Research at Robert Gordon University looks different from research at a Russell Group institution, and understanding that difference is the key to building a strong profile there. RGU is a professionally focused modern university whose research strength lies in applied, practice-relevant work with clear real-world impact, often tied to the sectors that define the north-east of Scotland: energy and the transition to renewables, health and social care, computing and digital, the built environment, and the creative industries. An academic who plays to that strength builds a distinctive record; one who tries to imitate a research-intensive university's model tends to fall between two stools.
This article is written for RGU academic staff, whether early-career or established, who want to develop their research and scholarship deliberately. It covers how to think about the national research assessment your work feeds into, how to make your outputs open and discoverable through the university's repository, where to publish, how to fund applied research, and how to evidence the impact that is RGU's particular currency.
RGU's research strategy and REF position
UK university research is periodically assessed through the Research Excellence Framework, or REF, which evaluates outputs, real-world impact, and research environment, and shapes both funding and reputation. As a modern university, RGU is selective in the areas where it submits, concentrating strength rather than spreading thin, and it performs notably well on impact, the dimension that rewards research changing practice, policy or industry, which aligns naturally with its applied mission. Understanding where your school sits in that strategy tells you which of your activities the institution most values.
The practical implication for an individual academic is to align your research direction with an area of genuine institutional strength and to think about impact from the outset, not as an afterthought bolted on before a submission deadline. Familiarise yourself with the framework's expectations directly at ref.ac.uk, and discuss with your school's research lead how your work contributes. Note that the assessment landscape evolves between cycles, so treat the current guidance as authoritative over older summaries. Our Research, Publishing and Impact hub covers the transferable principles behind these institution-specific realities.
Depositing in OpenAIR, RGU's repository
Every research-active academic at RGU should know OpenAIR, the university's open-access institutional repository, which holds and makes discoverable the research outputs of its staff. Depositing your work in OpenAIR is not merely administrative housekeeping; open-access deposit is a condition of eligibility for national research assessment and most public funders, and it dramatically increases the visibility and citation of your work by making it freely readable worldwide. For a professional university whose research aims to reach practitioners as well as academics, that open reach is especially valuable.
Build the deposit habit into your publishing workflow so it never becomes a backlog. The critical rule under UK open-access policy is timing: the accepted manuscript of a journal article usually must be deposited very promptly after acceptance, often within three months, to remain eligible for assessment, so deposit on acceptance rather than on publication. Link your outputs to a persistent researcher identifier by registering with ORCID and connecting it to your repository and funder records, which saves re-keying and ensures your work is attributed unambiguously across systems. Keeping an organised record of what you have deposited, as our publication-ledger article describes, prevents the compliance gaps that otherwise surface at assessment time.
Choosing where to publish
Publication strategy at a professional university balances two audiences that pure research-intensive academics can sometimes ignore: the scholarly community and the practitioner community. Strong peer-reviewed journal articles in respected outlets remain the backbone of a credible research record and count for national assessment. But at RGU, outputs that reach industry, the professions and policymakers, practice-focused articles, applied reports, professional-body publications, patents and creative outputs, carry real weight because they generate the impact the university prizes. A profile that combines both is more valuable than one skewed entirely to either.
Choose venues deliberately for each piece of work. For assessment-eligible research, target well-regarded journals in your field with a track record of the kind of applied work you do, and always check the open-access route before submitting so you can meet deposit requirements. For practitioner reach, professional and trade publications extend your influence and feed impact case studies. Be vigilant about predatory journals, which prey on the pressure to publish; verify a venue's legitimacy, editorial board and indexing before submitting. Quality and fit matter far more than quantity, particularly at an institution that submits selectively and values depth over volume.
Funding routes beyond UKRI
Research funding for a professional university is broader and more varied than the single track of the major research councils, and this diversity is an advantage if you use it. The UK research councils under UK Research and Innovation remain important, and their equivalents elsewhere, the US NSF and NIH, the European Union's Horizon programme and the European Research Council, and regional councils, matter for international collaborators. But at RGU a large share of research income comes from other sources: industry-funded projects, knowledge-transfer partnerships, charitable foundations, government and public-body contracts, and consultancy that shades into applied research.
Build a funding portfolio suited to applied work rather than chasing only the most prestigious and competitive schemes. Industry partnerships in the energy, health and digital sectors that surround RGU are a natural fit and often more attainable early in a career than a flagship council grant. Knowledge-exchange funding rewards exactly the practice-focused collaboration the university is built for. Track every application, award, deadline and reporting obligation in one place, because a diverse funding portfolio has many moving parts and missed reports damage both your record and your relationships; AcademicStaff's grant progress-report generator is designed to keep those deadlines and funder narratives organised so nothing slips. Start with smaller internal and regional schemes to build a track record before targeting the largest calls.
Demonstrating impact from applied research
Impact, the demonstrable effect of research beyond academia on the economy, society, policy, health, industry or culture, is where RGU's research model is strongest and where individual academics can most distinguish themselves. Under national assessment, impact is a substantial component, evidenced through structured case studies that trace a clear line from underpinning research to a real-world change. Because RGU's research is applied by design, its staff are unusually well placed to generate strong impact, but only if they capture the evidence as they go.
Plan for impact from the start of a project rather than reconstructing it years later. Identify who might use your research and how, engage those users, industry partners, professional bodies, public services, throughout rather than only at the end, and record the engagement contemporaneously: correspondence, uptake data, testimonials, policy citations, changes in practice. This evidence trail is the raw material of an impact case study, and it is almost impossible to recreate after the fact. Keeping a structured impact log alongside your publication record, as we recommend in our research and impact hub, turns RGU's applied orientation from a description into a documented strength.
Collaboration across schools and industry
The most productive research at a professional university is frequently collaborative and interdisciplinary, drawing together academic expertise, other schools within the university, and external partners in industry and the professions. RGU's structure, spanning business, computing, engineering, health, pharmacy, the built environment, art and design, and law, creates natural opportunities for cross-school work on problems that no single discipline owns, energy transition, digital health, sustainable construction, that map directly onto the region's economy.
Cultivate these collaborations deliberately. Make yourself known across your own school and beyond it, attend university research events, and treat industry contacts, often the same networks that feed your teaching and students' placements, as research partners in waiting. External collaboration is not only intellectually productive; it is the engine of both funding and impact at an institution like RGU, because industry partners bring problems worth solving, routes to funding, and the real-world settings where impact is generated and evidenced. For an academic building a research profile at RGU, the through-line is consistent: applied, collaborative, impactful work, made open and discoverable, aligned with institutional strength, and documented from the outset. That is the profile the university is designed to reward, and it is a genuinely distinctive one to hold.
The Applied Research Impact Evidence Tracker
A structured template for RGU and other applied researchers to log research users, engagement activities, uptake data and testimonials as a project unfolds, so that a compelling impact case study writes itself rather than being reconstructed under deadline.
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Frequently asked questions
How is research at RGU different from a research-intensive university?
RGU is a professionally focused modern university whose strength is applied, practice-relevant research with clear real-world impact, often tied to energy, health, digital and the built environment. It submits selectively to national assessment and performs strongly on impact. Individual academics build the strongest profiles by aligning with institutional strengths and planning for impact from the outset rather than imitating a research-intensive model.
When do I need to deposit my paper in OpenAIR?
Deposit the accepted manuscript in OpenAIR very promptly after acceptance, typically within three months, because UK open-access policy makes timely deposit a condition of eligibility for national research assessment and most funders. Deposit on acceptance rather than on publication, and build the habit into your workflow so it never becomes a compliance backlog.
What funding should I pursue at a professional university like RGU?
Look beyond only the major research councils. At RGU a large share of income comes from industry-funded projects, knowledge-transfer partnerships, charities, public-body contracts and applied consultancy, which suit practice-focused work and are often more attainable early on. Build a diverse portfolio, start with smaller internal and regional schemes, and track every deadline and report carefully.
The AcademicStaff editorial team writes practical, evidence-based guidance for university staff — drawing on sector reporting, funder guidelines and the lived administrative reality of academic work. Every guide is reviewed for accuracy against current Australian higher-education practice.