Wellcome’s 2019 funding for PhD programme training: An experiment in enhancing research culture

TL;DR

Wellcome evaluated its 2019 PhD training funding call, which aimed to promote positive research culture alongside scientific excellence.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel approach to funding PhD programmes by prioritizing positive research culture equally with scientific merit.

Findings

Defining and balancing positive research culture with scientific excellence proved challenging.

Supervision of PhD students is seen as a key mechanism for fostering positive research culture.

Coherence between funding calls and evaluating research culture track records are critical for success.

Abstract

In September 2019, the results of Wellcome’s call for proposals for PhD training programmes were announced. This funding call was notable for making contributions to positive research culture as important a selection criterion as scientific excellence in PhD training. Aware that it’s intervention on enhancing research culture was experimental, Wellcome also commissioned work to reflect on its processes. I undertook two studies of the early phases of the funding call, of the Wellcome’s internal processes in shaping and implementing the call, and of the experiences and reflections of all applicants to the call. This Open Letter is a summary of the cross cutting themes of these two studies: the difficulties of defining positive research culture and of balancing it with scientific excellence; the expectation that supervision of PhD students is a key way to effect research culture change; the need for coherence between funding calls; issues around evaluating the track records of programmes on research culture, which further feed into defining the criteria of evaluation and selection relating to research culture.

For some time, it has been widely acknowledged that the culture of scientific research is negative, some would even say ‘toxic’. There are many factors contributing to negative research culture, many of them systemic or structural, rather than having to do with individual scientists. These factors can make it more difficult to behave in ways that get in the way of best practices in research (such as sharing data and collaborating) and easier to behave in ways that are detrimental to research and to the well being of the research community, such as being aggressively competitive. There are a great many issues that fall under research culture, from addressing bullying and harassment, all the way to open science and scientific integrity. In September 2019, 23 Wellcome funded PhD programmes were launched. These programmes had been funded in a call that for the first time put positive research culture on a par with scientific excellence. This was a bold and experimental intervention in the research system. Aware of this fact, Wellcome also commissioned two studies into the shaping and implementation of the call, and into the way it had been received by applicants to the call. This Open Letter summarises the main themes that cut across the two studies: the difficulties of defining positive research culture and of balancing it with scientific excellence; the expectation that supervision of PhD students is a key way to effect research culture change; the need for coherence between funding calls; issues around evaluating the track records of programmes on research culture, which further feed into defining the criteria of evaluation and selection relating to research culture.