A research group charter or team / lab manual helps set clear expectations, shared values, and standard practices so that your group can collaborate efficiently and avoid confusion. They can be a valuable resource for getting new recruits up to speed quickly, saving you time during induction. Some research leaders send the manual to prospective students or postdocs so that they can see what to expect from the team.
There are many examples of these available for you to adapt to your own circumstances. However, one of the most important things is that these are living documents, and the team feel a sense of ownership over them. The conversations around what should go in them are as valuable as the documents themselves.
The following resources help you think about how you might approach writing a manual, charter or handbook for your group.
- Creating a research group ‘Charter’ – The Auditorium: a research culture and researcher development blog
- Interactive Guide to Creating Your Lab Handbook – York Research Database
- Lab Handbooks – Oxford University Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging
If one of the aims of your team charter is to ensure your team is inclusive, you may find these resources provide some helpful considerations:
- Disrupting the Default: Anti-Ableist Research Culture – White Rose University Consortium
- Building Inclusive Teams – Overview (UKRI Future Leaders Fellow toolkit, with advice from Fellows on inclusive team meetings and practices).
Finally, this handbook-type resource was created by the Turing Institute to reflect some of the collaborative and interdisciplinary challenges in data science, with practical tools and solutions to address these. It includes advice on writing a team manual and planning meetings or collaborative communication.
“Giving my lab a vision and mission changed everything. Through a training session, I was encouraged to give my lab a clear vision and mission. I began to ask whether new work genuinely fitted that vision. This brought lab members towards a common goal and clarified what we do to others”.
Benjamin Lichman, Senior Research Fellow / Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds. Read more from Benjamin.
What will you take forward?
One thing to consider: If a new team member read your charter tomorrow, what would they learn about how work really gets done in your group? And if an established team member read it, would they recognise it as a true reflection?
Related Resouces
See all Established Researcher resources
Get started with university – industry collaboration in a structured, low-risk way
Learn how to structure external collaborations clearly and avoid common pitfalls early on.
Connect to your strengths, meaning and purpose: not systems and metrics
Reconnect with what energises you at work, using strengths-based reflection grounded in academic realities.
Peer Discussion Guide: Recognising your value – contribution and success beyond outputs
This guide curates a small selection of related resources and offers a light structure for reflection and conversation.
Finding flow in your work
Understand the conditions that support deep engagement, motivation, creativity and fulfilment, and identify activities that sustain your best work.
Sign up to our newsletter
The White Rose University Consortium actively engages with institutional, regional and national partners to propel positive change and create sustained impact for individuals, communities, and the region.
