Liz Simmonds - Co Lead
Liz is the Head of Research Culture at the University of Cambridge, responsible for driving the research culture agenda across the institution. She supports the Research Culture Steering Committee in setting the strategy and establishing the priorities for research culture. She manages the Action Research on Research Culture project, and chairs the Research Culture Operational Group, to ensure the delivery of a range of activities that support an improved research culture at Cambridge. She also works with universities, funders and other stakeholders nationally and internationally to help build a collaborative approach to tackling research culture across the Higher Education sector. Liz has worked at the University of Cambridge for 15 years, primarily in roles supporting early career researchers. She co-established the University’s first Careers Service for Postdocs in 2007, offering individual support for researchers facing some of the biggest challenges in research culture. She then moved to Assistant Head of the Postdoc Academy in 2019, where she led the development of the University’s broader research culture agenda, including the first institutional action plan. Prior to joining the University, she held various roles in science communication and policy.
Steven Wooding - Co Lead
Dr Steven Wooding is Head of Research on Research in the Research Strategy Office at the University of Cambridge, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Science Policy and a Senior Research Associated at the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College. His central research interest is how research itself works: from funding processes; to the social machinery of research and the wider impact of research. He has recently looked at the evidence behind using peer review for funding allocation, and worked with foundations to develop improved methods of selecting research projects to boost innovation. Alongside his research interests Steve is lead for Outputs for the University of Cambridge’s submission for REF2021. Steve has broader interests in the use of evidence in policy; and approaches to visualising concepts and data. Previously, Steve worked at the Centre for Science Policy as Lead for Research; and at RAND Europe where he was Director of the Innovation Health and Science team. He advises on various projects around the assessment of research.
Kate Murray - Careers Consultant
Kate is the Careers Consultant for the Action Research on Research Culture project, supporting research that will make recommendations to improve the working environment for researchers. Specifically, she provides feedback on narrative CVs to candidates in live postdoc recruitments, enabling us to learn more about these new application documents. These insights are helping us shape resources and materials for colleagues internally and externally as the sector learns how to use them. Kate also uses her network of contacts to support the researchers in the project reach as wide a range of institutions as possible, ensuring that we keep relevant to the sector. She uses her knowledge of careers theory and practical experience working with researchers to inform other elements of our project strands.
Additionally, Kate is part of the Cambridge Careers Service team, working with PhDs and the postdoc community.
Mollie Etheridge - Researcher
Mollie Etheridge is a PhD researcher in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research explores how the transition to parenthood and/or desired parenthood changes academics’ engagement with the norms of academic labour. Mollie has an expertise in feminist social theory, which she combines with her qualitative methodological background to practice creative forms of inquiry, including screenplay methods, body-mapping and word association. She is currently following her passion for understanding and improving the processes of knowledge production by working as a Research Assistant on the Action Research for Research Culture project.
Becky Ioppolo - Researcher
Becky is interested in understanding the characteristics of high-performing research environments, particularly in universities. Currently, she is working on the Action Research on Research Culture (ARRC) project, testing the effectiveness of some interventions which could improve research culture in universities. She also completed the QR project, which outlined how UK universities’ discretionary funds for research (block grants) complement targeted grant funding. Previously, Becky worked at RAND Europe where she contributed to studies for UK and EU government entities and charities on science and innovation policy topics. She has also worked in the science & public policy interface abroad in Washington, D.C., at the National Governors Association and in Perth, Western Australia, in the state government’s science and innovation division and in multiple roles in faculty and research administration at The University of Western Australia. Becky has a BA in Environmental Studies from Earlham College and an MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Lara Abel - Researcher
Lara's academic background is in Psychology and Computer Science. She has studied and worked at various academic institutions, including University of Heidelberg, Free University Berlin, University of Berkeley, and the Max Planck Institutes for Human Development and Biological Cybernetics. In her doctoral thesis she studied the effect of emotions on cognitive processes. Lara is also a freelancing market researcher, specialised on focus group moderation, and head of public relations for the NGO Partnerschaft Bangladesh e.V.
Noam Tal-Perry - Researcher
Noam graduated with a PhD in Psychology from Tel Aviv University School of Psychological Sciences and was a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. He holds a special interest in meta-science, research integrity, and applied statistics, both within the Social Sciences and more broadly in research systems.
Katherine Dawson - Engagement Coordinator
Katherine joined the project following her PhD, which looked at the relationship between aging, speech motor control and cognitive status (City University of New York; Haskins Labs). She also has a background in lab management, research grants management and science communication. Her role on the project concerns recruitment, engaging with internal and external stakeholders, and communication and outputs for the project. She is excited to contribute to research that could lead to improvements in academic culture.
Marie Collier - Engagement Coordinator
Marie Collier is an Engagement Coordinator on the ARRC project. She has a PhD in History of Art from The Courtauld Institute, where she specialised in the history of modernist Soviet and European architecture and particularly on the relationship between architecture and photography in print media. Prior to joining the ARRC team, Marie was Teaching Associate in the History of Art Department at Cambridge, where she remains an Affiliated Lecturer, a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Courtauld Institute and Research Assistant at the V&A. For the ARRC Project, Marie will be working with colleagues to engage participants in experiments, communicate with the university and the sector more widely about the project and help share its findings.
Sylvia Osborn - Project Coordinator
Sylvia joined the Action Research on Research Culture project in September 2022, and is responsible for the coordination of the project, budget and ensuring KPI’s are met within scope, on time while meeting quality standards and adhering to policy. She has extensive experience working in a variety of roles in the scientific research field, in both Academia and Industry. Her particular interests are in process management and how these can be facilitated for optimum efficiency. She is very enthused about being part of the project and working towards ‘real world’ impact.
Debbie Birkett - Project Administrator
Debbie Birkett joined the Action Research on Research Culture project in November 2023 and is responsible for supporting the researchers and engagement with the administration of projects and events. She has a variety of experience including executive support for a Biopharmaceutical company and more recently working in events and communications at the University of Cambridge. Her main interest is in supporting the team to achieve results that will help shape the future for research culture.