Campus podcast: How to achieve research excellence – and protect it

The delivery of quality research is central to the mission of most universities. But there is more to research excellence than headline-grabbing “ground-breaking” discoveries.

This podcast episode explores what good research looks like, how it can be supported at an institutional level, and what feeds into a healthy research ecosystem that enables robust studies of all types, at all stages to be carried out and knowledge advanced.

We also delve into research security to find out how such scholarly work can be protected from misuse or being weaponised amid ever-changing geopolitical power struggles.

You will hear from:

• Marcus Munafò, who is currently associate pro vice-chancellor for research culture and professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol, but will, in May, take up the post of deputy vice-chancellor and provost at the University of Bath. He is co-founder of the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) and leads a major project funded by Research England to accelerate the uptake of open research practices across UK higher education sector.
• Jacqueline Littlewood, director of research security at the University of Alberta in Canada. She took up this role leading the university’s safeguarding research office in 2023 after a 20-year career in government as a policy analyst and adviser, including working with Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

For more advice on this topic, check out our resources offering insight on delivering top quality research, including a spotlight collection on how to demonstrate research excellence.