Services to support your research and innovation

Use this guide to find and get expert support across the University of Kent throughout the lifecycle of your research, at all stages of your career, for funded and unfunded research.

If you can’t find the support you need, please get in touch with us so we can signpost you to the appropriate support.

Plan a new project

Find collaborators 

Get advice to find and approach researchers at Kent and externally for collaboration on a new project: 

Find funding

Research scholarship funding opporunities

Embed inclusive practices

How will you reduce or remove barriers to widen opportunitites for participation? This should happen at all stages of your project, be built into your funding application, and is the right thing to do. It’s more than just attending a training course or ensuring you have equal representation, but how the project can be managed and undertaken thoughtfully and compassionately, for genuine embedding of inclusive practices.

Equality Impact Analysis Toolkit

An Equality Impact Analysis (E.I.A.) focuses on the impact a new process, project, policy, etc, could have on each of the protected characteristics and whether it is putting someone with one or many of the protected characteristics at an unfair disadvantage. The Toolkit sets out the University’s framework and guidance for undertaking an Equality Impact Analysis (EIA) and is designed to assist staff who will have to undertake an Equality Impact Analysis in the course of their work. All staff that need to carryout Equality Impact Analysis can access Equality Impact Analysis Training.

Digital Accessibility

Enhance your digital content to make it accessible. Accessible content is easier for everyone to access. It’s the right thing to do, it benefits everyone, and it’s the law. When you create any content, including documents, emails, presentation slides, meeting notes, images, blog posts, web pages, videos etc, you’re legally obliged to make it accessible for people with disabilities. The good news is that it’s easy and it doesn’t take any extra time if done from the start. And everyone will benefit, because it makes your content better all round.

Software Finder (Accessibility)

Download office, study, teaching or research software, or find third-party apps that offer you different ways to study and work. Find accessibility software here.

Staff Equality Networks

Find out about the range of Staff Equality Networks, who may be able to help answer any questions about embedding inclusive practices in your research. These include the:

  • Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) Forum
  • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender+ (LGBT+) Staff Network
  • Staff Disability Network
  • Women’s Network

Recognise contributions

Consider how you can apply Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), the 14 roles that can be used to recognise contributors to a scholarly output, and plan ahead for this prior to any planned outcomes, outputs or impacts that may arise from the project.

Find out how the CRediT works in practice.

Develop your funding application 

Worktribe

Use Worktribe to manage your research and innovation funding application and get guidance and support from the dedicated hub.

Costing and approval

Get support for research and innovation applications, pre-award costing and approval. Find out more about costing and approval support from the Research and Innovation Hub.

Ethics and Governance

The University of Kent expects all those engaged in research and innovation, and supporting research and innovation within the University, to conduct their activities with integrity. Find out about Ethics and Governance at the university, access guidance via the dedicated hub, and contact our experts about ethics and research integrity.

Research Data Management

Plan to organise and secure your data right from the start of your research project until you archive it at the end:

Dissemination Planning

Plan where, how and who to share your research with to help maximise its reach and impact:

Commerciatlisation and Technology Transfer

Get expert help to turn your innovative ideas and technologies into new products and services, including advice about Intellectual Property (IP) evaluation, protection, and utility (licensing, spin-out, start-up and assignment). We also help public, private and third sector organisations to access and commercialise cutting-edge innovation and technology developed at Kent.

Contact the Commercialisation Team for more information.

Get started with a new project

Manage a research grant award

Visit the Research and Innovation Services Hub to find out about managing a grant award and get information about:

  • Getting started
  • Your responsibilities
  • Project staff
  • Spending and budgets.

Get a project website

Learn about Research.Kent, a free to use and self-service network of websites providing you with the means to showcase your individual research projects from across the university. Find out about how to get a website for your research project.

Apply for a web tag

A webtag can be created for a specific project, if your research centre or other group is not already represented, which is created in the Kent Academic Repository and allows all research works to display on your project website.

Click here to request a Kent Web Tag.

Collaborate using Open Science Foundation

Use this free, open platform to collborate with your research teams, work on projects privately or publicy, and to connect data, preprints, data management and research planning, to streamline your processes. Find out more about accessing Open Science Foundation.

Intellectual Property

Get advice about licensing new technologies or methodologies that external partners want to access and use and find out about applying for a patent or trademark and develop a spin-out. Contact the Commercialisation Team for more information.

Copyright and licences

Use the university’s guide to copyright to find out about copying and sharing creative work, explore the range of copyright licences that you can apply to your own work, and get specific information about copyright for researchers. Contact the copyright team for advice, training and specific guidance about copyright law.

Research and innovation resources

Resources for everyone

Software finder

Use the Software Finder to download office, study, teaching and research software that has been purchased by the university for you, or find third party apps that offer you different ways to study and work.

Our libraries

Discover the Drill Hall Library at our Medway campus and explore the Templeman Library at our Canterbury campus.

Digital resources directory

Access the Digital Resources Directory that lists the digital library databases the University subscribes to, plus some key Open Access resources. Search the list or filter by subject, resource type or access.

Digital library tools and technologies

Special Collections and Archives

Explore Special Collections and Archives at the University of Kent and get access to over 150 unique and distinctive collections to support your research, including rare books, physical and digitised archives, artwork, and audio-visual materials. Book an appointment to visit the reading room and explore exhibitions. Contact Special Collections and Archives for more information.

Postgraduate Study Areas

There are a variety of dedicated resources on campus to help you with your postgraduate studies. They’re open to all postgraduates, no matter what you’re studying or what college you’re in. Your academic school may offer you study space too, so make sure to check with them. Explore the postgraduate study areas.

Divisional resources

Research facilities across Divisions and Schools

Search across the websites for each of our Divisions, and their Schools, to explore the range of facilitites available to support your research:

External resources

Cathedral Partnerships

The University has close partnerships with Canterbury Cathedral Library and Archives and Rochester Cathedral Library:

Enhance your academic profile

Manage your author profiles

Stand out with an ORCiD

Get an ORCiD to give yourself a persistent digital identifier to stand out and distinguish yourself from other researchers. Find out more about get an ORCiD.

Get a Scopus I.D.

Log into Scopus via the Library webpages to enter or enhance your author information.

If you have already registered for your unique ORCiD, you can use it to import your records into Scopus.

Share your research

Publishing

Open Access

Get help to choose where to publish your work Open Access, including:

Apply Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), the 14 roles that can be used to recognise contributors to a scholarly output, to your publications. Find out how CRediT works in practice.

Contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for expert advice.

Practice research

Get specialist support for a diverse range of research outputs, created in the process of practice, for instance performance, artwork, clinical development, engineering design and prototype development. Find out more about the support for practice research works and contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for expert advice.

Get a project website

It’s not too late to get a free website that provides you with the means to showcase your individual research projects, with long term support and training provided by the Web and Learning Development team. Find out about how to get a website for your research project.

Social media for researchers

Social media will allow you to freely maximise the reach of your research to engage your target audience. Choosing the best platforms to fit your goals will help you get the most out of social media. Find out about using social media to share your research and contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for more information.

Public engagement

There are a number of ways to engage with the public but make sure to include these considerations in your dissemination plan. Find out about maximising your research impact through public engagement and contact the Research Excellence Team for expert advice and support.

Local education partnerships

Get advice about how to work with local schools and colleges, engage with further education, and a wide range of partnership opportunities. Explore more about outreach and widening participation.

Work with the media

Find out how to gain press coverage for research and innovation activities and events, issuing a press release, arranging a photo call, and media liaison, advice and training. Contact the University Press Office for information and advice.

Engage with Parliament

Parliament wants researchers to engage with them. Find out how to make your research relevant, how to provide evidence to Parliament, and how to help Parliament find your research. Contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for advice and support.

Make your research and innovation discoverable

University Repositories

Add your research to the Kent Academic Repository to make it discoverable whilst meeting your requirements to the university.

Add your research data to the Kent Data Repository to increase its discoverability, ensure it can be linked back to records in the Kent Academic Repository, and underpin the academic integrity of your work.

Find out more about the Kent Academic Repository, about the Kent Data Repository, and how to use the Assisted Deposit Service.  Contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for advice and support.

Kudos

Kudos is a free research service that can help you to increase the visibility and impact of your published work. Find out more about using Kudos to share your research and contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for advice.

Research and innovation impact

Research Excellence Framework

Get support to understand the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and how it is used to assess the quality of research in Higher Education Institutions. Contact the Research Excellence Team for more information.

Knowledge Exchange Framework

Learn about the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) and how it is used to assess a university’s Knowledge Exchange activities. Contact the Knowledge Exchange Framework Team for more information.

Measure reach

Get help to under how to measure and amplify the impact of your research. Measuring the reach your research has matters because it demonstrates how far your research has travelled to impact society. Contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for information about the tools and platforms that can help.

Report

Researchfish

Researchers funded by a UKRI council, or independent charity must report on their project outcomes, outputs and impact annually, and for up to five years after the project has closed, by using Researchfish. Find out about registering with and making your Researchfish submission. Contact the Researchfish Team for more information.

Research Governance Framework

Learn about the Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care (RGF) reporting requirements for health research. For questions about the Research Governance Framework, contact the Research Ethics and Governance Officer, Nicole Palmer.

Financial reports for projects

Learn about the importance of your grant and contract during the last six months of the award. Find and contact your accounts officer for more support.