The Research Office has overall responsibility for the promotion and development of research across the University, supporting the strategic goals of the University's departments and academic staff in researcher development, governance and policy.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is an assessment of higher education institutions undertaken by Research England. It provides accountability for public investment in research, benchmarking information, and informs the selective allocation of research funding to UOC. It also serves to highlight the excellent research being undertaken by our academics. UOC’s UOC REF2021 Code of Practice has now been approved by Research England and we will use the code to identify staff, select outputs, and ensure equitable, fair and transparent decision making. The Research Office has directly contacted individual staff identified as eligible for submission to REF2021, and it is important that identified staff are familiar with the approved UOC REF2021 Code of Practice.
For information about how the REF and UOC use third party evidence of impact, see: External Guidance REF 2021 Information for Research Users and Collaborators
The 2018-2021 Strategy sets out the role of people, place and partnerships in achieving the University vision as a catalyst for individual and regional prosperity and pride with national and international relevance, reach and impact, through research, innovation and enterprise. It sets out how the university’s academic community will focus on practice-based activity grounded in the real world in key disciplinary areas. This will be achieved through impact, excellence in postgraduate and doctoral education, knowledge exchange, building capacity and capability, collaborative partnership and external engagement.
For further information about innovation and enterprise, please see our pages.
Research Innovation and Enterprise Strategy
Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) GDPR
The Code of Practice for Research applies to all researchers undertaking research at the University. For Postgraduate Research students, this must be read in conjunction with the Postgraduate Research Code of Practice.
The Research Office supports the principles of the University Lone Worker Policy. These should be read in conjunction with the Lone Worker Procedures for Researchers, which consider issues specific to undertaking research.The University also supports the principles of open access.
Research Integrity
The Code of Practice for Research sets out the principles of good conduct in research to be adhered by, and directly supports the University’s commitment to the Concordat to Support Research Integrity (Universities UK, 2012). It also reflects our commitment to the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (2011).
The senior member of staff overseeing research integrity and first point of contact for anyone wanting more information on matters of research integrity is the Chair of the Research Ethics Panel and Director of the Institute for Arts, Dr Colette Conroy, who is also the confidential liaison for whistleblowers or any other person wishing to raise concerns about the integrity of research being conducted at the University, as set out in our process for dealing with allegations of research misconduct (section 5.1 of the Code of Practice for Research). In the case that an allegation of misconduct was received, a statement would be provided to the University Board following conclusion of the investigation process. This would be reflected in publicly available University Board records, to improve accountability, and provide assurances that measures being taken continue to support consistently high standards of research integrity.
Compliance with the Concordat to Support Research Integrity
In line with the requirements of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, the University’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee reviews and approves an annual statement summarising how research integrity is promoted and supported, including details of related activities undertaken across the University. This statement also includes anonymised information about how allegations of misconduct in research have been assessed and investigated. This information is also provided to University Board. This statement is available here Research Integrity Statement 2020-21
Open Access
The Open Access Policy sets the University’s expectation in relation to open access, and the requirements for eligibility for outputs in the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). Use our research repository, Insight, to make your research openly accessible: submit your author accepted manuscript as soon as it's been accepted for publication.
For any enquiries related to your research at the University of Cumbria, please get in touch with our Research Office:
