Response to the Consultation on the Draft Good Institutional Practice Guide

This two-page letter to the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) responds to consultation on the draft Good Institutional Practice Guide on research culture. Research Australia welcomes the Guide, and refers to the report it supported on the 2023 national survey of workplace culture and wellbeing among early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs), and to its EMCR working group’s survey of institutional resources. It maintains that the main barrier to better research culture is not awareness but implementation, owing to insufficient priority and resources from funders, institutions and research leaders. It contends that NHMRC leadership is essential and proposes a coalition of the NHMRC, its Research Quality Steering Committee, peak bodies and institutions to develop a strategy and implementation plan, a self-assessment tool, shared and new resources, and cross-institutional professional development cohorts for researchers.