Together, we will develop an excellent research and innovation culture, providing a dynamic, inclusive and supportive environment for academic staff and doctoral students
Professor Emile Bojesen Director of Research & Innovation
Furthering our Transformational Education
Research and innovation are integral to Transformational Education at The University of Winchester, providing educational credibility through the expertise and experience of teaching staff, underpinning external networks and contributing to changing the world around us through engagement, impact and knowledge exchange.
The UKRI Strategy 2022-27 indicates that diversity of institutions and research areas will be encouraged but that, to be competitive, areas of strength need to be identified and grown.
Given this context, it is not the ambition of the University to support research in all areas or to encourage all academic staff to have significant responsibility for research. The University will instead ensure the sustainability of research by reducing the number of Units of Assessment it will prepare for REF2029, focusing resource on areas of proven excellence and substantial teaching provision, and utilising its Quality Related funding from Research England on excellence by supporting high quality research contributions for staff at all career stages in areas of strategic importance for the University.
Colleagues with significant responsibility for research will be expected to engage in research activity that is funded by external income and
will be supported by the Research & Innovation Directorate. Where teaching and administrative priorities allow, staff will be able to seek support in Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise development. assisting them to develop impactful and income generating activity that will inform their teaching and underpin the credibility of the education the University provides.
Our University Research Centres and Groups, Consultancy Units, Impact Teams, REF Units of Assessment, Departments and Faculties, will together develop an excellent research and innovation culture, providing a dynamic, inclusive and supportive environment for academic staff and doctoral students.
Internally and externally, we will present ourselves as ready and open for business and our research and innovation activity will be informed, influenced by and contribute to the health of our communities regionally, nationally and internationally.
With this focus, we will maximise the quality and impact of the University’s research and innovation footprint and grow our income and reputation while enhancing our educational offer through highly credible, well-networked staff, and research and practice informed teaching.
Our Strategic Objectives for Research & Innovation 2028:
i. Ensure sustainability by focusing Research England Quality Related funding on areas of proven research excellence aligned with substantial teaching provision.
ii. Support academic staff to maximise research and/or knowledge exchange income generation, where individual, Departmental and Faculty objectives are set, and teaching and administrative priorities allow.
iii. Develop the University of Winchester’s role as an anchor institution in the city and region, continuing to forge mutually beneficial research and knowledge exchange links with business and other external collaborators and networks.
iv. Support externally networked and impactful research and knowledge exchange that feeds into educational practice and the student experience.
The central ambition of this strategy is to ensure that research and innovation activity increases its relative contribution to the University’s income and reputation, as reflected by a growing number of fruitful external collaborations, improved league table positions, and other indicators of esteem, including national awards.
Through a rigorous new individual annual appraisal system, academic staff will be supported by Heads of Department and Unit of Assessment leads to set clear and ambitious targets for research and innovation activity.
Greater accountability combined with enhanced central University support will enable the setting of a higher standard of activity.
Deans and Heads of Department will hold renewed responsibility for ensuring that their
Faculties and Departments work towards annually increasing KPIs for:
• high quality outputs
• impact generation
• external collaborations
• and research and innovation income generation.
The Research & Innovation Directorate will enable academics and their managers to set ambitious targets with the assurance of highquality professional services support. A shared vision for research and innovation held across the institution by Finance & Planning, Knowledge & Digital Services, Communication & External Relations, Estates & Facilities, Human Resources and Registry, will enable staff to pursue projects with increased confidence in the mechanisms required for their success.
With this strategy, the University will actively encourage and support academic staff, in alignment with teaching and administrative priorities:
i. maximising income through research grants and/or knowledge exchange, with targets benchmarked by discipline
ii. developing external collaborations that benefit the University
iii. ensuring that teaching is credibly underpinned by research and/or professional practice experience and through student orientated Knowledge Exchange activities
iv. and, when holding significant responsibility for research, producing internationally excellent contributions to knowledge and understanding, including through engagement and impact.
By 2028, we will be a community anchor institution through the advancement and sharing of knowledge, driven by and directed for our community and society whilst establishing sustainable revenue streams through Innovation.
We will seek and develop external collaborations for mutual benefit, applying our research and innovation expertise through the co-creation and sharing of knowledge, experience and ideas. We will advance an approach to knowledge exchange that is responsive to our region and beyond.
We will deliver social impact whilst establishing sustainable revenue streams by developing our collaborative approach to research and innovation across the University, through research collaborations, research contracts, CPD, short courses, joint appointments and consultancy.
The primary focus will be on the KEF Perspectives demonstrating:
• Working with business
• Skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship
• Working with the public and third sector
• Public and community engagement Research
i. We will maximise innovation income that is derived from our KE foundations by 2028.
ii. We will drive coworking, mixed bids, collaborative projects inter-departmentally, and with schools and industry.
iii. We will encourage and provide support for editorial work and contributions to learned societies.
iv. We will enable national and international collaboration with a wide range of beneficiaries, enhancing the reach of our work and its impact.
v. We will capitalise on the strategic direction in the UKRI landscape, improving the relationship between research, innovation and society, building sustained community involvement in knowledge production and a sense of shared endeavour (and benefits) by making research and innovation accessible and relevant to all.
vi. We will support individual academics to raise external awareness of their research and innovation expertise and facilitate the development of mutually beneficial relationships with external collaborators.
Our Innovation & Knowledge Exchange endeavour provides additional value to the institutional strategy, supporting Transformational Education through:
vii. The Innovation & KE projects we complete, generating case studies that can be used in our teaching and student recruitment activities – demonstrating our business and community engagement and the connections our academic staff have with society and the economy.
viii. Providing student enterprise education and entrepreneurship, facilitating guest speakers into our curriculum and bringing real life context to our students’ study. We will help our students to develop their enterprise skills and support them in their journey to selfemployment or start-up.
ix. Identifying and establishing student-led agency style models. These will enable us to deliver projects for external organisations through our students, giving them real life projects to enhance their employability and enabling the university to collaborate with our community. Student-orientated KE will be an approach that fuses our KE with teaching and our ambitions as a community anchor institution.
We will recruit, reward, retain and appraise excellent staff, providing them with professional development opportunities in research and innovation, tailored progression routes and administrative and specialised support for maximising income generation from diverse funding sources.
i. We are committed to establishing a Research & Innovation Academy, designed to build the cultural capital, skills and confidence necessary to navigate research and innovation spaces. This initiative aims to create a substantial advancement for our staff in their research and knowledge exchange activities, particularly focusing on early and mid-career researchers, professional practitioners with knowledge exchange ambitions, and the PGR community.
We understand the importance of providing research support that is tailored to the needs of academics at different levels and various career stages, as well as ensuring the programme offered is fit for purpose and aligns to the needs of the institution and the external research and knowledge exchange landscape. This support is intended to help
develop research performance and impact, fostering a thriving culture for continuous growth and achievement.
ii. In the context of the R&I Academy, the External Funding team will run a Developmental External Funding Training (DEFT) pathway, with training focusing on sharing external funding intelligence and training to help build confidence and encourage best industry practice for approaches to research funding.
iii. The R&I Academy will be open to all academic staff and research students and will facilitate and deliver training in all aspects of the R&I landscape.
iv. In addition to their contributions to the R&I Academy, the Doctoral School will offer a comprehensive and impactful Doctoral Development Programme comprised of modules, workshops and seminars in generic and research skills to postgraduate research students and supervisors.
v. We will ensure researchers are supported at all stages of their professional development, developing mentoring strategies, including for doctoral students.
By creating a dynamic, fair-minded, inclusive, and sustainable research and innovation culture of excellence, we will enable academics, researchers and PGR students to achieve their full potential as scholars.
We will create a sustainable and streamlined research culture, strongly grounded in excellence, agility and facilitation; share good practice internally and externally, and inspire staff and students to contribute to our mission to serve the common good regionally, nationally and internationally.
i. Our inclusive culture of excellence will enable staff to develop excellence in research and/or knowledge exchange, in line with their commitment, interests and abilities.
ii. By 2028 and the next REF we will:
• work towards raising our institutional REF GPA
• aim to maximise the amount of institutional research grant capture and KE related income
• improve doctoral completion rates and PGR community engagement
• submit impact case studies with improved ratings for all Units of Assessment.
iii. The University’s inclusive culture of excellence will support teamwork and collegiality in which colleagues are recognised and valued for their net contribution to research and innovation areas, especially in terms of how they inform and provide credibility for the institution’s educational provision. It will foster a shared ownership and understanding of research strengths, expertise and skills, within an open, inclusive, diverse and equitable environment.
iv. Our approach to building a confident and successful research and innovation culture is to invest in and develop our infrastructure
across the University, enhancing support for staff and doctoral students centrally in Research & Innovation, in Faculties, and in collaboration with parallel teams across Professional Services.
v. We will develop a Winchester `R&I’ experience which is recognisable for its quality and consistency across the University and for its positive, inclusive ethos. We will encourage conversation, collaboration and communication to embed best practice, inspire, seize opportunities and advance effective working across areas of the University.
vi. Research & Innovation initiatives will provide time for academic staff to achieve the University’s research and innovation objectives.
vii. Over the period covered by the Research and Innovation Strategy 2024-2028, the University will:
• Develop a culture of accountability against clear targets and priorities for individuals, Units of Assessment, Departments and Faculties.
• Improve internal communication of strategic priorities and transparency of decision making.
• Facilitate collaborative, collegial and crossdisciplinary working, ensuring that projects, achievements and successes are visible and valued.
• Create a vibrant environment in which people want to engage and have opportunities to shape the research landscape.
• Improve agility to deliver excellence by creating structure, streamlining processes, and integrating systems.
• Develop a vision for shared ownership of research identity and strengths, building capacity and sustainability, and collaborative working, both internally and externally.
• Increase researcher confidence and facilitate
dialogue at all stages of the research `process’ to realise the benefits (economic, reputational, cultural) to the individual and the institution.
• Regularly review and report on the quality of the research culture, including seeking feedback from researchers, and using the outcomes to improve institutional practices.
• Facilitate opportunities for collaborative and interdisciplinary working, both internally and externally, to increase potential for research impact and income generation.
• Encourage collaboration between staff, Faculties, Research Centres and Units of Assessment.
• Ensure Units of Assessment and Research Centres are engaging with and including PGR students.
• Enable research and innovation ‘shadowing’ opportunities across disciplines and Departments.
• Host internal conferences.
• Invest in on-campus mingling events to facilitate relationship building.
• Attract excellent candidates to areas of research strength and, at the same time, recognise emerging areas where expertise is building up. We will strengthen our admission practices to attract excellent home and international PGR students with the greatest intellectual potential to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in those areas, ensuring that we offer places to those students that have the potential to successfully complete their course.
• Develop collaborative schemes to bridge specialist areas and create interdisciplinary projects.
• Maximise the attainment, progression, retention and completion of PGR students by providing them with a conducive learning and research environment.
• Ensure consistency of practice and in the provision of advice for Doctoral education.
winchester.ac.uk/strategicplan
University of Winchester, Sparkford Road
Winchester, Hampshire, SO22 4NR
Tel: +44 (0) 1962 841515 winchester.ac.uk/research