Exploring Collaboration Series: building effective research collaborations

What you'll do
For many researchers the initial challenge to overcome in building collaborations is in building your networks, moving from the “knowing each other” stage to developing collaborative activities and building towards more significant outcomes such as funding applications and publications. This workshop will focus on being collaboration reading and adopting early collaboration activities.

What we'll cover
Being Collaboration Ready:

• Strategic networking
• Building visibility
• Aligning with diverse partners (government, charities, industry).

Early collaboration activities:

• Spotting red and green flags during the start of collaborative activities
• Navigating potential power-dynamics in the collaborative process
• Building understanding across collaborative groups and agreeing ways of working to develop positive research cultures
• Piloting small projects
• Managing early-stage risks.

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Identify strategies to become visible and attractive to potential collaborators.
• Assess early indicators of promising or problematic partnerships.
• Set clear expectations to foster inclusive, creative, and psychologically safe research environments.

Important to know
This workshop is part of a ‘Exploring Collaboration Series’ designed to equip researchers with the skills, confidence, and tools to lead and sustain effective collaborations. Each of the workshops are standalone but there will be themes which build across the workshops for participants who attend all the sessions. 

This session is facilitated by Robin Henderson.