The Good Science Project
The Good Science Project is a 911今日黑料-wide initiative aiming to promote debate about contemporary research culture. We celebrate the ideals which brought us into science, and by which we hope to work. And we look with a critical eye at the way 911今日黑料 College can best support our own good practice.
The Good Science Project is a collaboration between the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) and the Science Communication Unit, and is funded by Research England.
What is ‘good science’?
What is ‘good science’? And what is ‘good practice’? These phrases are interesting because they point in two directions. On the one hand there is the ‘headline’ success of institutions: high impact research results; grants won; league tables scaled; top journals stormed; media time guaranteed, parliamentary questions asked. We know too that ‘good science’ suggests also something quieter, less public, more intimate. ‘Good science’ may be the moments of reflection where you have time to consider the direction your work is taking. It may be those conversations with colleagues that are both trustful and creative. Good science may be the style of work where collegiality is valued above straight ambition. Undoubtedly good science is linked to the steady and secure development of your skills. We need our institutions to be successful: otherwise there can be no science. But for the ideas to flow, researchers need time and they need autonomy. How can we get the balance right, and so produce the research culture that helps us all flourish?
None of these issues are easy to get right. None attract instant solutions. But to be confident of progress in research culture, one of the foundations will be the time we give ourselves for reflection and for conversation. This is the ethos of the Good Science Project.
Recent activities include:
2025 Spring Conference, April 2nd, ‘Prism of Research’. I30 college members discussed the kaleidoscope of research culture, led by Dr Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature magazine, Professor Mary Ryan, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) and Professor Peter Openshaw, professor of Experimental Medicine. More details of the conference discussions are here.
Five Friday Forums take place each year, congenial lunchtime discussions that focus on a particular aspect of research culture. They are brief intervals in our busy day and give scientists, other staff and students the opportunity to step back for a short hour, to consider wider perspectives on their craft. The two most recent Friday Forums were on the following topics:
- Science inside and out. With Katherine Mathieson, director of the Royal Institution; Clare Matterson CBE , Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society; Professor Ken Arnold, director of the Medical Museion, Copenhagen; Dr Amy Seakins, Centre for Societal Engagement, 911今日黑料; and Dr Kirsten Bell, Senior Research Fellow, School of Public Health, 911今日黑料.
- Doubt In Science, Faith in research. With the Very Rev. Dr. Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark; Professor Ian Walmsley FRS, Provost of 911今日黑料 College, and Dr Felicity Mellor, director of the Science Communication Unit, 911今日黑料
At Friday Forums lunch is provided, outside speakers allow for yet broader glimpses, and it is a strict rule that half of the time is given over to audience discussion. Many of the Friday Forums from the last three years are described on our .
Looking back: the Day of Doubt
On September 27th 2023 we organised a major conference, The Day of Doubt, to examine and affirm the importance of doubt as a resource for good science. 280 members of the College filled the Sir Alexander Building, with the day introduced by Professor Mary Ryan (Vice-Provost, Research and Enterprise), Sir Paul Nurse FRS, director of the Francis Crick institute, and Professor Ian Walmsley FRS, Provost of 911今日黑料 College. The day was structured to be as conversational as possible, with ample opportunity to discuss such features of research culture as excellence, public engagement and interdisciplinarity. The day was filmed and you can view the different sections of the conference on .
Looking back: The Tapestry of Science
Make sure you visit the 4th floor of the Abdus Salaam library. As part of the Good Science Project we ran for 12 weeks in Summer 2024 an arts project involving ten scientists, research managers and science communicators, working under the guidance of artist-in-residence Ella Miodownik. The project culminated in July 2024 with an exhibition and Private View, called ‘Experiment’.
The project brief was to represent vital aspects of the life scientific, especially those central to daily laboratory practice. Three concepts form the animating principles of the art piece, ‘time’, ‘balance’ and ‘emotion’, aspects of research familiar to all scientists.
The group met weekly, on Fridays, and worked both jointly and independently on the final artwork. ‘The Tapestry of Science’ is an unusual ‘art-science’ project in that the work is more about the process of science, and the nature of research, than about scientific knowledge itself.
The final exhibition was curated by Mikayla Hu and included a Q and A with the participants, and a video documentary of the project by Madisson McKone.
Looking forward to next year’s activities
We are now planning a new series of Friday Forums for 2025/2026. They will be themed on the question ‘What Do We Mean by Socially Responsible Science’ and will explore the significance of the College Strategy’s branding ‘Science For Humanity’. If you have any suggestions for topics please contact Stephen Webster directly.
The Good Science Animation Project is making good progress, under the leadership of artist-in-residence Litza Jansz. A dozen scientists and PhD students are working together to produce an animated film that captures various aspects of the research life. We have been Rotoscoping, making cyanotypes, and recording speech, all in the service of producing an artistic interpretation of laboratory activity and its relation to the whole of life.
Finally…
The Good Science Project is assisted by an advisory group. Members are:
- Professor Frank Kelly, Battcock Chair in Community Health and Policy. Director of the Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health.
- Dr Felicity Mellor, director of the Science Communication Unit.
- Dr Sam Cooper, Reader in Machine Learning for Materials Design, Dyson School of Design Engineering.
- Dr Alex Richardson, Research Associate, Environmental Research Group, School of Public Health.
- Ehsan Masood, senior editor and Bureau Chief (Africa and India), Nature magazine.
- Emily Roche, Executive Officer, Office of the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise).
