Northern Ireland Research Culture Initiative (NIRCI)

This award will establish a pilot Northern Ireland Research Culture Initiative (NIRCI) to enable cooperation and collaboration between key stakeholders across the R&I community to address shared priorities, and develop and promote an open, diverse, supportive and sustainable research culture. NIRCI will be led by Queen's, in partnership with Ulster University. It will be driven by a Steering Board comprised of key stakeholders across the R&I ecosystem in NI, drawn from HEIs, other RPOs, government, funders, industry, charities and other representative groups. The programme will be delivered by a programme team recruited through the grant, who will deliver a workplan comprising a research project to understand the broader research culture in NI beyond HE, three pilot interventions focussing on three sub-cultures within NI - early career researchers, research 'professionals', and practice-based researchers - as well as an evaluation project. The outputs and findings from NIRCI will be used to inform the development of a draft research culture action plan for NI to be developed and delivered in partnership by the R&I community in NI. Recognising the ambitious aims of the programme, the two universities on the grant have committed to sustaining the core NIRCI programme team for two further years.