Researcher support

At Southampton, we provide support for our research community to thrive, enabling world-leading research and creating an environment where everyone feels welcomed, supported and valued. 

Our dedicated support services help our research community navigate the complete research life-cycle and develop the skills they need to join the next generation of research leaders.

Interdisciplinary Research Programme

The Associate Vice President of Interdisciplinary Research leads a programme that fosters and supports developing ideas from our academic community. These include:

Sandpits

A sandpit is an interactive workshop that helps form new research teams and encourages risk-accepting projects to address big research challenges.

Our sandpits provide a creative platform for new interdisciplinary teams to devise a pilot project during the workshop and submit a bid for pump-priming funds shortly afterwards. They help us create interdisciplinary research communities in targeted areas to tackle major societal issues.

We host two sandpits each year, on topics from ‘Narrative and Storytelling’ to ‘Resilient Society’.

Interdisciplinary Pump-priming

Each year, we announce a call for pump-priming funds to encourage new interdisciplinary research at the University.

Research and Innovation Services (RIS)

Our Research and Innovation Services team help and support our researchers across a number of areas:

• promoting funding opportunities, pre-award and bid management support, facilitating research projects, contract management and support in ethical approval
• reviewing, issuing and negotiating contracts
• our dedicated EU Office offers support in bidding for European funding
• our Technology Transfer Managers help our researchers to navigate the complex commercialisation process
• we have a long established record of generating and managing Intellectual Property (IP) with a portfolio of over 350 active patent families
• we work with researchers to navigate regulations and advise on good practice to maintain and improve the integrity of our research activities
• hosting and supporting externally funded research fellowships, and nurturing fellows to the next stage in their academic and research career

Centre for Higher Education Practice (CHEP)

CHEP promotes academic professional learning for every member of University staff, in all areas of academic activity and at every stage of their career. Our Research & KEE team works in partnership with faculties and specialist teams from professional services to design and deliver professional development programme for staff engaged in research, knowledge exchange, and enterprise across the University.

Our Researcher Development Hub​​​​​ provides an overview of central learning resources, training, and support programmes available across the University. ​It highlights key information, contacts and training opportunities, and provides insight into the wider scope of the knowledge and skills required to build your career in research, knowledge exchange and enterprise.

The CHEP KEE Development Hub offers introductory information, case studies, signposting and resources helping clarify the field of Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise.

Develop with our Doctoral College

Our Doctoral College is the hub of the University's vibrant and inspiring doctoral research community. It is the focal point for doctoral training and researcher development, supporting our postgraduate researchers through:

• a varied programme of training and activities to develop your skills
• pastoral care services which are tailored to your needs to ensure your wellbeing
• maximising your career opportunities both within and outside of academia
• working collaboratively across the University to enhance the quality of your experience
• strengthening the doctoral researcher community

Library

The Library provides support for all researchers in the following areas:

• publication practice including guidance on open access publishing
• guidance on managing your research data, from the planning stage through to publication
• support with discovering our extensive resources, including our globally-important archives and special collections
• understanding research assessment and the use of responsible metrics
• guidance and training for maximising the reach of your research with specialist tools and researcher IDs such as ORCiD

Pure

Pure is the leading research information system used by the University of Southampton to disseminate our research activity. Pure performs strategic decision-making, supports the management of the University’s research performance and enables the expertise of researchers and departments to be more easily discovered.

The reporting capabilities in Pure will help to ensure Open Access compliance and the eligibility of outputs for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Pure is intuitive to use but a range of support is already available, including Library and Faculty-based experts and online user-guides which can be accessed via the Pure web pages.

Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu)

The Public Engagement with Research unit (PERu) exists to inspire and support high quality public engagement with research across all disciplines at the University of Southampton.

• We facilitate networks and inform strategy to develop Southampton as an engaged University; * we design and deliver public engagement training
• We provide advice for research grant applications
• We provide seed-funding for engagement projects
• We broker partnerships between researchers and publics; * we coordinate a spectrum of engagement opportunities for all career stages

Public Policy|Southampton (PPS)

Public Policy|Southampton (PPS) is the University of Southampton's dedicated unit to help researchers connect with policymakers on a local, sub-national, national and international level. The three main pillars of PPS activities include:

Capacity-building
We organise training on key policy-related skills, such as embedding impact into research, engaging with Parliament and Government, writing policy briefs and using DataViz tools to influence policy. Find out more about our events.

Planning for Policy Impact
We advise academics on their impact strategy and support them to develop evidence-to-policy activities. Find out more about Research Project Support. 

Building external relationships
We have a network of contacts across Westminster, Whitehall and local Government and use these contacts to build new relationships between researchers and policymakers. Find out about ways to engage. 

Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAA's)

The University of Southampton is proud to be working with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on a number of Research Council Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAA's).

IAA funding provides a platform to discover, stimulate and grow our impact and Knowledge Exchange opportunities. It helps to ensure effective translation of our research and enables greater collaboration with users and stakeholders to inform the direction of our research, innovation and education. By deploying IAA funding in a variety of activities, we aim to foster and support innovation, build skills and capacity, and drive impactful change.

Please visit the individual funder pages for further information on opportunities that are currently available at the University of Southampton.