Building successful research partnerships

How can you make the most of partnerships? Thinking about why partnerships are important Identifying appropriate partners for your own work How to build successful partnerships

Why are partnerships important? Not a one-way process – mutual benefits for all involved Research can be enriched – can help develop knowledge and uncover new areas to explore Enhances innovation in research and connects academics to key issues beyond the university Very hard to deliver impact without them

Why are partners important? Partners can: Apply your research directly Bring it to a wider audience Exert greater influence

Identifying the right partners: Why do you want to partner? Research benefits: External perspectives New data, resources, audiences, equipment & expertise Real world testing Funding Personal benefits: New, transferrable skills and experience Networking and job opportunities Satisfaction of making a genuine difference Profile and reputation

Identifying the right partners What are your goals? Who to achieve it with/through? Who to engage with? How best to engage these partners? Co-producing plans and futures?

Identifying the right partners The type of impact(s) you identify for your research will affect decisions you make when thinking about building partnerships. Policy design and/or implementation Public understanding/attitudes/ debate Economic prosperity Civil society Cultural life Health and wellbeing Other…?

Identifying the right partners: Why would they want to partner? Enhance their offering (products, services, information, policies…) Help people Become more efficient or effective Stay relevant/cutting edge Make/save money out of it

Making the initial contact Put yourself in their shoes: what do you think are the boxes you need to tick in that first contact?

Making the initial contact Why is your research relevant to them? How can you present it to clearly demonstrate this relevance? When is the best time to approach them? What are the best channels to approach them? What are their specific constraints or characteristics? What about the potential partners that you don’t know about?

Building successful partnerships Listen to your partner’s needs Articulate your own needs clearly Find the common ground. Create a win/win Make sure you have a common understanding of aims, resources, roles, obligations, ………. Take the time you need to build up trust If it doesn’t feel right, walk away – nicely!

Planning for impact and building partnerships in your own work

Why think about impact and partnerships now? It’s never too early to start thinking about this! Shaping your research ideas Improving your knowledge Identifying what’s important to your beneficiaries/end users Relevant policies/legislation/practice Impact and relationships take time to build Future career trajectories

How can you develop your own impact plan? What will help you in your research? How can you make an original contribution? What ‘difference’ can you make (be realistic!)? Impact costs money! Time and other pressures

The PhD experience: what I did Attend (and present!) at workshops and conferences Present (and recruit participants) at practitioner-focused events/network Subscribe to a learned society Join a committee/volunteer/relevant work experience

The PhD experience: what I would do next time! Think about impact before setting research questions/focus Think about potential beneficiaries/end-users (i.e. practitioners in my case) Keep talking to your participants/partners! Keep talking to colleagues, presenting, blogging. Have a plan!

Thinking about partnerships at this stage in your career Speak to your supervisors/mentors – who do they know? What do you want/need from a partner? What would be the mutual benefits? Why should they engage? Think about dealing with negative findings! How would you present/discuss this? What could this do to future relationships? Where could this lead?

Some tips! Think early about a) who would be interested and benefit from your work b) what you could do to offer them benefits (and make an impact!) c) what is achievable Talk about your work…criticism/negative responses ≠ your work is wrong! (& can help to justify arguments and choices – good viva prep.!) Use social media: it’s a fast, efficient and affordable way to get your message out, make contacts, learn/find papers, events, workshops and test ideas in a [relatively] safe environment Get involved: sign up to mailing lists (for example https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/), attend events/workshops (in your department, institution and externally), organise events, reading groups…

Workshop Area of research (what is the research world problem you’re trying to address?) Who? (stakeholders, beneficiaries, users, partners…) Their interest (outline what their particular interest is within the area of research) Impact (what could be the solution(s) to their interest/problem?) Their need (what does the stakeholder/beneficiary/user/partner need to help make the change?) Activity (How will they be reached? What activity/output will best meet the need of your intended audience?)  

Workshop example More pleasant living space Area of research (what is the research world problem you’re trying to address?) Who? (stakeholders, beneficiaries, users, partners…) Their interest (outline what their particular interest is within the area of research) Impact (what could be the solution(s) to their interest/problem?) Their need (what does the stakeholder/beneficiary/user/partner need to help make the change?) Activity (How will they be reached? What activity/output will best meet the need of your intended audience?)  Community environmental group More pleasant living space Techniques to create sustainable green spaces affordably  Information, guidance and resources Attending community events, contributing to newsletters and facebook page, arranging workshops, writing how-to guide

Q&A If you have any questions after the session, please do get in touch: Sarah Geere, Impact Consultant, Research & Innovation Services, s.geere@sheffield.ac.uk Gareth Young, Research Impact and Partnerships Officer, gareth.young@sheffield.ac.uk