Trinity Research completes its first unit strategy

Trinity Research has just completed its first unit strategy to run until the end of the academic year 2026/2027.

Four key themes - research competitiveness, research culture, research engagement, and internal dynamic and spirit - have been identified. These themes describe and embody the strategic goals of our five teams: Research Development, Research Engagement and Impact, Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity, Post-Award, and Research Strategy and Policy and align them with appropriate outcomes of Thrive's Commitment One. From this unit strategy will flow individual team strategies ensuring that the overall unit remains aligned and working in a coherent and purposeful manner. The finalisation of this strategy is an important step in the evolution of the Trinity Research unit which has only recently fully realised its final structure and configuration.

Prof Sinéad Ryan, Dean of Research said: “The unit objectives were informed by thirty visits - to each of our Schools, Trinity Research Institutes and to the Library to understand the priorities, ambitions and challenges for researchers across the University. This ensures that our goals as a unit respond to the objectives of the university as a whole and we're really looking forward to the implementation phase”.

Dr Sally Smith, Director of Research, Trinity Research, said: “Developing our unit strategy has been a really useful way to enable us to think about and refine our overall goals as a unit. Trinity Research team members work across a very broad range of functions and the strategy articulates what brings us all together. Our overall ambition is to ensure we provide consistently high quality support to our research community and strategic advice to university leadership”.

Trinity Research - Unit Strategy (2026-27)

Strategic Goal 1: Developing and supporting research competitiveness

Unit Objectives:

Support intensified strategic engagement with, success in, and drawdown from external research funding sources, to enable Trinity’s research ambition
Strengthen integrated institutional post‑award support systems to improve researcher experience, project delivery and institutional reputation
Support improvements in research output quality
Develop and optimise evidence-based strategies to enhance research internationalisation and research reputation

Strategic Goal 2: Enhancing healthy, kind and ambitious research cultures

Unit Objectives:

Create usable insights into key components of Trinity’s research cultures
Design, and deliver institutional strategies, projects and actions to enhance research cultures
Effectively manage the University’s research ethics and integrity policy and process architecture to sector-leading standards

Strategic Goal 3: Building and delivering research visibility, engagement and impact

Unit Objectives:

Drive forward the culture of research engagement and impact at Trinity
Deliver a step-change in the University’s research-policy engagement activity
Enhance the University’s strategic research communications with a focus on enhancing our reputation among key audiences.