Seek, Find, Celebrate

We want you to tell us about the people who make a positive difference to you.

Our University motto tells us "Seek and You Shall Find", and we know that if we look for examples of good research culture, we'll find them, and we need to celebrate the people doing this work!

Seek, Find, Celebrate is a project that aims to recognise and thank the people who contribute to our thriving research culture. It is an informal way to collect, share and celebrate practical examples of good practice in research leadership, for example from our Supervisors, Students, Technicians, Research Staff, Principal Investigators, Research Professional Colleagues and Management Teams.

InFrame: Seek, Find, Celebrate

Research thrives when we feel part of an engaging, fair, and collegiate environment in which people help each other to succeed. The people who lead research across the University of Edinburgh, are critically important in creating these conditions.

It's now time for nominations! Deadline Wednesday 16th April, 2025

Nomination Form

Who is Seek, Find, Celebrate for?

We are reaching out to all doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, all academic staff, and all research support and research professional colleagues, to invite you to take a pause and tell us who has had a positive impact on you, and how.

We recognise there are a wide range of contributors to good research cultures and our process is open and inclusive, please nominate who matters to you. This can be for example a post-doc, supervisor, PI, facilities manager, technician, research manager, PGR Convenor, project manager, a librarian, receptionist, data manager, senior university leader, or anyone else who has contributed to a positive research culture and who deserves to be recognised.

Nominations are just 100 words, and we hope that this enables those with limited time and energy to take part.

We know that so many of our research leaders work incredibly hard to provide collegial support and cultivate a workplace that upholds the standards of fair and open research practice. We want to recognise the full extent and variety of good practice and say a heartfelt thank you to each and every person making a positive contribution.

Seek, Find, Celebrate is not competitive, there are no awards — we will simply publicly name and thank all those who do a great job.

Links to the InFrame research project and People Make Research

Seek, Find, Celebrate is part of the InFrame project.

InFrame is a collaborative project (between the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews) that aims to create anew framework for research leadership. A skilled collegiate approach to leadership is critical for the development of supportive and equitable cultures, and foundational to the aspirations set out in our research culture action plans. Our collaboration aims to address the paucity of systematic knowledge on how collegiality can be fostered, recognised and rewarded. It also aims to expand the definition of who can be viewed as a research leader to a wider set of role types, and individuals in the research ecosystem.

Read more about InFrame here.

Seek, Find, Celebrate is part of the InFrame project and is linked to University of Glasgow’s People Make Research recognition campaign, which has run for the past two years:

How do I take part?

The process is voluntary, very simple, and requires only about 10 minutes of your time.

  1. Use this online form, to share a short narrative of the impact that your nominee's good research leadership has had on you. You can nominate as many people as you like. Deadline Wednesday 16th April, 2025
  2. After the deadline, all narratives and nominee names (but not your name) will be checked and posted (with nominee consent) to a public online gallery.
  3. We will share the online galleries widely in order to thank the staff who have been recognised and to celebrate good practice across the whole university research community.
  4. Our Nominator Data Privacy Notice for Seek, Find, Celebrate / People Make Research and InFrame is here.
  5. We will also (with your consent) analyse the anonymised narratives thematically, as part of the InFrame project, funded by the Wellcome, which aims to address the paucity of systematic knowledge on how collegiality can be fostered, recognised and rewarded in research institutions.
  6. Our Nominator Participant Information Sheet for Seek, Find, Celebrate / People Make Research and InFrame is here. You can download it and keep a copy. When we contact the people you nominate to thank them, they will also get a copy, and be able to consent at that point, to how their data is used.

Note Please: The University of Glasgow is the data holder for this campaign as part of the InFrame collaboration. In the initial phase of InFrame we will analyse all of the submissions to Seek, Find, Celebrate (and their equivalent campaigns, across all three partner universities) to identify themes that will support the development of the framework for research leadership. You will be able to choose whether your nomination is used just for Seek, Find, Celebrate or for InFrame too.

We received ethical approval for this research, from the University of Glasgow’s College of Social Sciences Ethics Committee (app: 400240009), on 9th December 2024.  Below you'll find data privacy notices, and the participant information sheet.

Seek, Find, Celebrate is coordinated by the InFrame Team at Edinburgh and all data is held at the University of Glasgow. Questions or feedback about this project can be directed to the Project Lead Dr Kay Guccione (kay.guccione@glasgow.ac.uk) Head of Research Culture and Researcher Development, or Sara Shinton Edinburgh InFrame Institutional Lead (sara.shinton@ed.ac.uk).

How else can I recognise good research leadership?

We're glad you asked! If you prefer to be more informal, why not email your chosen colleagues directly, share the positive impact they have had on you, and say thank you in your own way.

Or, there are formal opportunities to recognise the people who make a big difference 

What if I haven't had a good experience?

We recognise that some people may not have experienced good research culture overall, and may want to seek help to improve their working relationships, or to manage their experiences. We want to hear from you too.

There are options:

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