Research Strategy 2021–2025

Introduction

This document is the result of a collective effort among senior as well as junior faculty in the Department of Political Science. As such, it reflects a general awareness of the importance of strategic issues in a time of change. The strategy has been developed through broad and inclusive deliberations among the faculty. It draws on experiences of Lund University’s research quality evaluation project RQ20, and especially the self-evaluation conducted for RQ20. This research strategy follows a previous strategy for 2014–2019, which identified the following strategic goals:

• To attract more external funding and explore additional sources of such funding.
• To become more proactive when it comes to recruitment.
• To publish more articles and books in leading journals and with leading academic publishers.
• To increase the visibility of research conducted in the department, both in relation to the academic world and to society in general.
• To broaden and deepen patterns of international cooperation.

We have done a lot to reach these goals. Faculty at the Department have been particularly successful in attracting external funding. We have set up a permanent recruitment committee in order to manage the recruitment of new staff more strategically and successfully. We publish more in peer-reviewed journals. As a result, our research is more visible in relation to the academic world. We also have several recent examples of significant societal impact of our research.

Internationalization has deepened and broadened, not least through international recruitment and exchange of guest scholars. Overall, the Department is now working more systematically and strategically with its research quality assurance system and provides more extensive and systematic institutional support concerning research applications, peer review, publication strategies, etc.

Nevertheless, more remains to be done concerning these issues and new challenges have emerged that require strategic work.

The rest of this document is organized as follows: In the next section, we offer a brief description of research at the Department and our vision for the future. In the final section, we identify a series of challenges and concrete measures that need to be taken in order for the Department to achieve research excellence.

Who are we?

The Department of Political Science at Lund University is a large and diverse institution, which hosts three disciplines: Political Science, Peace and Conflict Studies and Intelligence Analysis. The Department has strong research groups in all the main areas of Political Science and consciously cultivates an open and pluralistic research environment. Our vision is to be a leading political science department in Europe that contributes to understanding, explaining and improving our world and the human condition. We strive to develop a research environment optimal for creative and ground-breaking research in all fields of Political Science as well as for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research.

While seeking to deepen research in the classical sub-disciplines (international relations, comparative politics, political theory, and public administration), we consciously transcend boundaries between sub-disciplines and encourage a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of politics. Our research reflects methodological diversity, breadth and depth – from interpretative and qualitative methods (such as discourse analysis, conceptual history, elite interviews, participant observation and ethnography) to quantitative ones (such as experiments, surveys, and statistical methods). This pluralism is a strong aspect of our collective self-identity, and a vital condition for achieving research excellence. Research pluralism provides for cross-fertilization, flexibility, and an openness to new ideas. Our diverse research competence makes us well-prepared to take on new societal challenges. It is also a guarantee of the high-quality comprehensive and research-based political science education that is the responsibility of a department of our size.

Another strength is the interdisciplinary nature of much of our research. We have a strong track record of not only crossing boundaries between political science sub- disciplines but also of research collaboration beyond political science with scholars from other disciplines and faculties. The Department hosts Peace and Conflict Studies and Intelligence Analysis, disciplines that are truly interdisciplinary in nature. Several research groups and projects are interdisciplinary in character, building on a strong track record of cooperation with researchers and research groups from other disciplines such as economics, engineering, general linguistics, gender studies, geography, history, law, natural sciences, medicine, philosophy, psychology, social work, sociology, and sustainability studies.

The sources of success are many. Apart from a strong track record in attracting external funding and hiring talented scholars, research in the Department has benefited from strong research support functions (both academic and administrative). We have a well-established system for encouraging and supporting research applications, peer-reviewing research, and other types of publication support. Our researchers benefit from support from highly competent and committed administrative staff. The Department has a collegial and collective model of research governance and leadership. The core principle of leadership is to encourage, support and facilitate bottom-up initiatives rather than attempting to steer research in a top-down manner. This policy is based on the conviction that research excellence must develop organically. This requires a strong culture of cooperation, something that is a characteristic of our Department. The spirit of cooperation is the result of a combination of principled and proactive leadership and a high level of interpersonal trust among faculty. This in turn has allowed for a creative research environment based on an active sharing of knowledge among faculty. There is a broad agreement in the Department that this social capital is a key asset when it comes to fostering a stimulating and productive environment, and that this is one of our comparative advantages.

This belief also has important implications for how we view the role of strategic planning of research in the Department. Since a pluralistic outlook on research topics and methods constitutes an important part of our identity, many of us are reluctant to single out specific research areas as particularly strong and deserving of institutional support. Instead, many agree that an emphasis on intellectual openness and dialogue will help fostering a dynamic environment in which the seeds of future success are allowed to grow next to our current accomplishments without being overshadowed by them. Yet in fact, we are of course often forced to prioritize between different research areas, especially when it comes to recruitment. Such decisions are normally perceived as legitimate by faculty to the extent that they have had a say in their making. One of the core values of the Department is to promote active participation and collegial co- responsibility in order to maintain a sense of solidarity among faculty.

Where are we going?

In order to be a leading Political Science Department in Europe, we need to maintain our comparative advantages, overcome a number of challenges, and develop in certain areas. The following goals are central in our effort to further improve our research quality.

1. Maintaining a sense of social cohesion and facilitating cooperation in a large and diverse research environment.

Whereas we hold our pluralism to be a major asset, there is also an obvious risk of fragmentation. During the past decade, the Department has undergone rapid expansion, largely thanks to our success in attracting external funding. The number of employees has grown steadily during this period. The sheer size of the Department has made it increasingly difficult to sustain dialogue between scholars as well as between different research groups. We have struggled to maintain a high level of participation in the higher research seminar, which is to serve as an overarching platform between sub-disciplines. We note a recent improvement in higher research seminar attendance, but we still need to do more to safeguard the centrality of dialogues and bridge-building beyond specific research groups and projects. The Department of Political Science shall:

• Maintain the higher research seminar as a joint platform for all researchers at the Department.
• Continue to use the annual research retreat as an arena for Department- wide discussions of strategic research issues as well as peer review of ongoing research.
• Encourage cooperation across research groups.
• Seek funding for at least one large research program that integrates several research groups.

2. Maintaining and further fostering synergies between research and teaching.

There are important synergies between research and teaching. The Department actively seeks to foster such synergies. In fact, our overarching approach to education is research-oriented, emphasizing generic analytical research skills. Moreover, the department encourages the development of courses closely linked to ongoing research projects. While our students benefit from engagement with cutting-edge research, scholars receive vital student feedback and engage in discussions on research design, theories and empirical findings. Many scholars have experienced new research ideas developing in dialogues with students. One obvious link between research quality and education is the important contribution our PhD students make to our research. The research strengths of the Department are benefitting immensely from the research conducted by our PhD students, independently or in collaboration with senior colleagues. PhD students significantly contribute to the renewal of research and nurture the Department’s pluralistic research profile by exploring novel problems and empirical domains and applying new innovative perspectives.

The Department of Political Science shall:

• Maintain the principle that all faculty shall engage in both teaching and research.
• Continue to encourage research-based courses.
• Have a strong focus on PhD students in all its efforts to facilitate creative and innovative research.

3. Engaging in more active recruitment, also at senior level.

We have been highly successful in recruiting excellent researchers, especially talented PhD students, postdocs and other young scholars. International recruitment is the norm and we typically attract a large number of highly qualified applicants when we announce academic positions. However, the Department could benefit from more strategic planning in the area of research recruitment. Until now, new lecturers have mainly been recruited along educational needs. Limited resources notwithstanding, the Department now also needs to consider possibilities to strategically recruit internationally leading scholars to maintain and enhance research excellence. At the same time, well-merited researchers at the Department must have a possibility to be promoted to professor. This career opportunity is essential for the Department in order to keep some of its most talented researchers. The Department of Political Science shall:

• Recruit professors based on strategic research considerations, in addition to continued recruitment of lecturers to meet educational needs.
• Open up for the possibility for promotion to professor and establish legitimate and transparent procedures for reviewing and supporting applications for promotion.
• Evaluate these new policies and procedures after two years.

4. Maintaining the high inflow of external funding and focusing more on high quality funding sources.

The Department has a solid track record in attracting external funding. In recent years, we have received funding for several larger research programs and numerous projects. In fact, almost all our lecturers, professors and postdocs have some external research funding. However, our dependence on external research funding is also a problem. There are limited resources available and we are forced to devote extensive time to writing new applications rather than conducting research. Moreover, the current incentive structure for research funding privileges “low-risk” projects instead of scientific “risk-taking”, which potentially has a negative impact on the originality and novelty of the research produced in the Department. Nevertheless, we need to maintain a high inflow of external funding. In particular, we should take more coordinated initiatives to pool our expertise in different research areas in order to seek funding for larger research programs that can bring together several researchers at the Department. The Department of Political Science shall:

• Continue to disseminate knowledge of how to write successful research applications and provide peer review of draft applications.
• Continue to encourage all kinds of research applications, also with external partners.
• Take joint initiatives at larger research applications that bring together several researchers and research groups at the Department.
• Work more pro-actively on applications for grants such as Pro Futura, the Wallenberg Foundation, and the Swedish Research Council’s excellence program.
• Encourage more applications for ERC and EU grants.

5. Promoting high quality research output

The Department has strengthened its internal peer review systems (mainly within the different research groups) and the Research Committee has disseminated knowledge of publication processes. The Department also recognizes and rewards outstanding publication performances, not only on its website and on social media, but also by nominating outstanding publications for international prizes. However, there is still room for improvement. We have put a lot of effort into supporting research applications, but so far, we have focused somewhat less on publication strategies to increase visibility and impact of our research. We are now in a situation when we need to do even more to encourage and facilitate high-quality research publications. This implies a strategic focus on quality rather than quantity concerning research output. We should aim at increasing publication of articles in top journals and monographs at international university presses, keeping in mind the need to also maintain diversity in terms of publication outlets, including research dissemination in Swedish. The Department of Political Science shall:

• Regularly and systematically disseminate knowledge of publication processes.
• Initiate a broad discussion on how we understand quality in research output, how we can increase visibility and impact, how we can encourage a stronger focus on quality than quantity in our publication strategy, which journals we identify as top journals in different research fields, and what we can do to promote more publications in these journals.
• Encourage more publications in top journals and with university presses by disseminating knowledge of publishing experiences in such outlets.
• Initiate working seminars on papers to be submitted to peer review journals and papers that have received a “revise and resubmit”. This can be done within specific research groups, but also across research groups and led by the Research Committee.
• Duly recognize outstanding publication performances, for example through nominations to book prizes.

6. Developing a more systematic approach to career counselling and mentoring.

Limited career possibilities for younger researchers and the lack of opportunities to be promoted to professor are other threats and barriers working counter to our endeavor to maintain and develop our research excellence. Systematic career counselling and mentoring is important for our capacity to recruit and keep talented scholars in the Department, and to remain an attractive research environment. The Department of Political Science shall:

• Introduce a mentorship program for postdocs and other junior researchers.
• Systematically mentor lecturers to prepare them for promotion to “docent” (Associate Professor).
• Start mentoring of Associate Professors to prepare them for applying to be promoted to Professor. This is the responsibility of the Professorial Collegium.
• Encourage co-authorship between senior and junior scholars as a form of mentorship.

7. Working more strategically with outreach and collaboration outside academia in order to increase the societal impact of our research.

Broad societal engagement in all phases of the research process strengthens the societal relevance of our research and contributes to sharpening our analytical arguments. We already do quite a lot in terms of outreach and external collaboration, but this has so far mainly relied on individual initiatives. While maintaining this bottom-up approach, the Department should step up its strategic work in this area. We do not yet have a specific strategy or policy concerning “the third assignment” and for the individual scholar the value of such activities for career development are less clear than research and teaching activities. The Department of Political Science shall:

• Work more strategically with research collaboration outside academia, by appointing an academic coordinator for these issues.
• Develop a policy on how to manage potential conflicts of interest and other ethical issues in external partnerships and collaborations.
• Continue to encourage and acknowledge various outreach activities.
• Provide media training for faculty.
• Initiate broad discussions on societal impact of research and how we can work with this in all phases of the research process.

These goals and strategic actions imply that we step up strategic research governance at the Department. If we are to succeed, we must be able to scale up management and administrative capacity without becoming too controlling and bureaucratic. We need to nurture the collegial culture and bottom-up approach to research that have been part of our historical success at the same time as we improve our capacity for strategic governance in the implementations of the goals we have identified as central for us to excel.

We also need to manage the potential tension between, on the one hand, high ambitions concerning a more targeted external funding strategy and more top-level publications and, on the other hand, the pluralistic ideal to which we adhere.

Striking this balance requires inclusive open dialogue within the Department.