How do we create research environments where people can both thrive and perform, where excellence and humanity are not opposites, but mutually reinforcing?
That is the core question of the article “Excellent and Kind Research Environments - Perspectives from within and beyond.” Here, three researchers share their experiences of balancing high academic standards with the need for safety, community, and sustainable frameworks. They discuss their work with ELIS: Excellence and Kindness in Research Training, a bottom-up initiative that focuses on how to build research cultures where quality, ambition, and humanity all have space to coexist.
The article also includes an external organizational perspective, offering insight into how leadership and structure can support a culture that both attracts and retains talented people. Drawing on international studies and Danish experiences, it argues that the academia of the future must take cultural work seriously, not as a soft addition to ambition, but as a prerequisite for research of the highest quality.