Insecurity is the enemy of a healthy research culture
But scientists are still working collaboratively and creatively
Competitive. Collaborative. Pressured. Insecure. These are four of the words most often used by scientists to describe research culture, as shared in the Wellcome Trust’s recent report What researchers think about the culture they work in.
Some of those terms could have positive or negative connotations in certain contexts. Healthy competition can spur people on to do things they didn’t know they were capable of, and many of us would attest that the pressure of a deadline focuses the mind. Yet 78% of those who answered the Wellcome survey agree that ‘high levels of competition have created unkind and aggressive research conditions’. For me, this sentiment can be explained by the insecurity that underlies many modern research careers.