{"id":1481,"date":"2026-03-12T16:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:24:22","slug":"reflections-on-university-research-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/?p=1481","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on university research strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DCFLh372jOM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=67&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Science Advisor, Civilization II (Meier, 1996). If you know, you know.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Below are both parts of a short series of articles I wrote for Research Professional back in May 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first is &#8216;Research strategy: what the strategists get wrong&#8217;. It&#8217;s a summary of everything I&#8217;d liked to have been able to successfully articulate in response to research strategy consultations, often led by people whose understanding of strategy and planning far exceeds their knowledge of research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second has the subtitle &#8220;Asking the right questions&#8221; and is a more positive look at what questions strategists should be asking when considering a new research strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Combining the two into a single article does make it a longer read. But the two are companion pieces and are best read together, &nbsp;rather than published a few weeks apart as originally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A version of this article first appeared in Funding Insight in May 2025. and is reproduced with kind permission of Research Professional. For more articles like this, visit www.researchprofessional.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research strategy: what the strategists get wrong<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Part one of two asking what a meaningful, positive research strategy might look like<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1200px-BSG_-_4x15_-_This_Has_All_Happened_Before-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1486\" srcset=\"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1200px-BSG_-_4x15_-_This_Has_All_Happened_Before-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1200px-BSG_-_4x15_-_This_Has_All_Happened_Before-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1200px-BSG_-_4x15_-_This_Has_All_Happened_Before-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1200px-BSG_-_4x15_-_This_Has_All_Happened_Before.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Opening credits card from &#8216;Battlestar Galactica&#8217; (Moore et al, 2004). This is how I feel whenever anyone talks about a new research strategy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Cards on the table, folks\u2014I struggle with the idea and purpose of research strategies. Likely it\u2019s that I\u2019ve seldom had the opportunity to breathe the rarified air of strategy development. I\u2019ve seen a lot of research strategies at more than one institution and at various levels (school\/ faculty\/ institutional) so I\u2019m not necessarily talking about my own current institution or its current strategies. In fact, I\u2019m almost certainly not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s not to say that I\u2019ve only ever had operational concerns\u2014I\u2019ve been involved in development pipelines, idea generation, staff development, network and community building, and influencing research policies at various levels up to and including the national level. Research strategies, though\u2026 I\u2019ve often sensed a disconnect between theory and practice, and aspiration and reality. That\u2019s a nice strategy, but what do we do differently as a result? I\u2019ve tended to be left somewhere between puzzled, underwhelmed and annoyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These two articles are probably best understood as thoughts from someone who doesn\u2019t know much about writing strategies, but who does understand something about research funding. Alternatively, these articles can be considered as a list of all the points I wish I\u2019d been able to make with colleagues who are expert in strategy but less so when it comes to research. Too often <a href=\"https:\/\/pixels.com\/featured\/let-me-interrupt-your-expertise-with-my-confidence-jason-adam-katzenstein.html\">their confidence has interrupted my expertise<\/a> or I\u2019ve failed to make my point with sufficient clarity, brevity and\/or rigour to have an impact. It&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier\">l\u2019esprit d\u2019escalier<\/a>, but for strategy consultations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this first article, I\u2019m going to talk about common mistakes and misunderstandings. &nbsp;In part two, I\u2019ll be more positive and set out some considerations that need to underpin successful strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mistaking funding complexity for abundance of opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Research funding is limited and constrained. Just looking at the national picture\u2014so in my case, the UK\u2014the research funding landscape is complex. So much so that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchprofessionalnews.com\/rr-funding-know-how-start-here-2021-so-you-re-new-to-uk-research-funding\/\">it took me two articles<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchprofessionalnews.com\/rr-funding-know-how-start-here-2021-so-you-re-new-to-uk-research-funding-part-2\/\">to give it the briefest overview<\/a> I could manage. This complexity is sometimes mistaken for abundance by those who don\u2019t understand it. The reality is that there are far more ideas that are worthy of funding than there is money to support them. There probably aren\u2019t lots of hitherto untapped sources of potential income, and competition is fierce <em>everywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Funding is limited in at least two dimensions. Firstly, there isn\u2019t an infinite range of funders and calls. For some ideas, there may be between zero and one suitable funder. While bottom-up, open-call-within-remit funding opportunities do abound, they\u2019re not infinite in number or budget and usually don\u2019t permit resubmissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secondly, there isn\u2019t an infinite source of funding, since research funding is a zero-sum game. There is no easy money being left on the table. No low-hanging fruit ripe for the plucking. For my institution to win more, others need to lose more. If we were selling chocolate bars, we could grow by increasing our market share, or by increasing the overall size of the market. But we\u2019ve little or no direct control over funder budgets or the percentage of GDP devoted to research. There are two areas of exception, which I\u2019ll discuss in the second article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Research funding is lumpy.There are few medium-sized research grants. This is true regardless of discipline, and how much money counts as medium. Typically, there are more small grants, fewer large grants, and occasionally, massive grants. There are fewer and fewer available the more money is on offer. I don\u2019t want to commit to saying that it\u2019s an exponential decrease, but I\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not understanding this leads to another frequent mistake, which is to wrongly bemoan rather than celebrate the number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchprofessionalnews.com\/rr-funding-know-how-start-here-2020-small-grants-a-call-to-arms\/\">smaller grants held<\/a>. Yes, smaller grants are expensive to bid for and to administer. But it\u2019s a mistake to think that there\u2019s a simple way to move up the value chain to medium-sized (if they even exist) and large grants. Just because an idea and an applicant are competitive for a smaller grant doesn\u2019t mean that they would have been competitive for a larger one. Or even that the opportunity <em>existed<\/em> for a larger one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not saying that no funded researcher has ever sold themselves short or been under-ambitious, but I\u2019m suspicious of sweeping, evidence-free assumptions that this is the case on a systematic basis. I\u2019ve yet to see any evidence that lots of successful small grant ideas could have been retooled (successfully) for larger grants and\/or on better terms. Anyone who believes this should be challenged to produce some evidence and examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Unrealistic, confused, contradictory or inconsistent targets<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two research strategy mistakes that leave me with my head in my hands. The first is <strong>prophesising wildly ambitious increases in income<\/strong>, without any obvious reason for such optimism or any accompanying investment. Maybe this isn\u2019t quite <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gnomes_(South_Park)\">Underpants Gnome territory<\/a>, but it\u2019s not far off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second is any attempt to increase research income and research margin at the same time<strong>. <\/strong>Or flip-flopping between them as the preferred measure of success. Research <em>income<\/em> is what it sounds like, while research <em>margin<\/em> is about how much of the costs of research are covered. So, funders that pay investigator costs and\/or contributions towards overheads lead to a better margin, compared to a charity funder, for example, who might only fund the direct costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to increase research income, you\u2019ll probably need to diversify funding sources. And that normally means diversifying from national funders and focusing more on research charities and quasi-charities. But if you do that successfully, you bring in more research funding on worse terms. Too often, targets are set to increase research income\u2026 and then criticism is made of the resulting fall in research margin. Pick one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pretending that all researchers are equally fundable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Something obviously true but rarely acknowledged is that not all researchers are equal in terms of their potential for generating large-scale, novel and fundable research ideas. I don\u2019t subscribe to the \u201cgreat man\u201d view of science, I\u2019m fully supportive of the team science agenda and yet\u2026 It does need a certain sort of research leader to be able to credibly bid for seven or eight-figure sums of research funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Strategy specialists who are newish to research funding are often surprised to find that a large percentage of research income comes from a small percentage of researchers. This is a feature, not a bug. It\u2019s probably true at your institution, and it\u2019s true nationally. A lot of funding is recorded in the principal investigator\u2019s name, and there are only very few major awards to be won. The reality is that very few researchers have the track record to lead such investments anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being realistic, how many do you really have at your institution who could compete\u2014today\u2014for massive money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Over-interpreting research funding data without context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The margins between success and failure can be razor thin, and the consequences are huge. Like offside decisions in football, extremely tight decisions going for or against you can have consequences out of all proportion to the margin of the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ever supported a research grant proposal for tens of millions, got to the final two, and lost out? I have. Congratulations-through-gritted-teeth to the successful team, but their proposal was not tens-of-millions better than ours, as I\u2019ve no doubt they\u2019d acknowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It follows from all of this\u2014margins of success and failure, the lack of medium sized grants\u2014that income targets at individual researcher level are obviously a terrible idea, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So many things can skew year-on-year figures for research income: one big success, one big grant coming to an end, one themed call in an institutional sweet spot, one big-name staff arrival or departure\u2026 Unlike student recruitment, where we\u2019re looking at the net result of a lot of individual decisions, with research income we\u2019re looking at the net result of a far smaller number. It&#8217;s a much smaller sample size, and therefore much more prone to distortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good data is useful, but without context, it can be worse than useless. Research funding data is a guide to what questions to ask, but it can\u2019t answer them alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research strategy: asking the right questions<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Part two of two on building a meaningful, positive research funding strategy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"212\" src=\"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/401-Apocalypse-Now-quotes.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1484\" style=\"width:500px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"213\" src=\"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/402-Apocalypse-Now-quotes.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1485\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) in &#8216;Apocalpyse Now&#8217; (Coppola, 1979). Definitely not talking about research strategy.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>I mostly went negative in my first article on research strategy, listing key mistakes that experienced research funding strategists tend to make when setting about their work. Having got all that out the way, I\u2019m going to attempt to be more positive and make some suggestions about sensible ways to approach strategy development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>No blank slates<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless you\u2019re strategizing for an academic unit that does negligible research or attracts negligible research funding and wants to change that, you\u2019re not starting with a clean slate. It\u2019s important to remember that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My limited experience of strategy and change \/ transformation people is that they tend to start from the assumption that the status quo must, axiomatically, be awful, and that change must be an improvement. They\u2019re right in the sense that if you do the same things in the same way with the same resources, you\u2019ll likely get the same results. And if those results aren\u2019t satisfactory, then something does indeed need to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But they\u2019re wrong if they assume that just any change is axiomatically for the better (please see this <a href=\"https:\/\/webcomicname.com\/image\/152958755984\">wonderful Alex Norris cartoon<\/a>). A need for change should be determined by evidence, not assumed from the start. Evolution should be the default option, unless there is very strong evidence that revolution is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, a failure to acknowledge and\/or respect existing effort and expertise will alienate potential allies and undermine the credibility of any new strategy. Researchers have a lot of intrinsic motivation and incentives to bring in funding and optimise their efforts to minimise wasted effort, and those supporting them are similarly motivated. People are already doing their best, not idling around waiting for strategic direction from visionary leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I could say things about what evidence for change should be considered here, but it would probably take me a whole article to do so as it\u2019s a complex topic. For now, I\u2019ll just briefly note <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Goodhart's_law\">Goodhart\u2019s law<\/a>, which states that a measure that becomes a target ceases to be a good measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So with the blank slate approach rejected, and the discussion of statistics and indicators circumvented, what questions should be considered when aiming to create a new research strategy? Here\u2019s a non-exhaustive list. Some require investment, but the good news is that some of them are relatively cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Do we have a sensible talent strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best way to improve a professional football team is to recruit, develop, and retain better players. Yet many research strategies are silent on this, making the mistake that I mentioned in the previous article assuming that all researchers are equal. If you want more research income, you need more researchers who are competitive (or have potential to be competitive) in winning it. And you need to keep them if you possibly can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are funding opportunities being shared in a timely and accessible way?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve written a two-part series on how to summarise a call, and how to disseminate opportunities. You can\u2019t apply for what you don\u2019t know about or don\u2019t understand, and you\u2019ll be less competitive if you get information late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are all of our proposals competitive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do they all have a realistic chance of success? Is support being provided to researchers (by research development managers or senior colleagues) to sense check their ideas and look at eligibility, fit, and competitiveness at a very early stage? Do we have any misaligned incentives (perhaps around promotion) which inadvertently encourage applying more, regardless of quality or chances of success? Spamming funders with uncompetitive proposals is an easy way to look busy but is profoundly damaging waste of time and effort for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I should add that this doesn\u2019t necessarily mean shying away from schemes with low success rates (though it <em>might<\/em>) or not submitting riskier, polarising proposals that a panel might hate. What it does mean is being aware of these issues and taking a clear-eyed decision about whether to apply or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are we training our researchers in grant writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grant writing is very different from academic writing. It\u2019s possible to be an outstanding writer of academic papers and a <em>terrible<\/em> writer of grant proposals. Do researchers know how funding panels work? It\u2019s particularly hard for early career researchers, because they\u2019re suddenly writing for a very different audience, and those who most need the training often don\u2019t know they need it. Many institutions can and do run their own training, but there\u2019s no shortage of external trainers (including me) who can provide training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is there a culture of openness and sharing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do researchers seek (and get) supportive and developmental feedback, either informally or through formal peer review processes, or both? Is there an acceptance that not every application succeeds, and do we celebrate the effort that goes into competitive applications? Some academic units are now running \u2018festivals of failure\u2019 (or similar) to normalise and celebrate and commiserate knock-backs to papers, funding proposals, or job applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How are support mechanisms perceived?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is support for researchers experienced as helpful, developmental, and flexible? Or is it experienced as gatekeeping\u2014a series of hoops to jump through? To put it another way, is the support prized and sought out, or is it evaded and engaged with only reluctantly, and sometimes bypassed? This is usually the litmus test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the former, great. If the latter, you have a problem. The problem might be in the visibility, tone, capacity, and flexibility of what\u2019s on offer. But the problem might be in researcher perceptions themselves\u2014do researchers understand what\u2019s on offer, and why it could be valuable to them? Or it could be both problems at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are we planting seeds and priming pumps?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a lot of small and relatively inexpensive initiatives that can serve to plant seeds for future success, though we have to accept that they won\u2019t all grow. Inviting current (and potential) collaborators to seminars must be done strategically, and should be more than just inviting our mates to come and visit. Also consider seedcorn funding for data generation or other preliminary activities, and interdisciplinary events and networks. Such initiatives take time, money and effort. Non-pay costs are under intense pressure at the moment, but cuts may be a false economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are we maximising time for research?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My sense is that in the conflicting demands of teaching and administration, research time is the most easily squeezed. That\u2019s time for scholarship, for idea generation, for grant writing, for paper writing, for attending events. We should be waging constant marginal-gains style wars on inefficiencies which are leaching away our research time, not to mention damaging work-life balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are we looking at opportunities outside traditional research funders?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the first part, I said that there were two areas which are exceptions to the general rule that competition for research funding is a zero sum game, in which others must lose more if you are to win more. The areas I had in mind are direct funding from industry and philanthropic donations from alumni or others. These are exceptions because they aren\u2019t subject to formal open peer review process, but rather private negotiation. These avenues are definitely worth exploring, even if neither are simple or straightforward. A serious expansion of either or both will almost certainly involve the recruitment of specialists to support the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is there a plan for the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re expecting to submit a lot more proposals, that support needs scaling up as the proposal numbers scale up. If you\u2019re winning more, your post-award capacity likewise needs to expand. I remember a strategy-person looking astonished when I asked about plans for matching capacity growth, but this is a vital component for sustainable growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, are you going to review the strategy and process?Or are you just going to launch it, forget about it, and then come back in a few years\u2019 time with another one, while decrying the failure of the previous one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Below are both parts of a short series of articles I wrote for Research Professional back in May 2025. The first is &#8216;Research strategy: what the strategists get wrong&#8217;. It&#8217;s a summary of everything I&#8217;d liked to have been able to successfully articulate in response to research strategy consultations, often led by people whose understanding &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/socialscienceresearchfunding.co.uk\/?p=1481\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Reflections on university research strategy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,6,13,11,19],"tags":[28,29,30,44],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frustrations","category-funding","category-funding-policy","category-public-sector","category-university-culture","tag-research","tag-research-funding","tag-research-funding-uk","tag-research-strategy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.10 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"#\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" 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