Creating better research cultures together

Changing Academic Life

What are the ingredients for creating a supportive, inclusive research culture? Nina Molin Høyland-Kroghsbo from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences , Microbial Ecology and Biotechnology at the University of Copenhagen discusses the Research Environment Prize established three years ago by the Danish Young Academy to promote and celebrate good research environments, as experienced by early career researchers in those environments.

We are joined here by the 2024 prize winners, PhD students Line Maj Sternberg and Nicklas Stott Venzel who nominated their Research Unit in Psychology of Sport, Excellence and Health at the University of Southern Denmark. They share what makes their environment great, and how the group translates their research on what makes a great sports environment into what makes a great research environment. In particular, they talk about encouragement for taking initiative, a focus on long-term development, open communication, psychological safety, promoting mental health, and a sense of belonging, as key factors. Nina also reflects on the common themes that the awarding panel has seen across over a hundred nominations, such as belonging, collaboration, creative practices, and celebrating both successes and failures.

Overview:

00:34 Episode Introduction

03:26 Meet the guests

06:44 The Danish Young Academy and the Research Environment Prize

11:51 Line and Nicklas on applying sports research to academia

18:38 Building trust and open communication

22:34 Support for long term development and wellbeing

25:55 Psychological safety in research

26:55 Creative methods for sensitive topics

29:56 Common themes from nominated research environments

34:47 More examples of good practices

38:41 Having clear values

44:03 Learning from failures, celebrating successes

45:56 Value of good research culture for scientific integrity

49:51 Wrapping up, final thoughts

53:48 End

Related links:

SDU Prize announcement

Prize announcement by the Young Academy on LinkedIn

LinkedIn profiles for Nina and Line

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