PAR Onboarding Retreat October 2024

Reimagining Leadership at Newcastle University  

The team for ‘Reimaging Leadership’, a 30-month project  funded by a £1M award from the Wellcome Trust, talk about their approach to building leadership in research and improving research culture at Newcastle University, and beyond. 

A task as complex as ‘reimagining leadership’ calls for creativity and experimentation. Our Wellcome Trust-funded project seeks to bring together two fundamental ingredients towards this aim: bringing a diverse group of colleagues into the project to work with us and testing innovative ways of working together.   

We are a group of colleagues at Newcastle University who have recently embarked on an ambitious, project that examines the role that leaders in research can play in creating conditions of psychological safety and inclusion. We are developing leadership interventions, proposing a new values-based reward and recognition framework, and sharing our insights and learnings across the sector. Our project is grounded in feedback we received in our Research Culture Survey, which found that we need to both tackle inappropriate behaviours (see also Behaviour Matters programme) and promote behaviours that enable more positive research environments. Working together across disciplinary and professional boundaries, we will research and pilot ideas that promote psychological safety and inclusion to improve our research culture.  

What distinguishes this project from other initiatives in the Research Culture Programme is its Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach. PAR is a research methodology that brings those affected by a topic into your research team. We’ve recruited a group of colleagues through the university’s staff networks and trade unions to inform and shape the interventions we are developing. The PAR approach “prioritizes the value of experiential knowledge for tackling problems caused by unequal and harmful social systems, and for envisioning and implementing alternatives” (Cornish et al., 2023).  

Much ‘citizenship’ work that aims to improve research culture, inclusion, and around EDI is voluntary at UK universities. We have tried instead to “prefigure” a different model by securing workload allocation for those joining us. Though only one project, we hope that our experiments with alternative models can offer insights into implementing these types of changes at a greater scale in the future. 

The PAR group met for the first time on 23 and 24 October at Cobalt Studios, a venue, artists’ studios, and co-working space in Ouseburn, chosen for its commitment to creating accessible and safe(r) spaces. We sought to build relationships and prioritised accessibility, conducting the whole event in a hybrid format. We are preparing a short case study about our approach to accessibility in collaboration with colleagues leading a current University EDI Fund project on accessible conferences and events. Check out a selection of photos and quotes from colleagues joining the PAR group below. 

Who’s who 

Our team includes professional services and academic colleagues: Chris Day (PI), and co-investigators Candy Rowe (Dean of Research Culture), Liz Kemp (OD), Amy Stabler and Natasha Mauthner (both from the Business School) and Marie Lomax (People Services). The colleagues leading the work packages are Jennifer Webster, Dawn Roxburgh, Emma Beavis, Will Thomson and Jess Adams. The Project Management colleagues supporting us are Katie Gray, Marta Nogueira, and Arlene Valente. The Participatory Action Research project members are Carys Watts, Isabel Smallegange, Nayara Albrecht, Hannah Davis, Elaine Lopez, Simon Kometa, Vivek Nityananda, Elizabeth Veal, Kate Lewis, Tina Sikka and Michele Allen (artist-in-residence on the project).  

The Reimagining Leadership project is one of 24 initiatives funded through Wellcome’s Institutional Fund for Research Culture [hyperlink - https://newcastle.sharepoint.com/hub/researchculture/Pages/default.aspx]. It began in April 2024 and is scheduled to finish in April 2026. Colleagues who would like to learn more can email wellcometrustifrc@newcastle.ac.uk  

We would particularly like to thank the three Faculty Executive Boards and the various line managers and heads of units for supporting colleagues to join us.  

Quotes  

'The best thing about this project is working alongside a group of colleagues who all care about the same things that I do. So much work within the EDI networks and wellbeing space is unseen, with no official recognition or reward and the only driver being members' commitment to creating a fairer and more inclusive university. Getting involved with this project is an exciting opportunity to contribute to change on a much larger scale, as well as making this unseen work more visible.' – Elaine Lopez 

“Meeting so many committed, caring, people from across the university with the motivation to improve our approach to work and leadership was inspiring. I’m excited to work alongside these wonderful people to develop new ideas that the university will benefit from” – Vivek Nityananda  

“I really appreciate being invited to contribute to the project and to reflect creatively on research culture. It was fantastic to meet the rest of the PAR team at our first retreat, I was particularly moved by some of the stories people shared. I hope that my creative work can highlight and amplify the voices and experiences of people in the university which are often marginalised or hidden from view.” – Michele Allen (artist-in-residence on the project)  

‘Appreciating the way so many different voices were equally heard during our first PAR meeting reminded me that we are ALL leaders. It will be great if our project could promote a culture of ‘Shared or Collective Leadership’ more widely so people feel encouraged and empowered to bring their skillset or perspective to particular roles.’  - Elizabeth Veal 

"I’m very appreciative of being involved in this incredibly respectful project. Real growth happens when every voice is heard, every perspective is valued, and inclusivity is a guiding principle, and that’s exactly how this project is being run. It’s a wonderful opportunity to work and learn alongside colleagues who genuinely care and are committed to improving the institution, valuing all job families to create an environment that benefits everyone." – James Davoll 

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Last modified: Thu, 16 Jan 2025 19:35:10 GMT