This special holiday episode is all about celebration, laughter, and a little friendly competition! The Research Culture Uncovered podcast team wraps up the year with a cheerful mix of knowledge and festive fun, proving that research culture can sparkle with joy.

Join your quizmaster Dr Emma Spary as she attempts to keep control of proceedings. Before the quiz begins we have an early gift for our listeners. We’re pleased to welcome Dr Emily Ennis as a new host. Her passion for shaping research environments promises exciting conversations in the year ahead—you’ll get more in January when she stars in her own Meet the Host episode, but for now, consider this your festive sneak peek!

Today, forget business as usual and join us in a festive quiz! All our fabulous hosts are gathered in one virtual room, ready to test their knowledge, buzzers, creativity, and competitive spirit. With three rounds of questions covering research culture, holiday trivia, and host special topics, expect plenty of laughs and maybe a little friendly rivalry.

We’ll reveal answers after each question so you can keep score too. Will you beat the hosts? There are 20 points up for grabs—make them count!

Apologies: Due to the short time available to record, edit and publish this episode, we haven't been able to correct and upload the transcript.

All of our episodes can be accessed via the following playlists:

• Research Impact with Ged Hall (follow Ged on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Impact Heroes with Ged Hall
• Open Research with Nick Sheppard (follow Nick on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Careers with Ruth Winden (follow Ruth on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research talent management
• Meet the Research Culturositists with Emma Spary (follow Emma on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research co-production
• Research evaluation

🎙️ The Research Culture Uncovered podcast team is thrilled to present our latest episode featuring Vicky Williams, Chief Executive Officer of Emerald Publishing. Join hosts Ged Hall, Head of Researcher Development at the University of Leeds, and Nick Sheppard, Open Research Advisor in the University’s Library, as they delve into the insights and experiences of Vicky in shaping research culture.

🔹 Vicky shares her 25-year journey at Emerald Publishing and how the organisation’s founding values have driven its mission to make research usable in the world outside academia.

🔹 Discover how Emerald Publishing supports equitable access and impact, including their longstanding zero-embargo green open access policy and initiatives like the 'Are you in?' commitments and their free impact services.

🔹 Learn about the challenges faced by the scholarly publishing industry in promoting sustainable open access and meaningful change, and how Emerald Publishing is navigating these complexities to remain true to its values.

🔹 Vicky calls for a collective effort from academia, publishers, and institutions to foster collaboration, inclusivity, and impactful research practices.

If you want to hear our episode with Dr Julie Bayley: (Episode 126) Research Impact Heroes: Dr Julie Bayley on Finding Your People or the one with Dr Simon Kerridge: (Episode 115) The Diverse World of Research Management and Administration with Simon Kerridge

💡 Find out more about Vicky, Emerald Publishing and their initiatives via their website and social media channels:

• www.emerald.com
• www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com
• Emerald Publishing: Overview | LinkedIn
• Emerald Publishing(@emeraldpublishing.bsky.social) — Bluesky
• Vicky Williams | LinkedIn

Acronyms used in the episode:

• CSR - Corporate Social Responsiblity
• N8 - the eight research intensive universities in the north of England
• CoARA - Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment.
• Types of open access (green, gold, etc) explained.

All of our episodes can be accessed via the following playlists:

• Research Impact with Ged Hall (follow Ged on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Impact Heroes with Ged Hall

In this episode, Ruth Winden, Careers with Research Consultant at the University of Leeds, speaks to Dr Elizabeth Faulkner and Dr Cathal Rogers about the UK's Higher Education sector and its systemic inequalities for researchers who return to their research careers after maternity leave.

Following a nation-wide Freedom of Information request to 130 Higher Education institutions in the UK, Elizabeth and Cathal undertook painstaking analysis of universities' maternity leave policies for researchers.

They published their findings in this Open Access article: Faulkner, E.A and Rogers, C (2025) Confronting the lack of support for academics returning to research from maternity leave in UK higher education; Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, pp. 1–23.

Elizabeth and Cathal are now researching the topic further - watch the space.

Key highlights:

1️⃣ There are many inconsistencies across UK HE in support for returning researchers

2️⃣ Disparity isn’t directly linked to the size or research-intensity of institutions

3️⃣ Gender inequality still impacts career progression negatively

4️⃣ Practical Recommendations: codifying existing support, making policies accessible and visible, establishing minimum standards of support, giving tailored guidance for managers, and explicitly considering maternity leave in promotion assessments

Episode references:

REF - The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK's system for assessing the excellence of research in UK higher education providers.

Athena Swan - The Athena Swan Charter is a framework used globally to achieve gender equality within higher education (HE) and research.

EDI - Equality, Diversity, Inclusion

FOI - Freedom of Information (the UK's national policy about the right to request information) https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request

UK support organisations for pregnancy loss: the Miscarriage Association, Tommy's, the NHS

Contact/Resources:

Dr Elizabeth Faulkner, Lecturer & Director of Childcare Law and Practice (CCLP), University of Keele: University profile and LinkedIn profile

Dr Cathal Rogers, Research Culture & Assessment Manager, University of Manchester, University link and LinkedIn profile

Research article: Faulkner, E.A and Rogers, C (2025) Confronting the lack

In this insightful episode, Dr. Emily Goodall speaks with Dr. James Greenwood-Reeves about how research can be radically reimagined when it’s creative, collaborative, and community-led. Together, they explore how working with drag artists through the “Laws a Drag” network is challenging traditional academic norms and reshaping what research culture can look like.

Key highlights:

1️⃣ Co-production is powerful: Collaboration goes beyond treating participants as research subjects, when drag artists guided the research, it became more ethical and impactful.

2️⃣ Creative methods matter: Arts-based approaches like forum theatre amplify marginalised voices and encourage researchers to reflect on their own roles.

3️⃣ Responsible research: Research that genuinely serves and empowers communities. "Laws a Drag" combines ethical rigor with practical support, producing outcomes that truly matter to the people involved.

4️⃣ Building trust & networks takes work: Lasting change requires time and care. Strong partnerships between academics and artists create enduring cultural and structural impact.

Contact/Resources:

Dr James Greenwood-Reeves university profile.

Laws a Drag Network: A creative, community-led research network focusing on drag artists and the law.

Social Legal Studies Association (SLSA): A UK charity supporting education and research in socio-legal studies through conferences, funding, and annual prizes.

Listen again: Episode 108: The art of being you: Research presentations as your authentic self.

All of our episodes can be accessed via the following playlists:

• Research Impact with Ged Hall (follow Ged on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Impact Heroes with Ged Hall
• Open Research with Nick Sheppard (follow Nick on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Careers with Ruth Winden (follow Ruth on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research talent management

Show Notes

Episode Summary:

In Beyond the Pain Scale: Embodied Research, host Dr Heledd Jarosz-Griffiths speaks with Dr Neko Mellor about how chronic pain, disability, and neurodiversity shape both research and writing. Drawing on her PhD in English at the University of Leeds, Neko explores how twenty-first-century women authors represent pain, reflecting on the limits of medical pain scales, the challenges of articulating ongoing pain, and what it means to research through the body. Blending literary analysis with lived experience, she examines how pain is expressed, understood, and misunderstood—both medically and culturally—and what this means for disabled and neurodivergent researchers navigating academia.

Content note:

This episode discusses chronic pain, disability, neurodiversity, and lived experience in research. These themes include personal reflections on illness, embodiment, and medical care. While the conversation is supportive and aims to promote understanding and inclusion, some listeners may find aspects of it emotionally resonant. If the issues raised in this episode affect you, please see the support and resources linked below.

Key takeaways

🔹 Beyond the Pain Scale

Neko critiques conventional pain measurement, showing how numerical scales capture intensity but overlook meaning, context, and emotional reality.

🔹 Writing Through Pain

Exploring memoir, lyric essays, and autoethnography, Neko reveals how narratives struggle to contain ongoing pain—and how resisting neat endings can be an act of truth.

🔹 Embodied and Neurodivergent Research

Drawing on her lived experience of Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome, fibromyalgia, ADHD, and dyspraxia, Neko describes how embracing embodiment reshaped her research approach and challenged academic conventions.

🔹 Inclusive

Supervision and Support

The discussion highlights the importance of flexible supervision, awareness of Disability Services and DSA, and the power of compassionate academic relationships.

🔹 Community and Connection

From peer networks and online neurodivergent communities to the grounding comfort of pets, Neko reflects on how connection sustains disabled researchers.

🔹 Towards an Embodied

Research Culture

The episode calls for academia to value lived experience as knowledge and to make space for embodied, experimental, and inclusive methodologies.

Resources and support

• University of Leeds Disability Services
• Disabled Students Allowance (DSA)
• “Writing pain and the non-linear body: Towards an embodied poetics” – Medical Humanities (Mellor, 2023)
• Disabled Academic Collective
• The body keeps the score - Bessel Van Der Kolk

Connect with our guest

Dr Neko Mellor🔗LinkedIn

Read Neko’s articlein Medical...

In this episode of the 'Research Culture Uncovered' podcast, Emma Spary, Associate Director for Researcher Development and Research Culture at the University of Leeds, is joined by guests Nik Ogryzko, from UKRI's Central Talent Team, and Kelly Vere, Director of Technical Strategy at the University of Nottingham. The discussion explores the need for a shift from a culture that's merely nice to one that's collaborative and structurally supportive. They include the importance of recognising contributions from all team members, including technicians, research administrators, and digital experts, to foster better research outcomes.

Key highlights:

• The shortcomings of the current PI-centric model in research, suggesting a more integrated and systemic approach that values diverse roles and reduces bureaucratic burdens.
• Examples from institutions like Warwick, Bath, Exeter, and UCL, which have restructured their research operations to enhance efficiency and support.
• A team-centred approach from the outset, valuing diverse expertise and collaborative roles, is essential for a thriving research culture.
• A call to rethink research evaluation measures beyond publications, considering broader impacts like career sustainability, data quality, and team development.
• Nik introduces us to the concept of the Unicorn Postdoc that can do everything.

In this episode several initiatives and outputs are referenced:

• Technician Commitment: A national initiative to support technical staff in higher education and research.
• UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy: A body focused on advancing technical skills and career pathways.
• Hidden REF: An initiative to recognise overlooked research outputs and contributions.
• Previous episode with the Hidden Ref: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/e6d0253f-fb10-4462-888f-45bff8f46ff8/

All of our episodes can be accessed via the following playlists:

• Research Impact with Ged Hall (follow Ged on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Impact Heroes with Ged Hall
• Open Research with Nick Sheppard (follow Nick on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Careers with Ruth Winden (follow Ruth on Bluesky and

Research Culture Uncovered: Navigating Career and Parenthood as a Scientist

Host Ruth Winden (Careers with Research Consultant) and guest Dr. Hema Viswambharan (Senior Scientist, LICAMM, University of Leeds)

“Building a career after a break is like a marathon and not a sprint.” (Dr. Hema Viswambharan)

Episode Overview:

In this highly personal episode, Ruth Winden speaks with Dr. Hema Viswambharan about the realities of juggling a research career with parenthood. Drawing on her 20 years of experience as both a scientist and a mother, Hema shares her lived experiences, highlighting personal and professional challenges, effective coping strategies, and the value of support networks.

Key Discussion Points:

Inspiration and Early Career:

• Hema describes her journey into science, inspired by her parents, especially her mother, “a female scientist in her own respect.”

The Impact of Parenthood on Career:

• Hema chose to “stay as a research fellow,” bringing up three children while maintaining her career, supported by her line manager.

Challenges Faced:

• Professional isolation and loss of networking opportunities during career breaks and especially when during her return to work after maternity leave, re-engaging with her career and staying up to date with rapid scientific advancements during her absence.
• Balancing lab work, research and professional development with the needs of her family and her own needs.

Solutions and Support Mechanisms Hema sought out and/or created:

• Engaging in Professional Development to continuously upskill herself.
• Finding time for personal development programs at the University of Leeds, including workshops, online courses, and seminars.
• Integrating learning into her daily routine.
• Proactive communication with her line manager was key to receiving necessary support.
• Annual staff reviews and regular updates ensured alignment between personal and professional needs.
• Mentoring and coaching provided “empathetic guidance” for overcoming career progression stalls after breaks.
• Establishing routines and self-reflection helped manage practical and emotional challenges.
• Building a strong support network of colleagues and mentors proved invaluable.

Her advice: “Be patient and kind to yourself… seek out and take advantage of personal development opportunities and network support.”

Contact/Resources:

• Dr Hema Viswambharan on LinkedIn and her University profile
• Ruth Winden on LinkedIn and BlueSky
• University of Leeds OD&PL professional development programs for research staff
• The British Heart Foundation

All of our episodes can be accessed via the following playlists: