Services to support your research

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.

Find collaborators 

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

Get funding

Find and apply for funding

Go to Research Professional to find out about the latest research funding opportunities.

Find out more about applying for research funding. Contact your Division’s Research and Innovation Team to get help with research funding.

Business and industry

Get help if you are looking for or have been contacted regarding consultancy, or you wish to work with industry or government.

Contact the Business and Industry Relationships Team for collaborations with business that are innovative, creative and enterprising. Including for overall support with Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) applications.

Dissemination planning

If you are planning your research career, creating research outputs, or writing a funding application, we can help you consider where and how to share your research.  

Find out more about writing a dissemination plan and contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team at the earliest opportunity for advice. 

Research data management planning

Get help to organise and secure your data right from the start of your research project until you archive it at the end. Make sure your data is preserved so that other scholars can reuse it without compromising the legal or ethical rights of others or the purpose of your research. 

Find out more about managing your research data and contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team at the earliest opportunity for advice.

Technical requirements

Get support if your research project has technical requirements.

IT Consultancy 

Our consultants will help you with:

  • identifying and finding technical solutions for your project
  • software and hardware procurement and implementation
  • IT and data security compliance
  • technical support
  • standard and bespoke research websites and online functionality
  • High Performance Computing (HPC)
  • data storage, security and data management.

Contact the Requirements Team at the earliest opportunity for advice. 

Websites and web services

Our Web and Learning Development Team can help you with:

  • pre-award support with grant applications
  • costing web services for research data management
  • websites for research projects, including quick setup for simple projects and variable themes for collaborative projects
  • consultations, hosting, training and technical support
  • integration with other services such as the Kent Academic Repository and social media.

Find out more about requesting a new website and contact the Web and Learning Development Team at the earliest opportunity for advice. 

Ethics

If your research involves working with humans or animals you have specific legal and moral obligations to them.

Get help to understand what these are, and what you need to do in order to comply with them and safeguard those taking part in the research.

Find out more about research ethics and contact the Research Ethics & Governance Officer for expert advice.

Manage a research grant award

Starting a new award

Get information about the process of starting a new award.

If you have specific queries about starting a project, contact your relevant Grants and Contracts Officer.

Responsibilities of the grant award holder

The Principal Investigator (PI) for the research project is responsible for managing the project and managing staff on the project.

Find our more about your responsibilities and who to contact.

Appointing and changing staff

Find out about appointing and changing staff for your research project and who to contact.

Copyright and licensing

Intellectual Property

Get advice about licensing new technologies or methodologies that external partners want to access and use. Find out about applying for a patent or trademark and develop a spin-out.

Contact the Commercialisation Team for more information.

Copyright

Get help to understand the legalities of copyright, how it may affect your work, and reuse of third party materials used in research.

Find out what you need to know about copyright and contact the Copyright Team for more information.

Licensing

Get help to choose the best licence for your work, which determines the rights your and others have to reuse your work. This may include copyright in your published research works, Creative Commons licenses, Open Access, and the requirements of your funder and publisher.

Find out more about copyright licenses and Creative Commons licenses. Contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for more information.

Research materials

Library Resources and Support

Your subject librarian can help you to:

  • Get advice about using library resources for assignments or research.
  • Get advice about planning your literature review .
  • Find out how to get physical or digital resources purchased to support your research.
  • Find out how to borrow from or visit another library.

Book an appointment with your subject librarian for specialist advice and support.

Special Collections and Archives

Get access to over 150 distinctive collections to support your research, including rare books, physical and digitised archives, artwork, and audio-visual materials. Find out about our events, collaborations opportunities, and how to book our reading room.

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:

Find out more about our Cathedral Partnerships.

Sharing your research

Research has the power to transform lives. Help your audiences to find and use your research by sharing it.

Publishing

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

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 our more about the support for practice research works and contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for expert advice.

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 the different routes to engage with the public.
  • Get help to develop new partnerships.
  • Plan exhibitions, talks and events
  • Find out about the Public Engagement with Research Fund

Contact the Research Excellence Team for advice and support.

Local education partnerships

Get advise about how to work with local schools and colleges:

  • Local educational partnerships
  • Engagements with further education
  • University Ambassador Scheme
  • Events across Canterbury and Medway
  • Improving access to Higher Education.

Find out more about Partnership Development and contact the Partnerships Development Office for more information.

Working with the media

Find out how to gain press coverage for research activities and events, including:

  • Issuing a press release
  • Arranging a photo call
  • Making informational approaches for interviews or opinions pieces
  • Media liaison, advice and training

Contact the University Press Office for information and advice.

Engage with Parliament

Parliament want 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.

Making your research discoverable

University Repositories

  • Adding your research to the Kent Academic Repository not only makes it more discoverable but ensures you are meeting your requirements to the university.
  • Adding your research data to the Kent Data Repository increases its discoverability, can be linked back to records in the Kent Academic Repository, and further underpins 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, provided in partnership with the University which 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.

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.

Research 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.

Measuring 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.

Reporting

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. This allows the funder can measure the success of the project. It also means that a funder can impose sanctions where a submission has not been made which can impact future funding.

Find out more about registering with and making your Researchfish submission. Contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team for more information.