Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic ScienceOur vision for the culture at the IMS-MRL is:
•To ensure the IMS-MRL is a great place to work, where we pursue scientific excellence in metabolism research with integrity, creativity, synergistic collaboration and translational intent.
•To ensure the IMS-MRL is a great place to train the next generation of metabolic scientists and clinician scientists: a dynamic, inclusive, innovative, engaging, nurturing community with strong national and international links, to support metabolism research flourishing into the future.
In 2022, we assessed our research culture and identified areas for development.
Overall, our staff are proud to work in the IMS-MRL (78%), and consider the IMS-MRL to be a good place to work (65%). The best aspects to working in the IMS-MRL were friendly colleagues and helpful staff, creating a positive working environment. Many people love working in the IMS-MRL and have been grateful for the opportunities it has provided to them.
The best aspects to working in the IMS-MRL are:
- Friendly, helpful colleagues from all staff groups
- The atmosphere of pursuing scientific excellence, collaboration and innovation
- Built environment: open office supporting dialogue
- Diverse and inclusive workforce
- Flexible working patterns
- Support from administrative & facilities team, exceptional core facilities
- Leadership transparency, fairness and willingness to accept feedback.
The areas we need to improve in the IMS-MRL are:
- Support for career development for all staff groups – we are working to develop a new bespoke career development solution.
- Addressing administrative and organisational hurdles – our restructuring process will provide a more streamlined approach.
- Communication and collaboration between groups – through a new departmental seminar series and meeting more face-to-face.
- Providing strong leadership for culture change – by appointing a new Head of Research Culture from the PI team to support ongoing improvements in research culture, career progression and communication.
We are proud of our friendly, helpful staff and the high quality of our research. We are also proud that the IMS-MRL is a positive working environment which celebrates diversity. However, we recognise that there are many issues we need to address to ensure the culture improves to support metabolism research flourishing into the future.
We have created an action plan to improve career progression and mentorship for all staff groups, to review our built environment, and to facilitate better communication and collaboration between groups. The leadership of the IMS-MRL is committed to improving the culture to achieve our long-term vision. We have shown our commitment to this by increasing the amount of internal funding available to support research culture endeavours, increasing PI supervision of our research culture programme and supporting local, national and international efforts to improve culture within academia.
