Give your feedback on our ideas

In this exercise we asked for views on a series of topic guides that we are using to inform our communications with students. This follows changes to the UKRI Standard Terms and Conditions of Training Grant introduced on 1 October.

We provided guides in ten sections. We said we would welcome comments from people working in research organisations about whether the messages will support their own communications.

We received 68 responses to the exercise.

91% of respondents said that, overall, the guides would be helpful or very helpful (excludes ‘not answered’).

While you said that the content was helpful or very helpful, you also provided many useful comments on the guides themselves. Respondents highlighted areas where we should consider how a student might interpret the guide, institutional variations and other factors. A number of comments felt the guides needed to be shorter.

General comments included:

“…these topic guides are really helpful and accessible. Lots of information and generally clearly set out.“

“Make all of it more concise”

“UKRI info needs to be read in conjunction with local institutional policies”

“I have supported PGRs for a number of years and I have seen that a significant number suffer with their mental health. Anything that we can do to support this and ensure they know they will be supported is important.”

Today (5 November 2025), we published guidance for UKRI funded students.

In keeping with some of the feedback we received, the new web content on UKRI.org is short and concise. You can comment on the live content using the feedback link at the bottom of the webpage.

We are developing more communications for the near future which are informed by the comments submitted by respondents to this excercise. We will provide more information to grant holders before any further communications go live.

In September 2024 the Internal Customer Experience Team (Fanni Byrne & Stephen Lane) set up separate monthly engagement sessions with each Net Zero theme.

These sessions were set up so that the domain colleagues can build relationships with the Pre & Post Award Leads (within IUK Operations Becky Green & Adam Medley), learn about Operational updates and process changes, ask questions and share feedback on operational delivery.

These sessions were set up for a trial period and as our internal customers, we wanted to understand how the domain colleagues would like us to engage with the domain to ensure they receive the best service.

The survey was shared with 80 recipients, targeting Innovation Leads, Impact & Performance Managers and Project and Programme Managers.

• We received 24 responses
• Out of those who completed the survey, 70% previously attended the sessions, this number is 21% of the overall domain
• 63% thought that having a regular drop-in session available was a good concept
• 87% would like to have a virtual forum for meeting your Pre & Post Award Operational Leads alongside your Customer Relationship Manager
• 46% voted to have 3 monthly drop in sessions and 29% voted for monthly sessions
• 54% voted to have one session for the whole of Net Zero domain in order to foster great collaboration and provide cross-domain insights across the 4 themes

Most colleagues described the sessions as helpful and a great initiative.

Collagues also claimed that having multiple people from various teams (even within Net Zero themes) offers different input/answers with different focus that can raise organizational awareness and good opportunity for building relationships with the right people.

The Customer Experience Team reviewed the feedback with the Pre & Post Award Operational Leads.

Next steps

After reviewing the feedback, the Customer Experience team with your Pre & Post Award Operational Leads will schedule in the sessions for the overall domain every other month from September 2025 onwards.

Please look out for the meeting invites in your inboxes and share the information amongst your teams and themes within Net Zero!

In January 2024, we asked for feedback on the Medical Research Council’s (MRC's) draft public partnerships strategy. The strategy was drafted following a process of co-development and sets out MRC’s ambition and priorities for effective collaboration and genuine partnerships between the research community and wider society.

We received 354 responses to the consultation. These responses came from a variety of individuals, groups, and organisations from the research community, the voluntary sector and wider society. The consultation responses were overwhelmingly positive. 87% agreed with the strategy overall, and 81% said that the strategy was written in clear language.

Respondents welcomed specific aspects of the strategy, including its inclusiveness, the focus on non-clinical research and the ambition to build long-term sustainable partnerships between the research community and wider society. Respondents highlighted specific initiatives which they considered vital to the success of the strategy such as, having a clear payment policy, appointing a new MRC programme director for public partnerships, and setting up a public advisory group at MRC.

Respondents recommended that MRC publish the new strategy in a variety of formats, alongside clear delivery (action) and evaluation plans.

We used findings from the consultation to inform the final MRC public partnerships strategy. Key changes included:

• Clearly stating that this strategy is an initial three-year commitment to our long-term ambition
• Clarifying that the strategy has been co-developed
• Specifically mentioning the involvement of international researchers, public partners, and public involvement and engagement professionals
• Making clear that the consultation informed the final strategy
• Emphasising that this strategy is intended to be inclusive, and will be aligned with MRC’s Embedding Diversity in Research Design policy
• Acknowledging the importance of sharing power
• Making clear that we will implement our new payment policy for public partners, and that other rewards and recognition are additional to payment
• Emphasising that we will support public partners to take on leadership roles and responsibilities, such as chairing groups or co-leading projects
• Committing to publish our action and evaluation plans

The consultation findings have been summarised in an infographic and are detailed in full in our consultation report. 

Next steps:

The final MRC public partnerships strategy will be published on the MRC website in summer 2024.