Meet the Research Culture & Researcher Development Team
We work as one team across Research Culture and Researcher Development. We aim to ensure that every member of our research ecosystem is supported to be at their best, and to be part of an engaging, fair, and collegial environment in which people help each other to succeed and to make informed, active choices about their career ahead.
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Leadership Team
Kay Guccione
Head of Research Culture & Researcher Development
Kay leads the Research Culture & Researcher Development Team and is Co-Director of the Lab for Academic Culture. The team works in pursuit of our ambition that every member of our research ecosystem, should be supported to be at their best, and to be part of an engaging, fair, and collegial environment in which people help each other to succeed and to make informed active choices about their career ahead. Kay's own specialisms and research interests are in mentoring, research supervisor and leader development, and in community building – anything that revolves around a good quality conversation. Kay is a Principal Fellow of the HEA and in 2018 she was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in recognition of her impact in creating developmental reseach cultures, and this is where her leadership at UofG focuses.
Email | Staff Profile | LinkedIn
Blog: The Hidden Curriculum in Doctoral Education
Blog: Supervising PhDs
Joanna Royle
Researcher Development Manager
Joanna leads the team responsible for delivering our rich frameworks of university-wide professional development for all researchers, including Postgraduate Researchers, Research Staff, and Research Supervisors. These programmes, activities and events are designed to enrich researchers’ skills and working relationships, foster their talents, and accelerate their professional prospects. Joanna also leads the Talent Lab suite of research leadership programmes. Joanna is excited by the pedagogy underpinning excellent training, and has committed her career to widening participation, building academic literacies, and fostering supportive communities for different cohorts connected with the University of Glasgow.
Rachel Herries
Research Culture Manager
Rachel leads the Research Culture Team, overseeing delivery of the five UofG Culture Priorities: Open Research, Research Integrity, Career Development, Collegiality and Research Recognition. This includes leading several flagship projects related to the Career Destinations of Researchers, the PI Development Strategy, and career enhancement for Research Professional Staff. Her aim is to enable all colleagues who contribute to research to develop their confidence to create positive environments, to be better connected with each other, and ultimately to be able to do the best possible research.
Specialists & Project Officers
Rhoda Stefanatos
Researcher Development Specialist (Research Staff)
Rhoda leads on Researcher Development for Research Staff, including the implementation of the Researcher Development Concordat, through development of a wide range of opportunities, experiences and resources for Research Staff. She is committed to empowering researchers to communicate, create, collaborate and make informed strategic choices about their career and development while contributing to a positive and open research culture.
Emma Waters
Researcher Development Specialist (PGR)
Emma leads of Researcher Development for Postgraduate Research Students.
Emma is a passionate educator and committed to ensuring PGRs develop skills during their degree which will benefit a career both in and out of academia. PGR Researcher Development at the University of Glasgow is a rich programme of over 250 courses, including mandatory courses which focus on essentials for all researchers and optional courses which allows PGRs to identify their own areas of professional development.
Emma comes from a lecturing background and has experience in pedagogical design and promoting inclusive teaching practices. In 2023 she was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Glasgow for her work on improving teaching practices to make geoscience fieldtrips more accessible to students.
Rachel Chin
Researcher Development Specialist (Writing and Communication)
Rachel leads on the development and delivery of writing and communication support for postgraduate research students and researchers across career stages. Her approach to writing support encompasses writing as an individual practice (how you write) and a technical process (what you write). The current writing support offering is wide ranging and includes bite-sized courses, practice-based sessions, writing retreats and an annual two-week long writing festival. Rachel is an active academic writer. She has authored a monograph, articles, book chapters and an edited volume in the field of modern history.
Elaine Gourlay
Research Culture Specialist (Communities & Collegiality)
As Research Culture Specialist for Communities & Collegiality, Elaine facilitates our researcher communities, networks, and mentoring programmes. Having gained her PhD at UofG, Elaine is passionate about finding ways to ensure that UofG staff and students are able to get the most out of their experiences at the university. Elaine is enthusiastic about fostering strong relationships and believes everyone can find their place in the UofG community. Therefore, her work is centered around ‘Collegiality’, which is a Research Culture priority for UofG.
Danielle Barkley
Research Culture Specialist (Career Destinations)
Danielle leads on the design, delivery, and evaluation of 'Pathfinder,' a programme of career development opportunities, networks, mentoring and events for postgraduate researchers, and research staff. She brings experience supporting career and professional development in higher education, and has a keen interest in helping individuals explore options while making informed and empowered choices. Danielle has a research background in English literature and loves to collaborate with individuals from a wide range of academic disciplines.
BA ECR Network Project Officer
British Academy Early Career Network (Scotland Hub) Project Officer
We are recruiting a Project Officer to lead on the Scottish hub of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network. This role fosters new opportunities for researchers to further their professional development and collaborate across Scotland, and supports researcher-led initiatives in the SHAPE disciplines.
Administration
Rachel Lyon
Researcher Development Administrator
Research Culture Administrator
Research Culture Administrator
We are currently recruiting an administrator to support the Research Culture Team across priority projects that address the 5 University Research Culture priorities. The role include supporting our Pathfinder Career Narratives blog posts series, and Pathfinder LinkedIn page, as well as event and budget management for the team.
Interns
Sasha Vaniev
PGR Events and Communications Intern
Sasha (PhD Education) is the PGR Development Intern for 2023-2024, taking care of events and competitions for UofG PGRs, such as the Induction Week, Three-Minute Thesis (3MT), This PhD Life Conference, and Visualise Your Thesis (VYT). Also, he maintains social media channels to make doctoral researchers aware of relevant PGR Development opportunities. Sasha believes in the power of connections, support structures, and co-curricular opportunities to promote a sense of belonging, meaning, and growth in one’s PhD journey. In his spare time, Sasha loves to jog, hike, and travel but these days, he’s mostly parenting.
Hollie Jackson Ireland
Research Culture Intern
Hollie is the Research Culture Intern for 2023-2024. She is responsible for handling administration and comms for Catalyst Mentoring, and providing support for the launch of the Research Professionals Network and the Parenting Network. Hollie is passionate about creating a positive, supportive environment for all members of the research community. She believes in embracing diversity and striving for equality and inclusion, so we can create a community wherein all members are supported and encouraged to thrive. Outside of her role as an intern, she is a virology PhD student and you’ll find her over in Garscube campus researching how our bodies fight against HIV.
RC&RD Interns
PGR Interns
We are currently recruiting for five interns to work alongside our specialists in PGR events, Research Staff events, Writing, Communities, and Careers development. From 3 Minute Thesis to fostering staff networks, these internships are an opportunity for current UofG PGRs to own their own projects and build professional experience in a supportive, collegiate team. Applications can be made through the Internship Hub.
Key Partners
Samantha Oakley
Research Governance and Integrity Manager
Samantha sits within the Research Policy, Governance and Integrity portfolio in Research Services. She leads the Research Governance and Integrity team to deliver policy, training and support structures, for PGRs, for Supervisors and PIs, and for Research Staff. Sam and her team play a key role in developing researchers and in supporting research that is conducted to the highest standards of academic rigour, to increase the quality of, and trust in, our research record.
Valerie McCutcheon
Research Information Manager
Valerie sits within the University Library and leads on the areas of Research Data Management and Open Access publishing for the University of Glasgow and plays a key role in supporting transparency, rigour, and reproducibility through facilitating early sharing of research data, software, code, and materials to a wider audience.
Suzie Shapiro
Wellbeing Lead (Student Support and Wellbeing)
Suzie leads the University Wellbeing Team within Counselling & Psychological Services. She is the key University contact for PGR Mental Health. Suzie is passionate about building mental health literacy through accessible and engaging communications and activities, and supporting UofG PGRs to build their self-knowledge and access the right workshops, services and support. Suzie can be contacted by PGRs and their Supervisors.