What does transformation in Higher Education research culture look like? Evidence from action research within a diverse post-1992 department

Transforming research culture and environment has been a priority for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and has been reflected in recent rounds of the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF). Broadly, research culture encompasses the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of research communities and is advanced via areas of academic service in mentoring, skills development, leadership, standards and local development opportunities. There is need to understand how academic units can develop research activity in such a way as to meet criteria of excellence and intensivity within a highly pressured UK Higher Education sector. In this article, we set out the process and outcome of a programme of research culture transformation within an archetypal post-1992 department at Northumbria University in the Northeast of England. Framed around the prospective content of REF People, Culture and Environment (PCE) and Impact narratives, we argue that there are clear means of meeting criteria that protect colleagues by increasing external sources of funding. One consequence of the approach adopted may be a mitigating effect on the prevalence and consequences of passive aggression – a common and debilitating feature of academic units facing pressure. This article serves to provide tangible examples of how a coherent approach to supporting colleagues can deliver change at a time in which opposition to change within universities runs contrary to demands from external sources of funding.