Research strategy

The research evaluation of the Saxo Institute completed in 2023 recommended a more detailed research strategy for navigating in a changing research landscape, setting direction, and specifying the Institute’s position on different issues. The strategy is based on dialogue, workshops and input from staff at the Saxo Institute and is primarily targeted at Saxo’s current and future staff. It describes existing practices and raises awareness about the research community and institution, Saxo aspires to be. The strategy is tied to UCPH’s 2030 strategy Creating benefit for more people. It stresses the multiple, often symbiotic, relations between our two core activities: teaching and research.  

Read more about the research organisation at Saxo

The core ambition of the Saxo Institute is to foster research that matters. Research matters for example when it makes an impact on an academic field, when it qualifies and enhances debates in the public sphere, or when it changes the life or perspective of individuals, communities and institutions. Find more examples in the full strategy. Saxo must consolidate and develop its position as an attractive, thriving and dynamic research institution. Generosity, curiosity and critique and respect for diversity in perspectives, theories and methods should continue to be core values of scholarly activity. Diversity in objective, activities and outputs are regarded as beneficial to scholarship, and are a great part of creating and maintain the well-being (trivsel) at the institute.

Members of Saxo’s research community are expected to uphold the highest standards of research integrity as described in UCPH’s Code of Conduct for responsible research. Transparency is key in this context, and it is complemented by our commitment to open science (including the FAIR principles) and open access (OA) publishing, evidenced in the OA journals that Saxo staff are instrumental in running. Saxo management encourages and must facilitate the widest possible access to and circulation of research produced by Institute staff.

To realise the ambition described above, Saxo’s research strategy relies on three core measures

I. Attractive research environments

A healthy working environment and transparent, supportive research management facilitate dynamic research cultures. It is expected that all employees contribute positively in everyday practice to the culture we value and make sure that new members – guests, early-career researchers, seasoned scholars, or eager students – are welcomed and integrated into our research environments. Our core values are: generosity, curiosity and critique.

We expect

• that research activities sustain our core values and contribute to the inclusion of all staff
• that all research staff participates in Saxo collegial research activities
• that research leaders are exemplary in their conduct and attentive to the objectives of their specific function and the context in which it is exercised – ranging from the facilitation of new research cooperation in a cluster to the successful management of a large research project or research centre.

 II. Research organisation

Most Saxo researchers are tied to one of four disciplines: Greek & Latin, Archaeology (classical and prehistoric), European ethnology and History. The disciplines form an established locus of scholarly debate and play a large role in the Institute’s research-based educational programmes. Other forms of research organization include research centres that combine research specialization and cooperation with partners beyond the Institute, research clusters that  foster vibrant, often cross-disciplinary research environments at the Institute and larger externally funded, collective research projects that also bring new inspiration, ideas, and activities to the Saxo community.

The research organization at Saxo must be tailored to serve the needs of the research community and the ambition of producing high-quality research that matters – the organization cannot be static. Maintaining and developing it is the obligation of management in consultation with the department faculty board and the research committee.

III. Management duties

First and foremost, the management at Saxo must strive to safeguard the prerequisites of a dynamic institution invested in research that matters: academic freedom, dedicated research time, and access to relevant resources. Saxo’s management must insist on the continued relevance of qualitative assessment in determining research quality (in line with the EU Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment).

Second, management must secure a balanced funding structure that allow Saxo researchers to explore original and perhaps obscure ideas and to complete substantial research endeavours that make a significant difference in academic and/or other communities.

Decisions to house externally funded research projects must be based on a thorough assessment of the quality of a project and its implications for the Institute.

Finally, management is obliged to devise and implement a new policy towards academic staff on temporary employment with a view to increasing transparency and assisting these staff members with career development.

Core tasks of management in this respect include efficient onboarding of new researchers to ensure swift integration into relevant research environments, increased use of co-supervisors and/or mentors, frank communication about career opportunities at Saxo, and support for staff that are likely to pursue careers outside the Institute.

The institute aim to maintain and advance existing positions of strength. See an indicative but not exhaustive list in the full strategy.

The Institute has further potential to expand and cultivate synergies within and across disciplines, organisational structures and existing strengths. These common themes are not entirely new to Saxo, but could benefit existing research activity through increased cooperation, cross-disciplinary engagement and common reflection. They include:

• Public policy
• Digitality
• Heritage

To explore and cultivate cooperation in these areas, management will organize a one-day seminar on each theme open to all staff and students at the Institute. The primary purpose of these seminars is to initiate conversations and appraise the promise of the identified common ground.

The strategy is a living document and must be evaluated no later than 2028, Institute management will initiate an evaluation of the strategy with a view to adjustment or revision. The evaluation must be completed prior to the next research evaluation.