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

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. Find out what you need to do to meet your research data management obligations.

Dissemination Planning

If you’re planning your research career, creating research outputs or writing a funding application, planning where and how to share your research can maximise its reach and impact. Learn more about choosing where to share you research.

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.

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.

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, 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.

Research and innovation resources

Digital library tools and technologies

Our libraries

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

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.

Cathedral Partnerships

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

Share your research

Publishing

Open Access

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

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

Recognise contributions

Learn about the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), the 14 roles that can be used to recognise contributors to a scholarly output and find out how CRediT works in practice.

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.

Outreach and Engagement

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.

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.

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.