Research Culture – Carving out time for research through a ‘microleave’ system

Professor Neil Harrison, School of Education  

Research culture themes: Inclusively working together; career development and wellbeing  

1) Please can you summarise what the School of Education is doing to foster a positive and thriving research culture? 

The School of Education has been developing a system of ‘microleave’ to help researchers to overcome blockages caused by heavy teaching loads or administrative duties. It sits alongside the formal study leave policy to offer a flexible tool to support colleagues to make progress with their research careers. We are just moving into the second year, having piloted it with a small number of colleagues in 2023/24.   

2) Can you tell us a bit more about how the scheme works? 

The scheme is directed towards early career researchers and is designed to provide small amounts of additional time that is ringfenced for a specific purpose, such as finishing a journal article or drafting a funding application. Colleagues are able to ask for one, two or three weeks of time within SWARM, depending on the scale of the task at hand.   

Importantly, there is also negotiation with colleagues to free the researcher from other responsibilities for this period, for example, by swapping teaching sessions around or getting cover for meetings. In this way, they are able to focus their efforts on moving their work forward without other pressures or distractions. Afterwards, we ask for a short account of what has been achieved. 

3) Have you got any tips for colleagues in other departments if they were interested in initiating a similar scheme?  

No tips as such, but please do feel free to contact me to find out more. The scheme is still evolving, but I’m happy to share our experiences to date.  

For more information please contact: