Our research environment
Message from Professor Mary Ryan, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise)
Imperial supports and nurtures a research environment that is defined by a culture of integrity, good governance and best practice. Our highly ambitious, collaborative, multidisciplinary community of researchers possess a common goal of tackling the biggest scientific challenges of our time. This is only possible through our outstanding collective research ethos, and by placing public trust and confidence in our research at the heart of everything we do. We have built an environment where researchers can be bold, challenge the boundaries of their fields, and feel supported in judicious risk-taking.Imperial is committed to embedding a positive research culture throughout the College to support our mission to achieve enduring excellence in research and education in science, engineering, medicine and business for the benefit of society.
Achieving a positive research culture is the responsibility of all staff and students at the College. We greatly value our talented researchers and recognise that they are fundamental to our ability to develop and deliver world class research. Imperial is dedicated to building a supportive, considerate and highly motivated community based on diversity, inclusivity and mutual respect across all disciplines, functions and activities to help us to attract and retain our talented staff and students. Equality of opportunity is essential to achieving research excellence and we believe our diversity of thought and culture is fundamental to our ability to solve complex challenges. We aim to remove barriers, eliminate discrimination and make sure everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Imperial’s commitment to excellence underpins everything we do, but this is only possible through our approach to ensuring a positive and inclusive research culture is fully embedded in policies, practices and initiatives across the entire College.
Imperial is committed to:
- a supportive, inclusive and highly motivated research community that has the confidence to question and challenge
- courageous and creative research, conducted in a collaborative manner and with a global outlook
- open research, conducted ethically with integrity, good governance and best practice
- promoting and recognising the value of equality, diversity and inclusion across our research community
Overview
Imperial is committed to research excellence, supported by a culture of integrity, good governance and best practice that encourages courageous research with a global outlook.
Imperial’s research culture is based on a broad set of values underpinning our commitment to research excellence, which encompass a prioritisation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through our EDI Strategy for inclusive excellence, research integrity, and researcher (both doctoral students and staff) wellbeing.
Achieving a positive research culture is the responsibility of all staff and students at the College and is monitored through our staff surveys and the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) for research students.
Imperial can demonstrate our commitment to achieving a positive research culture through the policies, practices and initiatives that are managed across the College.
Our set of College Values and Imperial Expectations play a key role in the College’s proactive policy of championing equality, diversity and fulfilling our social responsibilities. They embody our commitment to inclusiveness, participation and openness. These are reinforced by our Imperial Together initiative, which strengthens the continued efforts to create the best working environment and culture.
As part of our efforts to embed a positive research culture within Imperial, we have provided our staff with a Research Environment Toolkit (staff log in only) to help them implement change both as part of their grant applications and within their own research environment.
Imperial uses funding from Research England to support projects designed to explore and enhance our research culture. Read more on our Supported Projects page.
If you would like to hear more about our work on research culture, please contact the Funding Strategy Team at the Research Office.
