How to improve research culture

At the start of the pandemic last year, Andrew Burrows, professor of inorganic chemistry and head of the department of chemistry at the University of Bath, started to keep aside an hour every day for his staff to ‘drop in’ virtually to talk about the challenges they faced. Burrows has always prioritised listening as part of his role as chair – this exercise was an extension of that.

Department heads like Burrows contribute heavily towards shaping their workplace’s social and cultural atmosphere. The working culture of a chemistry department is important, says David Christianson, professor and head of the department of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, as it can impact several different factors related to research.‘[It] affects lab safety because if a department doesn’t have a good research culture, folks working in the lab might be less productive and more susceptible to lab accidents,’ he says. So chemistry chairs have developed several strategies to improve research culture in their departments.