In the evolving landscape of UK research, leadership development and cultural shifts are no longer a ‘nice to have’; they are essential conditions for adapting to the rapid changes across the research ecosystem and funding landscape. In the past few years, multiple initiatives have started to address the hierarchical structures of PI-led research teams and their implications for research culture as a whole, offering alternative approaches to leadership and collaboration.
Thrive: redefining team-based research
The Thrive Project, led by the University of Liverpool and supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Research England Development Fund, set out to develop and define a new approach to team-based research, which embedded a renewed emphasis on collaboration, fostered inclusivity and encouraged diverse roles, skills and perspectives to actively shape research leadership. This approach was piloted through a live funding opportunity with the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). In so doing, the purpose was to develop a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by this approach from the perspective of both higher education institutions (HEIs) and funding bodies.
Thrive’s team-convening approach is underpinned by five key principles:
- Appropriate Expertise
- Collective Leadership
- Inclusive Governance
- Development for All, and
- Reflective Practice.
These principles represent an approach that has begun to shift the dial in our perception of collaborative research.
Embedding Thrive into Advance HE’s leadership development programmes
Advance HE has worked to incorporate the Thrive outcomes, learnings and recommendations into our programmes and events, with a clear goal to support a shift in practice across the sector.
Our Research Leadership Development Programmes (RLDPs), as well as the Connecting Research Culture and Impact event, play a major role to achieve our goals. This integration brings together two highly aligned approaches: Thrive’s team-convening approach, assuring inclusive decision-making and development opportunities across the team, and RLDP’s structured, tiered development of research leaders leading change in their institutions. Together, they signal incremental change in how research is led, governed and experienced across the sector.
Testing and scaling collaborative leadership models
Over its first year, Thrive engaged widely across the sector, gathering insights on how to increase the diversity of leadership voices and embed more positive, collaborative cultures in research teams. The approach is being tested through the recently announced AHRC Mission Awards.
In parallel, RLDP has been designed as a three-tier structure, guiding leaders to reflect on identity, team dynamics and system-level change, and supporting research leaders in different points of their careers.
The things I've learned will enhance how I manage people and how I influence people without necessarily being their direct line manager - in ways that will give them peace of mind that, no matter what the sector's throwing at them, they're still doing good things and what they're doing is worthwhile."Professor Nicholas Caldwell, Director of the Digital Futures Institute, University of Suffolk
Creating the conditions for sustainable culture change
The Connecting Research Culture and Impact event offers a platform to learn about, understand, challenge and reflect on the latest initiatives in research culture, to build a sustainable, impactful and thriving research ecosystem.
By bringing Thrive into Advance HE programmes and events, this learning is amplified and disseminated across the sector. Thrive’s approach offers a tangible, practical framework that directly addresses current challenges, giving research teams the conceptual tools, as well as the operational strategies needed to enact inclusive research leadership.
RLDP has always been designed to support institutions in shaping healthier research environments. Thrive’s five principles of team convening can now be embedded in leadership development at scale. This creates a powerful foundation for sustainable change. Members of Advance HE benefit not only from learning about Thrive’s approach, but can apply this approach in their own context. By challenging hierarchical structures, the integrated collaborative approach both models and supports distributed leadership and a concrete path forward.
A system-wide shift in research leadership
The integration of Thrive into RLDP represents more than a fruitful partnership, it represents a system shift. The AHRC Mission Awards, shaped in part through Thrive, now serve as a test bed for team-based research leadership at scale. Participating teams demonstrate inclusive governance and collective capability, embedding cultural change directly into funded research activity.
Our offer to members ensures that leaders stepping into these environments are ready, capable and motivated to lead differently, with clear strategic goals and a long-term mindset. This creates a feedback loop: as leaders apply team-based models, their success reinforces the evidence for cultural change, which then informs future training and funding approaches.
The incorporation of Thrive into Advance HE’s approach represents a step forward for UK and international research culture. It consolidates multi-year work of insight, experimentation and sector collaboration into a coherent, scalable approach to research leadership, one that prioritises inclusion, collective capability and sustainable research systems.
As Advance HE continues to reach research leaders at all levels, the sector is building a solid foundation for cultural, impact-forward shift.
Dr Ireen Litvak-Zur directs a wide range of Advance HE programmes where research and leadership intersect, including Research Leadership Development Programme, Research Team Leadership and Success on The Board. Ireen holds a PhD in international relations and specialises in negotiation and team dynamics. She is an experienced researcher and consultant, focused on research culture and internationalised multidisciplinary initiatives. Ireen has worked at multiple higher education institutions across the globe and is an accredited and awarded educator, with a special interest in equality, diversity and inclusion and how they drive thriving and sustainable research cultures.
Georgina Endfield is Professor of Environmental History and Dean of the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures at University of Liverpool. Her research focuses on environmental history, and specifically on climatic history, historical climatology, and human responses to unusual or extreme weather events. Georgina is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Non-Executive Director of Liverpool University Press. She has served as a full REF panellist and interdisciplinary research advisor on the Geography and Environmental Studies panel in the 2021 REF and is again on the panel for REF2029. She also co-chaired one of the sub-panels in the recent REF PCE exercise.
Dr James Howard is the Director of The Development Academy at the University of Liverpool. The Academy is a centre for integrated people-development, with teams specialising in Academic, Researcher, PGR and Organisational Development in support of the University’s strategic objectives. In addition, James leads Prosper, a Research England and UKRI funded project that supports Postdoctoral Researchers across the UK to unlock their career potential.
Connecting Research Culture and Impact
Date: 15 April 2026 | 14:00–16:00 GMT
Join our online event where senior research leaders share proven strategies for building impact driven, collaborative research cultures. You’ll gain practical frameworks to reduce researcher isolation and improve team dynamics. Book now