The words that describe how ELIXIR-UK feels in practice. Use these as a gut-check when designing, writing, or briefing collaborators – the brand’s character distilled into adjectives.
These keywords come from two places: the voice pillars on the Style guide (report, don’t announce; specific over warm; credit where credit is due) and the values listed on Brand goal (collaboration, scientific rigour, inclusiveness, respect, financial sustainability). The pillars say how we sound; the values say what we stand for. The keywords below say how the brand feels.
Primary keywords
These distinguish ELIXIR-UK from generic research-infrastructure branding. If a piece of work doesn’t feel like at least three of these, it probably isn’t on-brand.
| Keyword | In practice |
|---|---|
| Connected | We are a network of UK research-performing institutions. Members deliver the work; the Node weaves them together. The connection is the point. |
| Generous | We endorse, amplify and credit. The work, the people and the credit belong to whoever did it – not to us. |
| Specific | Named people, named outcomes, named institutions. We avoid abstraction and aspiration. Concrete beats clever. |
| Grounded | Real services, real members, real outcomes. We deal in what is, not what might be. |
| Rigorous | Scientific basis, FAIR practice, evidence over opinion. We don’t overclaim, and we don’t underclaim either. |
Secondary keywords
Supporting characteristics. These overlap with other organisations but still matter for us – they reinforce the primary keywords without replacing them.
| Keyword | In practice |
|---|---|
| Open | Transparent processes, open development, public reasoning. Documents and decisions are public by default. |
| Inclusive | Multi-discipline, multi-career-stage, multi-region. The UK is plural; so are we. |
| Pragmatic | Implementable, not theoretical. Tools you can use today over plans for tomorrow. |
| Sustainable | Financial, environmental, community-sustaining. We build things that last past the next funding cycle. |
| Direct | Plain English. Short sentences. The technical term where it’s right, with a quick explanation. |
How to use this list
When unsure whether something is on-brand, ask: “Does this feel connected, generous, specific, grounded and rigorous?” If two or three of those don’t fit, the work probably isn’t on-brand – even if it ticks every other technical box.
Keywords aren’t checkboxes to tick one-by-one. They’re a gut-check for the whole piece.
What’s missing from this list (and on purpose)
Worth naming what we are not trying to be – sometimes clearer than naming what we are.
- Cutting-edge / state-of-the-art. Same register split as world-class: these can land in grand-statement contexts (hero openers, taglines) where rhetorical weight is the job. In content-heavy copy, demonstrate what is new about the work rather than reaching for the label.
- Innovative. Same. We describe what is new about the work rather than labelling ourselves innovative.
- World-class / world-leading. These can land in grand-statement contexts – hero openers, taglines, where rhetorical weight is the job. Don’t reach for them in content-heavy copy where the job is information rather than rhetoric. External recognition is welcome; self-applied superlatives in the body of a webstory aren’t.
- Disruptive. Generally not. We connect existing institutions; disruption isn’t our primary mode.
- Bold. Decisions are evidence-led, not bold.