Welcome to the Researcher Wellbeing blog

A space for honesty, reflection, and collective care in sensitive and emotionally challenging research.

Researcher wellbeing (RWB) is often overlooked. Many of us enter our respective fields without a real sense of the emotional landscapes we’re about to cross, or the complex ethical terrain we must learn to navigate. We're told little about the stories that may stay with us long after fieldwork has ended; the ones that surface when we're cooking dinner or taking our children to school.

Acknowledging and supporting RWB

It is still not routine to openly acknowledge how our identities and positionalities shape the way we move through research, even though these dynamics influence both our work and our wellbeing. Why is this still the case? Change is happening, and our own university has taken encouraging steps in this direction, but across the sector this shift remains slow, uneven, and far from universally embedded.

The Researcher Wellbeing blog was created by the ARU Researcher Wellbeing Network (RWN) as a response to this ongoing gap. It serves not as a critique of inaction, but as a contribution to the growing work researchers and institutions are already undertaking, to strengthen support and improve best practice.

This blog aims to sit alongside those wider efforts by offering a space grounded in open dialogue, mutual support, and the belief that RWB is not a luxury or an afterthought, but an ethical, political, and deeply human part of the work we do. It is, at its core, a matter of psychological health and safety.

Seeking answers to important questions

This blog isn’t about offering prescriptive answers or one-size-fits-all advice. Instead, it’s about holding space for the questions we’re still learning how to ask:

• How do we care for ourselves and each other in emotionally challenging fields?
• How do power, positionality, and vulnerability shape our experiences of research?
• What does sustainable, compassionate research practice look like?
• And how can we speak honestly about the realities of this work, without fear of judgement or minimisation?

Starting vital conversations

The RWB blog will bring together reflections, insights, and lived experiences from those working across sensitive and emotionally challenging research. It will sit at the intersection of wellbeing, reflexivity, and researcher positionality, offering a place where emotional openness and critical thinking can coexist.

Whether you are a student or a seasoned academic, I'm glad you're here.

Welcome to the RWB Blog. Let's explore this terrain together.

Dr Abbie Lake, Researcher Wellbeing Research Assistant, International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI)