Thrive project unveils new approach to transform UK research culture

Posted on: 2 October 2025 in 2025

A team based at the University of Liverpool has unveiled a new team-convening approach at a closing symposium.

Stakeholders from across the sector attended the event to hear how the Thrive project - a two-year programme funded by the Research England Development Fund - is driving a new approach to research leadership focused on team-convening, inclusivity, and collective leadership.

Unlike traditional models that centre around a Principal Investigator, Thrive's team-convening approach emphasises shared leadership and inclusive governance.

Underpinned by five core principles, the approach aims to contribute to redefining research culture by broadening the diversity of leadership voices. This work is delivered in partnership with UKRI Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Advance HE.

Professor Georgina Endfield, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research Environment and Postgraduate Research at the University of Liverpool and Project Lead for Thrive, said: "Over the past two years, we've engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to deepen our understanding of what makes effective teamwork and collaboration. This process has helped us explore the kinds of changes needed within existing systems and processes to truly foster team-based research. The insights we gathered were instrumental in co-developing and shaping the new team-convening approach that we shared at the symposium.

"What makes this project even more exciting is the integration of the new approach into a set of ambitious and transformative projects being supported through AHRC's Mission Awards. Three project teams are embracing the Thrive team-convening principles in exciting ways to support their research missions. Piloting these principles at this scale will generate vital evidence to inform and inspire new ways of working across the UK’s research ecosystem."

The three innovative research projects have received funding through AHRC Mission Awards, totalling between £2 million and £3 million each, to pilot this new approach while tackling societal challenges.

The awards support ambitious research that tackles challenges ranging from climate adaptation and heritage conservation to the legacy of slavery, while simultaneously piloting the new, inclusive model of research leadership.

Three Funded Mission Awards

Repair: Retrofitting for the Future: Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation

A consortium led by Swansea University, this project explores how retrofitting urban spaces using biophilic design can address the climate crisis while improving social housing and public well-being. The project will examine a 13-storey retrofit in Swansea transforming a former Woolworths store into a vibrant community hub.

Slavery and its Legacies: Collaboration, Memory, and Change

A consortium led by the University of Bristol, this international project brings together curators, historians, filmmakers and communities across Brazil, the UK, Dominica, and Ghana to reimagine how the transatlantic slave trade is remembered and represented in museums and public spaces.

Green Corridors North East

Led by a consortium including Newcastle, Durham, Teesside, and Northumbria Universities, this project will regenerate 35 miles of green space across the North East of England by co-creating arts- and humanities-led research initiatives that centre on heritage, creativity, and environmental stewardship.