Enhancing Research Culture projects 2025 to 2026
For 2025 to 2026, the Enhancing Research Cultures Fund supports six projects in the Research Cultures stream with £80,167 of Enhancing Research Cultures funding received from Research England.
This amount forms part of an allocation provided to LJMU to develop and initiate activities to ensure the research system is made of talented and diverse skills, working in an environment that nurtures and empowers everyone to do their best.
Another six projects were supported in the Bid Development stream, and three proposals were supported in the Strategic Staffing stream.
Academic and professional staff were invited to submit Research Culture stream, applications by open call. The following projects were selected for funding:
Faculty of Society and Culture
Decolonial Research Culture: Connecting our local environment and the Global South through culturally diverse knowledge and creative practices
Team: Christine Eyene, Hana Leaper, Joasia Krysa, James Schofield, and Andrew Ibi
Summary: Developing the distinct programme hosted at, LJMU’s Exhibition Research Lab and its public facing gallery, steering it towards a groundbreaking, world-leading, decolonial positioning.
The team are engaging with from traditional knowledge from Africa and other places from the Global South to co-design a programme of research residencies, workshops, talks, screenings, co/commissions of new artworks, exhibitions in collaboration with our cultural partners, and new partnerships with local grassroots projects and internationally.
Appreciating Neurodiversity to Enhance Research Culture
Team: Lucinda Matthews-Jones and Ria Cheyne
Summary: An estimated 15-20% of the population are neurodivergent, and a wealth of commentary suggests that neurodivergent people are drawn to academic research careers. At LJMU, neurodiversity is rightly recognised as a key D&I issue, with actions including resource creation and student-focused initiatives.
By learning from the specific experience and concerns of this group, the project will also present neurodiversity as a driver of research culture. It will foster a culture of appreciation regarding neurodiversity, in which the contributions of LJMU’s neurodivergent researchers are celebrated, their voices heard, and their experiences acknowledged.
Faculty of Health, Innovation, Technology and Science
Elevating Technical Excellence: A professional services-led initiative for skills, collaboration, and Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) implementation
Team: Peter Shum, Nicola Browning, Katie Farrance, Sarah Rowlands, Emma Fadden, and Andrew Rowlands
Summary: A comprehensive training initiative that empowers professional services staff and self-funded PGR students to excel in advanced laboratory techniques through a set of workshops in genetics, microscopy, HPLC, and cell culture guided by experienced technical instructors; the activities are designed to support the professional growth of technical staff, enable self-funded PGR students to undertake more ambitious experiments, and encourage greater collaboration among postgraduates, postdoctoral researchers, academics, and professional services teams.
Technician Researchers Innovating for Bioscience Excellence (TRIBE)
Team: Kehinde Ross, John Trantom, Katie Farrance, Nicola Browning, James Baker, Alun Hughes, Iain Dykes, Alistair Fielding, Abdullah Isreb, Gavin McStay, Stefan Roesner, Francesca Giuntini, Imran Saleem, Satya Sarker, and Matthew Wynn
Summary: The emergence of novel technologies for the reproducible generation of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) on an industrial scale was one of the most transformative elements underpinning the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. TRIBE will embed targeted LNP expertise through co-developed workshops and online activities for PGRs and academics across the university and business stakeholders from Liverpool City Region.
LJMU Professional Services
Public Engagement Cultivator Fund (PEC Fund)
Team: Gemma Reed
Summary: A competitive fund for researchers seeking to initiate and develop connections with community groups. Fostering public engagement with research (PER) activity requires time and effort in building trust and relationships with communities from outside of academia.
This development work is largely unsupported in the current landscape, which often looks at discrete projects derived from preexisting relationships and research questions. It will support activities for equitable conversations that may lead to co-producing PER projects based on truly shared needs.