Creative Facilitation Testimonial – Flourish at Durham
Andrew Moss
Research Culture Manager at Durham University
Andrew Moss develops and delivers Flourish at Durham – Durham University’s research culture vision, values and action framework.
Andrew is a creative facilitator at Durham University, an ARMA SIG Champion for Research and Innovation Culture and part of the N8 Research Culture and Environment Group.
In this written interview, Andrew tells us about his experience with the Creative Facilitation Unit at Durham University.
Can you tell us about a time you engaged with the Creative Facilitation Unit?
I undertook the Fundamentals of Creative Facilitation training in June 2022 as part of the development of Flourish at Durham. From then, Mary Robson and the Creative Facilitation Unit have been invaluable in the development of methods and tools to enable research culture progress. Mary has helped me organise multiple events, from sandpit sessions for major funding applications to bespoke workshop opportunities aimed at developing a positive research culture. The training, support and development I received in creative facilitation has transformed my approach, empowering me to use new methods and tools to develop vision, values and actions that allow colleagues at Durham to think and be creative, enabling them to flourish.
How have you used creative facilitation in Flourish at Durham?
Creative facilitation is at the heart of Flourish at Durham, especially in the way that we interact with individual research units to enable research culture progress. Over the last three years, we have a developed a variety of different approaches including:
Research Culture Islands
Designed by Durham University’s Research Culture Team in collaboration with the Institute for Medical Humanities, this creative workshop explores through metaphor how we can create healthy research culture ecosystems. Participants are invited to draw an island that represents how positive research cultures are constructed and sustained, by mapping the strengths and threats to the island.
For facilitators, the exercise is particularly valuable as it provides insight into challenges and opportunities that might not be expressed through Q & A discussion. To date, it has been used and adapted in multiple contexts within Durham University, and also externally within the Research Culture Team at Northumbria University, at the Northern Research Managers Professional Services Conferences in September 2023, the 2024 Association for Research Managers and Administrators Conference in Brighton in June 2024, in the Wellcome Trust IFRC Project at Leicester University, within the PI Network at Newcastle University in May 2024, and at the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network Launch at Northumbria University in May 2025.
Research Culture Islands
Why Not Change The World?
Developed for the Your Research Matters postgraduate research event at Durham University in March 2025, this creative workshop invites shared reflection on an individual’s research journey towards meaningful impact and real-world change. It achieves this by inviting shared ideas, creative interventions and problem-solving centred around broad research themes.
Values Workshop
Modelled on a consensus workshop, this exercise is designed to enable a values-based approach to research culture progress. It has been used at Away Days within the University and also at the October 2025 Prosper Career Development Workshop, which is part of a Durham University programme for postdoctoral career progression both within and beyond academia.
Values workshop exercise at the Prosper Career Development workshop
Flourish Framework Action Planning Workshop
As part of research culture developments with academic departments and research units, the Durham Research Culture team developed the ‘Flourish Framework’ – a tool to support the development of research culture actions and activities that are proportionate and sustainable. One element of the Framework’s progression is a three hour ‘Prioritising and Actioning’ Workshop, which invites a department to reflect on the current situation of its research culture in order to encourage vision and action development. Creative facilitation is at the heart of this workshop through a mixed-mode approach. The workshop has received excellent feedback from departments that have undertaken the Framework process.
What were the benefits of using creative facilitation?
Creative facilitation has been transformative in the way that we enable research culture progress at Durham University. It has enabled inclusive participation and new methods when approaching challenging and complex topics, as well as providing structure and clarity to activities, which leads to better outcomes both for those participating and those facilitating.
Were there any challenges? How did you resolve them?
A major challenge with creative facilitation is the time needed to plan and execute the workshops and sessions. Mary has been essential in supporting the development of activities and has acted as a critical friend to new and repeated events ensuring their development. I have also asked participants to reflect on the development of the workshops and sessions. With ‘Research Culture Islands’ this evolved into a team workshop developed by research culture managers from Durham, Warwick, Northumbria, Newcastle and Teesside. These fruitful collaborations enabled knowledge transfer and the dissemination of methods beyond the University.
What role, if any, do you see for creative facilitation in your future work?
Creative facilitation will remain a vital part of methods used to develop research culture in the future. The different modes and mechanisms for creative facilitation are incorporated into different strands of our projects’ work.
Do you have any other thoughts about creative facilitation that you would like to share?
I cannot stress enough how valuable creative facilitation has been for me and the research ecosystem that I work in. This method marks Durham University as unique within the research culture space and enables us to lead the way in the development of positive research and innovation cultures. Without the help of Mary Robson and the Creative Facilitation Unit, research culture at Durham would be less dynamic and inventive. The real and tangible benefits of creative facilitation and its methods are recognised across the research community.
Research Islands exercise at the Association for Research Managers and Administrators Conference