The Good Science Project is an Imperial-wide initiative aiming to promote debate about contemporary research culture. We celebrate the ideals which brought us into science, and by which we hope to work. And we look with a critical eye at the way Imperial can best support our own good practice.
The Good Science Project is a collaboration between the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) and the Science Communication Unit and is funded by Research England.
What is ‘good science’?
What is ‘good science’? And what is ‘good practice’? These phrases are interesting because they point in two directions. On the one hand there is the ‘headline’ success of institutions: grants won, league tables scaled, top journals stormed, media time guaranteed, parliamentary questions asked. We know too that ‘good science’ suggests also something quieter, less public, more intimate. ‘Good science’ may be the moments of reflection where you have time to consider the direction your work is taking. It may be those conversations with colleagues that are both trustful and creative. Good science may be the style of work where collegiality is valued above straight ambition. Undoubtedly good science is linked to the steady and secure development of your skills. We need our institutions to be successful: otherwise there can be no science. But for the ideas to flow, researchers need time and they need autonomy. How can we get the balance right, and so produce the research culture that helps us all flourish?
None of these issues are easy to get right. None attract instant solutions. But to be confident of progress in research culture, one of the foundations will be the time we give ourselves for reflection and for conversation. This is the ethos of the Good Science Project.
Spring Conference: 'The Prism of Research' April 2nd 2025
Open to all, this conference aims to throw light on the whole of science. Our topic is science research culture, not a small specialism. Discussion will range from the politics of publication to the role of friendship in science. And on the way we’ll discuss how AI might change the way we do our science. If you believe that research culture matters, and that we should work to enrich and improve it, then this conference for you.
Overall we will illuminate and analyse some of the extraordinary richness of Imperial activity, drawing on the expertise of College staff and of our distinguished visiting speakers.
The conference will open with speakers Dr Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature Magazine; Dr Dan O’Connor, Head of Research Environment at Wellcome; Dr Melanie Smallman, Lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at UCL; and Professor Mary Ryan CBE, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), Imperial College London.
Parallel sessions in the afternoon include ‘Friendship in science’, about the importance of collegiality in scientific creativity; ‘The bench, the bee and the blooming bytes’; and ‘The show of science: research as something to see’. Contributors to these sessions include Professor Dame Clare Gerada, Professor Peter Openshaw, Dr Mark Kennedy, Professor Ken Arnold, Professor Richard Wingate, Professor Jonathan Mestel and Ella Miodownik.
The plenary session includes our Vice-Provost Professor Mary Ryan, the artist Daksha Patel and Research England’s Dr Catriona Firth, and is chaired by Dr Felicity Mellor, director of the Science Communication Unit.
We will also be hearing from members of staff at Imperial who have been running projects under Research England’s ‘Enhancing research culture’ fund.
There is catering through the day, including lunch and a reception. The conference is an excellent opportunity to develop fresh perspectives on your work, to meet colleagues from across the College and the scientific community, and to think deeply about the way you work.
Registration opens on February 1st, so meanwhile save the date.
Friday Forums
Friday Forums are congenial lunchtime discussions that focus on a particular aspect of research culture. They are brief intervals in our busy day and give scientists, other staff and students the opportunity to step back for a short hour, to consider wider perspectives on their craft. The next Friday Forums are:
1. Science Inside and Out. With Katherine Mathieson, director of the Royal Institution; Clare Matterson CBE , Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society; Professor Ken Arnold, director of the Medical Museion, Copenhagen; Dr Amy Seakins, Centre for Societal Engagement, Imperial College London; and Dr Kirsten Bell. January 31. Register here.
2. Faith and research. With the Very Rev. Dr. Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark; Professor Ian Walmsley FRS, Provost of Imperial College London, and Dr Felicity Mellor, director of the Science Communication Unit. March 14. Register here.
This year’s previous Friday Forums include a debate on the future of the animal model in scientific research, and a discussion on the role of the social sciences at Imperial.
Lunch is provided, outside speakers allow for yet broader glimpses, and it is a strict rule that half of the time is given over to audience discussion. Many of the Friday Forums are described on our blog pages.
Animation project
The Good Science Animation Project is now underway, with monthly workshops running from January to July. Artists-in-residence Litza Jansz and Esther Neslen are working with a group of Imperial scientists to produce short animated films on the life scientific. Time demands are flexible and no particular artistic expertise is required. If you would like to join us, please contact Stephen Webster.
Looking back: the Day of Doubt
On September 27th 2023 we organised a major conference, The Day of Doubt, to examine and affirm the importance of doubt as a resource for good science. 280 members of Imperial filled the Sir Alexander Building, with the day introduced by Professor Mary Ryan (Vice-Provost, Research and Enterprise), Sir Paul Nurse FRS, director of the Francis Crick Institute, and Professor Ian Walmsley FRS, Provost of Imperial. The day was structured to be as conversational as possible, with ample opportunity to discuss such features of research culture as excellence, public engagement and interdisciplinarity. The day was filmed and you can view the different sections of the conference on YouTube.
Looking back: the Tapestry of Science
Make sure you visit the 4th floor of the Abdus Salaam library. As part of the Good Science Project we ran for 12 weeks in Summer 2024 an arts project involving ten scientists, research managers and science communicators, working under the guidance of artist-in-residence Ella Miodownik. The project culminated in July 2024 with an exhibition and Private View, called ‘Experiment’.
The project brief was to represent vital aspects of the life scientific, especially those central to daily laboratory practice. Three concepts form the animating principles of the art piece, ‘time’, ‘balance’ and ‘emotion’, aspects of research familiar to all scientists.
The group met weekly, on Fridays, and worked both jointly and independently on the final artwork. ‘The Tapestry of Science’ is an unusual ‘art-science’ project in that the work is more about the process of science, and the nature of research, than about scientific knowledge itself.
The final exhibition was curated by Mikayla Hu and included a Q and A with the participants, and a video documentary of the project by Madisson McKone.
Finally…
The Good Science Project is assisted by an advisory group. Members are:
Professor Frank Kelly, Battcock Chair in Community Health and Policy. Director of the Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health.
Dr Felicity Mellor, director of the Science Communication Unit.
Dr Sam Cooper, Reader in Machine Learning for Materials Design, Dyson School of Design Engineering.
Dr Alex Richardson, Research Associate, Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health.
Ehsan Masood, senior editor and Bureau Chief (Africa and India), Nature magazine.
Emily Roche, Executive Officer, Office of the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise).
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