“If you’re not doing research in a healthy and positive way, then you’re not doing it well, irrespective of how innovative or clever you might perceive yourself.”
The quote at the top of this page comes from an an interview I gave for the N8 Partnership (a partnership of 8 Universities from across Northern England) about the benefits of inclusive and accessible research. I truly believe that is a moral obligation to conduct research that is openly accessible and reproducible and conducted within the context of positive and inclusive work-place culture. Research Culture can cover many topics, with most of my interest and work focussing on workplace culture/wellbeing and open research practises.
A healthy and inclusive workplace environment is something I believe should be universal.
There are many levels that can determine the workplace environment including instutional level policies, leadership/management styles, and individual mindsets. I've been working on my own leadership, aiming to be more inclusive, aware of my own biases, and able to be more empathetic. With this in mind I've undertaken extensive training in research leadership and inclusive leadership ver the last few years.
I have run various workshops top support researchers deal with challenges and to support their wellbeing. This includes a workshop on the "The Joy of Research", which explores how we can navigate everyday challenges such as rejection, conflict, and feelings of inadequacy and keep in touch with the underling joy of performing research.
A core value of mine is that academic research should be performed in an open as possible way, making it as accessible to as many as possible. This covers many aspects including: sharing publications without a paywall, openly sharing data products, performing code development as open source software, using open and participatory research methods, and performing all research ethically.
I've been trying to improve this in both my astrophysics research (e.g., see this blog post from 2021: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/opening-research/2021/03/) and my data sonification research. Working with such methods in data sonification led to me becoming the overall winder of Newcastle University's Open Research Awards in 2024: 'An Open Approach to Engaging with Data through Sound'.
I'm now one of Newcastle's Open Research Champions. In this role I advocate for Open Research practises, and am a point of contact for those who want support in using them. For example, I have organised workshops on Open Data within my department.