As 2025 draws to a close, we’re reflecting on a year that has seen Research Consulting contribute to transformative projects across the research ecosystem. Our work continues to be driven by our commitment to improve research management, scholarly communication and knowledge exchange.
In our August mid-year update we reflected on how the year had gone so far, our presence at many sector events, key themes in our work and highlighting our work in research culture and funder programme evaluations. Since then, Rob and Dylan attended the STM Annual Conference and Frankfurt Book Fair, where we took the opportunity to gauge industry sentiment by running a quick Publishing Pulse Check. In November, Dylan took advantage of a trip home to Ireland to join the UIIN Forum in Dublin on Partnering for Innovation and Impact: nicely timed for some work we are currently doing for Enterprise Ireland. The last few weeks of the year have seen our team out and about at the UKSG Forum, the STM Future Lab, Innovation and Integrity Days and the Universities UK Research and Innovation Conference.
New faces and changes
2025 saw new faces in the team. In May Dylan Storan joined us from a previous role with IOP Publishing. In December, Elizabeth Thorneloe joined us from a previous role supporting the delivery of clinical trials in the Research and Innovation division at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. In December, we say goodbye to Katie as she leaves us to join Loughborough University’s Library team as Open Research Lead.
Other developments include becoming a supporter of the Association of Medical Research Charities, strengthening our links with medical research funders. We are now a Dimensions Data Partner, and are continuing to explore how Dimensions can add value to our work. It was a core methodological element in work looking at open access publication and article publication charges for INASP, and was particularly helpful in visualising a research charity’s university centre investments, as part of work shaping their new research strategy.
In December we launched a new email newsletter and you can sign up for it on our website. Working across funders, publishers, universities and intermediaries gives us a privileged view of how the research ecosystem is shifting and the quarterly newsletter delivers a round-up of insights, news and views.
Our voluntary contributions
Our company values highlight the importance of connection with the research community, and so we actively encourage voluntary contributions from the team. Our voluntary work in 2025 has included the following roles:
- Andrea is on the Dryad Board of Directors and DOAJ’s Advisory Board.
- Dan is again supporting Knowledge Exchange UK’s conference advisory group
- Dylan has joined the ALPSP conference planning committee.
- Liz has been appointed a Trustee to the Microbiology Society, and will also chair the Funder Outreach Working Group for Phase 2 of the United2Act initiative to raise awareness and address the challenge of paper mills.
- Rob is Vice Chair of UKSG and a member of Cranfield University’s Audit and Risk Committee and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’s Publications Committee.
International work and perspectives
Cross-border scientific collaboration, shared infrastructure and stable, reliable funding has been a driving factor in our international work.
For EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute, we delivered “Towards global biodata partnerships: An exploratory study of adoption, practices, drivers and barriers” which sought to assess and optimise engagement with biodata users, contributors and delivery partners across low-resource settings. Involving engagement with researchers across Africa, Asia and Latin America, the study examined technical, cultural and policy factors that shape participation in the global biodata ecosystem. Global Engagement Manager for EMBL-EBI Data Services, ThankGod Ebenezer, talked about the report in an October article.
We also supported the Global Biodata Coalition to create a series of impact case studies to showcase the positive impacts that biodata resources are having on the world.
For Wellcome, we delivered evaluations linked to their emergency funding during COVID-19. Firstly a two-year review of their strategic investment in pathogen genomic sequencing, which revealed critical lessons in infrastructure, data sharing, and policy engagement for future health crises. A second, linked evaluation examined the supplementary community engagement grants, engaging participants from projects in Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Nepal, and the UK.
Working with our associate Georgina Humphreys, we also developed a sustainability plan for Pandemic PACT, aiming to combine grant funding with contract revenue streams and ensure long-term organisational viability and impact.
Other international work included:
- desk research supporting the Dubai Future Foundation 2025 Global 50 report, covering 50 opportunities for future growth, prosperity and well-being; and
- in September we published the results of a study on researcher development, featuring 14 UK and Australian universities. Delivered with Vitae, the study explored strategies, structures, resourcing, delivery, evaluation and challenges.
The less obvious
One of the great aspects of working here is the variety of projects we get involved in. Here, we’ve picked out a few examples of the less obvious things we’ve done this year, but which might pique your interest!
Facilitation, of workshops, focus groups and training sessions, is a major part of our work and a core skill. Generally, this is as part of delivering projects for clients, but we have also delivered stand-alone work as part of Research Office away days. For the Global Biodata Coalition, Rob and Andrea travelled to Montreal, Canada to facilitate a workshop session for 30 global experts in biodata and informatics, economics and research funding.
Other examples include:
- delivering consultancy skills training in multiple sessions for advisors in an NIHR Research Support Service Hub;
- reviewing and assessing EC grants, supporting proposal development (Dan has completed three Research England Connecting Capability Fund bids recently); and
- commercial / market advice on products, systems and tools for research management.
A turbulent year for the UK HE sector
It’s been a turbulent year for the UK higher education and research environment. It closes on a positive note, with government spending review announcements confirming real-terms protection for QR and HEIF funding. Nevertheless, financial sustainability for UK universities remains fragile, with redundancy announcements and budget cuts widespread. We’ve seen the impacts of this first hand in our work, particularly that supporting institutional research culture. On top of this confirmation of a £925-per-student international levy from August 2028 presents a substantial new cost burden for 2026.
Discussion on the use of AI within the sector pervaded through 2025, most recently via the release of the REF-AI report. Most seem characterised by the same issue evidenced in the REF-AI report – a divided group of users and sceptics. The former have experimented with it to find practical value, the latter may not have actually used it but advocate against it: “[those] who have never used Generative AI tools for work purposes showed more disagreement towards the use of Generative AI tools for REF2029 than other respondents”. A fracture between individuals’ use of GenAI and how this sits within institutional policy guidelines is evident. In our own work the range of supporting use cases grows weekly, both for external search and internal (closed) analysis, supported by a clear company policy.
Our project work for UK clients continues to deliver insights for individual universities on topics including partnership working, research culture and research strategy reviews. Work for Durham on research data management is a good example of this, building on similar work delivered for Oxford and Southampton. Linked to Research England’s 2024 call for pilot projects, the development of shared services in technology transfer has featured strongly in work this year.
For Jisc, we delivered a landscape review of open data produced in the process of research management and administration in the UK. The report sets the stage for a future of more accessible, efficient, and innovation-ready open research management data in the UK.
October saw the announcement £4.5m Research England funding for the Research Professional Futures programme. Led collectively by Teesside University, Durham University, Imperial College London and the University of Warwick, this ambitious project aims to redefine career pathways for research professionals, ensuring their skills and contributions are recognised and futureproofed. Our role is focused on providing research and evaluation expertise through surveys and data analysis and we look forward to delivering this work in 2026.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Looking forward, 2026 is definitely going to be an interesting year. Challenging and maybe disruptive, but definitely interesting.
As usual, we close out 2025 by thanking our clients, partners, and collaborators for making the past year rewarding and interesting. We look forward to working together in 2026 to shape the future of research!
Festive doodles by Dan and Andrea.
