People and culture

It is a strategic priority to invest in our people, culture and environment. Heriot-Watt’s enterprising research culture is a dynamic and multifaceted ecosystem designed to foster innovation, collaboration, and excellence in research.

A thriving research culture is one where researchers and professional partners engage at all levels to demonstrate fair, collaborative and supportive behaviour. Our ‘Beacons of Change’— Research Culture Champions, Public and Community Engagement Leads and Research Impact Champions — support the embedding of good research culture, impact and engagement in their areas.

We have an active research culture programme designed to support our community of researchers and innovators in achieving impact. This aims to foster, maintain and support a positive, vibrant and enterprising research culture.

"At Heriot-Watt University, we foster an enterprising research culture where curiosity meets purpose and where every idea has the potential to change the world. Our vision is to be a beacon of excellence, driven by a relentless pursuit of knowledge and a commitment to impact lives globally. Here, you won’t just be part of a research team; you will be part of a vibrant community that celebrates creativity, boosts entrepreneurship, nurtures collaboration and champions diversity. Join us in our mission to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges with ground-breaking research. Together, we will create solutions that inspire, innovate and transform."

Professor Gabriela Medero, Associate Principal for Enterprise

In line with the University’s strategic themes of Excelling in Research and Enterprise and Flourishing Communities, we strive for an enterprising research culture that:

• Is ambitious, dynamic, agile, innovative, exciting, open, and communicative

•Is collegiate and collaborative

• Promotes ethical behaviours in a well-balanced research and innovation environment

• Embeds equity, diversity and inclusivity

• Enables career development and research excellence by members of the community at different career stages

• Creates impacts for research, society, industry, and academia.

"As a globally connected university, we place high value on connecting our international research community, including researchers and professional services support partners, in different roles and at all career stages, to foster an enterprising research culture; to do the best research we can do and be the best researchers that we can be. A positive and inclusive research culture should be led by our community, so we engaged in a consultative process to co-create our research culture action plan, to work towards the same vision to deliver the University's Excelling in Research and Enterprise strategy. The focus on research culture has enhanced the research environment making it a great university to be a researcher, at all our campuses."

Professor Jemina Napier, Associate Principal for Research Culture and People

Researcher Development

We continue to recruit, retain and develop excellent research academics, providing access to state-of-the art infrastructure, connectivity with our international research communities and professional support.

Our researcher development support includes early career development training for colleagues and postgraduate research students, pitched at various levels of expertise and facilitated by experts.

Recent developments include our a new mid-senior level leadership programme, our Inaugural Impact Programme for new professors and our Bicentennial Research Leaders programme for senior leadership.

Our Research Engagement teams provide comprehensive expertise to help unlock potential to achieve research excellence and impact. This includes extensive resources and guidance on funding, skills development, engagement and impact, and the research environment.

For more detailed information about our Research Environment and Enterprising Research Culture, for Heriot-Watt employees, please visit the Research Engagement SharePoint Hub.