Spring Forum 2024: Adele Kenny: Enhancing Research Culture at Warwick Medical School

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Adele Kenny, Research Culture Officer, Warwick Medical School

Abstract

 The emergence of a more holistic approach towards thinking about research excellence has emphasized the importance of research culture. However, the concept of research culture is somewhat complex, influenced by the inherent diversity in research activities, communities, and settings. Moreover, to enhance research culture, it’s important to understand what it means to a community. With this in mind, an open invitation was afforded to members of the WMS community of staff (researchers and research enablers) and students to participate in one or more of a series of semi-structured ‘research culture cafes’. Participants were invited to explore ‘what’ research culture means, identifying both strengths within our community and where change was required, how such change could be achieved, when, and by whom. Thematic analysis informed the co-creation of a values-driven, action-focused, five-year roadmap in which our people, our community, and our research were all valued.

Biography

Adele graduated from UCL with a degree in Anatomy and Developmental Biology and began her career as a research assistant in the field of developmental neurobiology at Guy’s Medical School. Having developed interest in clinical trials, Adele moved into the pharmaceutical industry where she spent over a decade in a range of roles across a variety of therapeutic areas.

Relocation to the West Midlands in 2014 offered the opportunity to take her career into academia, where she managed the daily running of the Integrated Academic Training programme (funded by NIHR) at Warwick University for several years. In 2022, the medical school was awarded a grant from Research England’s Enhancing Research Culture fund. Adele is now on secondment in the role of WMS’s first Research Culture Officer.

Health Librarianship: The Next Generation

UHMLG’s 2024 Spring Forum brings together a range of fantastic speakers to look at the future of health librarianship. The conferences spans two half days (21-22 March, 2024), it’s free, online, and registration is open – our core audience is UK / Republic of Ireland health and medical librarians from the Higher Education and NHS / health sectors, but we welcome delegates from any area of librarianship, and from anywhere in the world.

More Information / Book Your Place

For full information about the conference, and to book your place, please visit our Spring Forum 2024 page.