureUncovered podcast team is excited to share our latest episode featuring reflections from the groundbreaking Impact Ignite Conference! Join host Ged Hall, discuss the conference with fellow University of Leeds #impactprofessionals Andy Cameron, Anu Ekanayake, Ali Quaile, Alexa Ruppertsberg, and Ruth Lawford-Rolfe as they discuss their experiences from this first-of-its-kind global gathering of research impact professionals.
🔹 Discover how Impact Ignite brought together impact professionals from the UK, Europe, Canada, the Middle East, and Australia—creating a true sense of community and solidarity for those working to bridge research and real-world change.
🔹 Learn about practical tools and str...
(Episode 150) Research Impact Heroes - Dr Tamika Heiden on Building Global Impact Communities
🎙️In our latest episode, host Dr Ged Hall interviewed another of his #ResearchImpactHeroes Dr Tamika Heiden, founder of the Research Impact Academy and creator of the Research Impact Summit! Discover how one person's passion is beginning the process of creating a global community for research impact.
🔹 Hear Tamika's inspiring journey from PhD student to research impact entrepreneur, driven by a simple question: "Who makes sure my work gets to where it's needed?"
🔹 Learn the origin story of the Research Impact Summit - born from a sunny Melbourne day, a coffee in hand, and a borrowed idea that b...
(Episode 149) Meet the Culturositists: Introducing Alix Brodie-Wray
🎧The latest new episode of the #ResearchCultureUncovered podcast Ged Hall introduces our New Host, Alix Brodie-Wray. Alix is Faculty Impact Development Manager for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures at the University of Leeds.
Alix discusses her role, which includes supporting impact case study development and working on impact literacy across nine schools. Find out more about Alix and what she will be bringing in her episodes.
Topics include:
🔸 Alix's background, including her journey from the University of Brighton through various research support roles to her current position at Leeds. 🔸 Her role and respo...
(Episode 148) Doing the right thing: Research misconduct and building a culture that values integrity
In this episode, our host Emily Goodall speaks with James Parry, an independent consultant specialising in research integrity and research culture, and former Chief Executive of the UK Research Integrity Office. With years of experience supporting organisations and the research community, James shares insights on how research misconduct extends far beyond instances of fabrication or plagiarism — and how everyday pressures, small compromises, and unchallenged bad behaviour can erode trust, wellbeing, and research quality.
Integrity in research isn’t just about following rules — it’s about building a culture where doing the right thing is supported, encouraged, and possible...
(Episode 147) Who Gets to Belong? LGBT+ History Month
🎧 Show notes
Episode title: Who Gets to Belong? LGBT+ History Month
Podcast: Research Culture Uncovered
Host: Heledd Jarosz-Griffiths (Researcher Development Advisor, University of Leeds)
Episode overview
LGBT+ History Month takes place every February, and the 2026 theme is Science & Innovation. In this episode, Heledd is joined by Morgan Buswell and Dr Robin Hayward to explore what LGBT+ History Month means in a research context — including how science and innovation spaces are experienced by LGBT+ colleagues, why some stories and contributions remain overlooked, and what helps create cultures where people genuinely feel...
(Episode 146) How do funders support research cultures?: Behind the scenes at Cancer Research UK
In today's episode, Taryn Bell talks to Dr Mat Tata, Research Programme Manager (EDI in Research) at Cancer Research UK. Mat leads CRUK's work on equality, diversity and inclusion in research, and offers us an insight into research culture from the funder's perspective.
Key highlights:
1️⃣Understanding the grant review process - Mat discusses how decisions are made across CRUK's funding calls, and the steps CRUK has taken to ensure their funding process is transparent, proportional and equitable.
2️⃣Funders as a mechanism for healthier research cultures - Taryn and Mat discuss the role of funders...
(Episode 145) From Postdoc to Project Manager: How do you make the leap?
This episode focuses on changing career from postdoctoral research to project management. Ruth Winden talks to Leeds alumni Dr Shirley-Anne Paul, Project Manager at Drax plc.
With a background in Psychology, Shirley made the switch to project management after nine years as a postdoc at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leeds and the University of York. She has had an illustrious project management career ever since, starting out in the Workers' Educational Association (WEA), then moving to Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, the University of Leeds, the fintech sector at My Money Matters, and most recently...
(Episode 144) Meet the Culturositists: Introducing Emily Ennis
In our Research Culture Uncovered conversations we are asking what is Research Culture and why does it matter? In this episode we welcome new host, Dr Emily Ennis, to the team. We get to hear more about Emily before she hosts episodes on her specialist topics.
Emily shares her background in research culture and her role as the Research Culture Manager at the University of Leeds, which includes leading the research culture team and overseeing evaluation and strategy. She elaborates on her background, shares her interests outside of work, and talks about her plans for future podcast...
(Episode 143) The Art of Saying No: Power, Permission and Research Culture
Episode overview
Saying no is rarely just about confidence or time management. In research and higher education, it’s shaped by career stage, job security, power dynamics, working patterns, caring responsibilities, and the cultures we work within.
In this episode, Heledd slows the conversation down and listens to reflections from a postgraduate researcher, academic colleagues at different career stages, and professional services colleagues working in learning and development and digital practice.
Together, these voices show that “no” isn’t equally available to everyone — and that healthier research cultures depend on more than individual resilience...
(Episode 142) Navigating careers in academic libraries: a conversation with Josh Sendall
In our first episode of 2026 Nick talks to Josh Sendall about his career in academic libraries, culminating in his recent appointment as Acting Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds.
In a wide ranging conversation Josh discusses the importance of research libraries and how 'openness' is deeply aligned with both his own and university values, the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how libraries have always adapted to new information technology.
Josh reflects on his rapid career trajectory that has benefitted from "planned happenstance" and shares some of what he...
(Episode 141) A Festive Quiz: Research Culture Uncovered Holiday Special
This special holiday episode is all about celebration, laughter, and a little friendly competition! The Research Culture Uncovered podcast team wraps up the year with a cheerful mix of knowledge and festive fun, proving that research culture can sparkle with joy.
Join your quizmaster Dr Emma Spary as she attempts to keep control of proceedings. Before the quiz begins we have an early gift for our listeners. We’re pleased to welcome Dr Emily Ennis as a new host. Her passion for shaping research environments promises exciting conversations in the year ahead—you’ll get more in Januar...
(Episode 140) Inside the FLF Development Network: Enabling Leaders, Supporting Institutions, Shaping Research Cultures
In this episode of the Research Culture Uncovered podcast, host Dr Taryn Bell talks with Dr Sara Shinton and Dr Katie Nicoll Baines from the Future Leaders Fellows Development Network. Together, they discuss how the FLFDN enables future research leaders, supports institutions across the UK and helps shape a more collaborative and collegiate research culture.
Key highlights:
1️⃣ Enabling, rather than training, researchers - Sara and Katie share examples of the support the Network offers to Future Leaders Fellows, and discuss the importance of helping researchers to develop their own resources and support
2️⃣ Researcher support...
(Episode 139) Championing Change: Vicky Williams on Impact, Inclusion, and Innovation in Scholarly Publishing
🎙️ The Research Culture Uncovered podcast team is thrilled to present our latest episode featuring Vicky Williams, Chief Executive Officer of Emerald Publishing. Join hosts Ged Hall, Head of Researcher Development at the University of Leeds, and Nick Sheppard, Open Research Advisor in the University’s Library, as they delve into the insights and experiences of Vicky in shaping research culture.
🔹 Vicky shares her 25-year journey at Emerald Publishing and how the organisation’s founding values have driven its mission to make research usable in the world outside academia.
🔹 Discover how Emerald Publishing supports equitable access and impact, inc...
(Episode 138) Reclaiming Your Research Career After Maternity Leave
In this episode, Ruth Winden, Careers with Research Consultant at the University of Leeds, speaks to Dr Elizabeth Faulkner and Dr Cathal Rogers about the UK's Higher Education sector and its systemic inequalities for researchers who return to their research careers after maternity leave.
Following a nation-wide Freedom of Information request to 130 Higher Education institutions in the UK, Elizabeth and Cathal undertook painstaking analysis of universities' maternity leave policies for researchers.
They published their findings in this Open Access article: Faulkner, E.A and Rogers, C (2025) Confronting the lack of support for academics returning to r...
(Episode 137) Drag, law, and the value of collaborative knowledge sharing
In this insightful episode, Dr. Emily Goodall speaks with Dr. James Greenwood-Reeves about how research can be radically reimagined when it’s creative, collaborative, and community-led. Together, they explore how working with drag artists through the “Laws a Drag” network is challenging traditional academic norms and reshaping what research culture can look like.
Key highlights:
1️⃣ Co-production is powerful: Collaboration goes beyond treating participants as research subjects, when drag artists guided the research, it became more ethical and impactful.
2️⃣ Creative methods matter: Arts-based approaches like forum theatre amplify marginalised voices and encourage researchers to reflect on the...
(Episode 136) Beyond the Pain Scale: Embodied Research — with Dr Neko Mellor
Show Notes
Episode Summary:
In Beyond the Pain Scale: Embodied Research, host Dr Heledd Jarosz-Griffiths speaks with Dr Neko Mellor about how chronic pain, disability, and neurodiversity shape both research and writing. Drawing on her PhD in English at the University of Leeds, Neko explores how twenty-first-century women authors represent pain, reflecting on the limits of medical pain scales, the challenges of articulating ongoing pain, and what it means to research through the body. Blending literary analysis with lived experience, she examines how pain is expressed, understood, and misunderstood—both medically and culturally—and what this...
(Episode 135) Rethinking Research: Building Collaborative Environments
In this episode of the 'Research Culture Uncovered' podcast, Emma Spary, Associate Director for Researcher Development and Research Culture at the University of Leeds, is joined by guests Nik Ogryzko, from UKRI's Central Talent Team, and Kelly Vere, Director of Technical Strategy at the University of Nottingham. The discussion explores the need for a shift from a culture that's merely nice to one that's collaborative and structurally supportive. They include the importance of recognising contributions from all team members, including technicians, research administrators, and digital experts, to foster better research outcomes.
Key highlights:
The shortcomings of...(Episode 134) Lab Coats and Lunch Boxes: Navigating a Research Career and Motherhood
Research Culture Uncovered: Navigating Career and Parenthood as a Scientist
Host Ruth Winden (Careers with Research Consultant) and guest Dr. Hema Viswambharan (Senior Scientist, LICAMM, University of Leeds)
“Building a career after a break is like a marathon and not a sprint.” (Dr. Hema Viswambharan)
Episode Overview:
In this highly personal episode, Ruth Winden speaks with Dr. Hema Viswambharan about the realities of juggling a research career with parenthood. Drawing on her 20 years of experience as both a scientist and a mother, Hema shares her lived experiences, highlighting personal and professional chal...
