Here's our update on the projects and activities that have been keeping the Research Consulting team busy during so far in 2025. In this article, we explore our engagement with conferences and professional communities, examine key themes shaping our recent work, and look ahead to developments that may capture your attention in the coming months!
Out and about
Reflecting the diversity of communities we work with, 2025 has taken us to events on publishing, library management, research management, knowledge exchange and impact.
From Liz's engagement with publishing professionals at APE 2025 in Berlin to Katie's participation in research libraries conversations at RLUK in Liverpool and the LIBER Annual Conference in Lausanne, we’ve been connecting across the interconnected ecosystem of research support. This year in Edinburgh, we returned to ARMA 2025 as exhibitors for the second time. Rob, Dan, and Angharad were pleased to find our REF readiness materials, including REF-related handouts on the timeline and simplified view of the people, culture and environment element, proving popular with delegates.
The scholarly publishing circuit has been particularly active, with our team – moving between the London Book Fair's commercial focus to research-oriented discussions at Researcher to Reader and the Metascience Conference in London.
What's struck us is how these events increasingly blur traditional boundaries, bringing together diverse groups of research professionals around shared challenges.
Key themes in our work
AI and Research Integrity: Parallel Revolutions
Two interconnected themes have dominated our work this year: the rapid integration of generative AI tools across research ecosystem and the evolving landscape of research integrity practices.
The society publisher survey we conducted with the Copyright Clearance Center revealed a striking paradox – societies ranked AI as simultaneously their greatest challenge and most significant opportunity. When something can be both threat and salvation, you're dealing with fundamental change rather than technological tinkering.
We're watching this play out in practice. The UK government's launch of "Humphrey" for analysing qualitative data signals a broader shift toward AI-assisted research management. Meanwhile, tools showcased at the Knowledge Exchange UK conference -including platforms from GenIP and First Ignite – are developing sophisticated approaches to research partner identification and collaboration.
This AI theme resonates strongly with our own practice. We're actively using AI tools for interview transcript analysis, using platforms like Copilot and Claude in our day-to-day work. The key insight emerging from our work is that effective AI adoption requires hands-on experimentation – you can't determine utility without engaging directly with the technology. But perhaps more importantly, you need to understand what you're losing as well as what you're gaining.
Meanwhile, our research integrity work continues to expand, and it's now impossible to separate these discussions from AI. We’re working with STM to map research integrity practices across publishing organisations at a time when artificial intelligence is both creating new threats – from sophisticated paper mills to AI-generated content that's harder to detect – and offering new solutions through automated screening tools. This reflects the same AI paradox we saw in the society publishing survey. This STM project represents a significant effort to understand current safeguards and identify improvement opportunities. Complementing this, we've recently worked with the UK Committee on Research Integrity (UKCORI), examining annual statements from Higher Education Institutions and research organisations published between 2022-2024.
Research Culture and REF Readiness
Research culture remains central to our work, with several active projects examining how institutions navigate changing expectations around researcher wellbeing, career development, and inclusive research environments. We're currently working on four research culture projects, including evaluations of Wellcome's "Institutional Fund for Research Culture" initiatives and institutional reviews more broadly.
With REF 2029 timeline updates continuing to emerge, our REF preparation work has intensified, with work supporting research culture and impact. The enthusiastic response to our ARMA handouts reminded us how much appetite exists for clear, actionable guidance in an increasingly complex landscape. We're working on impact case study development projects and institutional reviews that feed into REF preparation strategies, helping institutions learn from previous exercises while adapting to new requirements.
Recently, we did some work with Springer Nature on research assessment practices. Over 6,600 researchers globally were surveyed, revealing that while most researchers are currently evaluated using metrics, they envision a more balanced future with greater emphasis on contributions to society and research culture.
Evaluation Excellence
We continue delivering evaluations for funders and programme teams. A particularly significant project was the assessment for Wellcome of emergency research funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, examining experiences of 125 Wellcome-funded researchers across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East who led genomic surveillance efforts. The evaluation explored how research funding mechanisms performed under emergency conditions, identifying lessons for optimising support during future global health crises.
We'll be kicking off an evaluation of a funder's long-standing Fellowship programme in August, building on previous work for UKRI, British Academy, and the Royal Society.
Team Development
A significant development this year has been expanding our team capabilities. Dylan joined us in May, bringing experience from the learned society publishing sector in addition to Irish and US research ecosystem knowledge. Combined with Katie's librarian background and Liz's experience at Taylor & Francis and Wellcome, we've created a unique combination of skills that is proving valuable across our client base.
These different sector perspectives combine in unexpected ways. Adding team members who understand research libraries, commercial pressures facing publishers, funder priorities, and day-to-day realities of research support means we can approach challenges from multiple angles and spot connections that might otherwise be missed.
Looking Ahead
With nearly 400 projects completed since 2013 (we'll likely hit project #400 in early 2026), we continue expanding our work for clients across the research ecosystem.
The conference schedule is looking very busy for us this Autumn, and we hope to see you out there! Rob and Liz will be heading to the ALPSP Conference in September. Rob and Andrea are heading to OASPA in Belgium, while Birmingham awaits Angharad who is attending the Vitae International Research Development Conference. Dylan and Rob will be heading to Frankfurt for STM Annual Conference and the Frankfurt Book Fair this October, while Andrea will presenting at the Forum for Open Research in MENA in Dubai. Dan will cap off the year of travelling by making his way to London for a UUK event in December.
It will be interesting to see how conversations around AI, publishing models, research integrity, research culture, and the research ecosystem itself have evolved before the end of the year.
You can find contact details for all team members on our website, so if you'd like to hear more about any of the above, or arrange a time to speak, just drop us a line.
