This EU policy engagement toolkit offers practical formats, methods, and examples for engaging with policy actors and policy processes. It is useful if you want to move beyond generic “dissemination” and develop a more intentional approach to influencing and dialogue. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: Which of the formats (or combination of formats) of engagement would be best suited to the policy impact you would like your research to have?
Use proven templates to negotiate and structure external collaboration projects
The Lambert Toolkit is a sector-recognised set of model agreements and guidance for collaborations between universities and external partners (particularly industry). It is designed to reduce ambiguity early, make negotiations smoother, and prevent partnerships stalling due to uncertainty around IP, roles, and outputs. It provides model agreements covering common collaboration scenarios and helps you anticipate and resolve IP and exploitation questions up front. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What is the single most likely “pressure point” in your collaboration (IP, publication, timelines, exclusivity), and which Lambert collaboration model best helps you address it?
Get started with university – industry collaboration in a structured, low-risk way
This PLOS Community Guide breaks down university – industry collaboration into manageable steps, with an emphasis on clarity of expectations and mutual benefit. While framed for early career researchers, it is very transferable for established researchers who want to formalise external collaboration or scale it without creating avoidable risk. The guide will help you to: What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What are the three expectations you most need to make explicit at the start (outputs, timelines, IP/publication), and what do you assume the partner expects? “Not all networking needs to result in an immediate output or grant. There is value in simply keeping in touch.” Professor of Biomechanics. Read more from this career story.
Taking opportunities, leading through listening and collaboration, and empowering communities through research
Jasjit Singh Role: Pro Dean International, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and CulturesDiscipline: Sociology of ReligionInstitution: University of Leeds Please note: This story reflects the personal experience and perspective of its contributor. Academic careers vary widely, and others may experience different challenges and opportunities. Career Story My career has developed through a series of academic, leadership and communityfacing roles, leading to my current position as Pro Dean International in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures. Throughout this journey, I’ve been driven by a commitment to connecting academic research with realworld challenges and ensuring it has tangible impact beyond the university. If I could speak to my younger self, I would say this: even when you feel constantly busy, strategically developing and taking opportunities — especially the daunting ones — is worth it. The experiences that seemed overwhelming at the time have shaped my trajectory in unexpected and rewarding ways. One myth I have had to unlearn is that everyone else has everything figured out. They don’t. Leadership develops in real time, through listening, adapting and learning as you go. I believe I make the most meaningful impact through deep listening, because it creates the foundations for innovation, insight and collaboration. My approach to …
From fair trade chocolate to food systems leadership: building impact through collaboration, systems thinking and strategic career moves
Bob Doherty Role: Professor of Marketing and Sustainable & Responsible BusinessDiscipline: Business and MarketingInstitution: University of York Please note: This story reflects the personal experience and perspective of its contributor. Academic careers vary widely, and others may experience different challenges and opportunities. Career Story I spent thirteen years in the agri-food industry before entering academia in 2003. I had been Head of Sales and Marketing at Divine Fair Trade Chocolate for five years, and that experience gave me networks, practical insight and credibility across the science–policy–industry boundary. I entered academia without a PhD, running a Master’s programme while completing my doctorate part-time. My early research focused on individual organisations like Divine, but over time I deliberately pivoted towards examining food systems more broadly. I realised that if you want to address big challenge problems, you need to adopt a systems approach and build interdisciplinary teams. Collaboration has been central throughout my career. You should never underestimate the convening power of being an academic. We have independence and legitimacy that allow us to bring together people from industry, government and civil society. During my DEFRA secondment, for example, I was able to assemble industry leaders within days because of those networks. Some myths did …
Redefining success on my own terms, pushing back against imposed limits, and leading with passion rather than permission
Anonymous contributor Please note: This story reflects the personal experience and perspective of its contributor. Academic careers vary widely, and others may experience different challenges and opportunities. Career Story As a T&S member of staff at my institution, I found myself in a position where it was decided how my career would advance. The decision was made without my opinion and what was decided undermined my qualifications and experiences. From my point of view, there was clear prejudice but leaving my institution was not the answer (at this point I had encountered prejudice everywhere!). So I took myself out of this biased and condescending vision of my future that had been constructed for me and created my own. In pushing back against others’ views of you, there is a lot you need to keep in mind. Honesty is not always the best way forward, especially when EDI issues are involved. Instead, spend time learning from every injustice and pivoting from the lessons you identified. Doing this, I realised I needed to be connected to myself in a way that allowed me to work alone if I needed to and to be very picky about who I worked with – people …
Be strategic with your time investment – set triaging criteria
This video from the Academic’s Success Guide, explains how using ‘triaging’ can help you to filter out the most meaningful opportunities, prioritise your work and be clear about what you say yes or no to in both the long and short term. It also helps you to find constructive language when saying yes and no to colleagues (or yourself!). “Initially I wanted to agree to all research projects. But I have diverse interests and my group started to feel incoherent and fragmented. Through a training session I was encouraged to give my lab a “vision” and “mission”. I also explicitly classified the projects into subgroups. I try not to take on any work that cannot fit into the vision/mission or groups. This has helped bring all lab members toward a common goal and helped define what I do to external parties.” Benjamin Lichman, Senior Research Fellow / Senior Lecturer, University of York. Read more from Benjamin. What will you take forward? One thing to try: What simple triaging criteria could you use to decide more confidently what to say yes to, no to, or not now, the next time an opportunity comes your way?
Be mindful of your capacity – use the Ferris wheel test
A simple metaphor for time and capacity management. As an established researcher, the challenge is rarely a lack of opportunity. It is managing too many meaningful, worthwhile requests within finite time and energy. Advice to “just say no” often feels unrealistic given the relational, reputational, and leadership dimensions of academic work. The Ferris wheel offers a practical way to think about capacity. Imagine yourself as the Ferris wheel operator. You are responsible for a ride with a fixed number of carriages. Each carriage has a clear capacity. Once they are full, adding more people isn’t generous or helpful. It’s unsafe, uncomfortable, and leads to a poor experience for everyone already on board. Overfilled Ferris wheels are often the result of saying yes to things you genuinely want to do: interesting projects, good collaborators, work that matters. This metaphor isn’t about disengagement. It’s about realism, including recognising that sometimes you have to say no even to opportunities you value. (This links closely to the idea of fishing sustainably from a river: you have to let some fish go). A good operator doesn’t overpromise when the wheel is full. They explain the risks of boarding and the wait time, allowing passengers to …
A reflection on nine months of saying no
In this blog, Prof Sue Fletcher-Watson (Professor of Developmental Psychology) shares progress on a ‘year of radical nos’. Read about what ended up being politely declined, what made the greatest difference to her time and what she found it more difficult to say no to. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: Learn from a senior academic’s lived experiment in saying no, including what made the biggest difference.
Reframe unhelpful beliefs about saying no
When new opportunities arise that you genuinely don’t have time or capacity for, they often trigger a familiar stream of shoulds and oughts. For many established researchers, this is accompanied by a strong inner critic warning that saying no makes you unhelpful, uncollegiate, or even professionally risky. You may notice worries about letting others down, damaging relationships, or missing out on future opportunities. It can be helpful to pause and notice these beliefs rather than taking them at face value. Guilt and fear of missing out are powerful signals, but they are not always reliable guides. In some situations, saying no may actually create space for others to step up, redistribute work more fairly, or protect the quality of the commitments you have already made. Try writing down the beliefs you hold about being someone who says no. Then gently test them. Are they always true? What evidence supports them, and what evidence contradicts them? What might be another, equally valid way of looking at the situation? Think of a role model or excellent mentor that you know well. How might they reframe it? “I’ll feel guilty when someone else has to take this on.” → Saying no allows work …
Develop a new habit: use structures and scripts
Requests are rarely the problem. How we respond to them, often in the moment and under pressure, is. This resource offers practical structures and ready-to-use language to help you respond to requests with clarity and confidence, without relying on willpower in the heat of the moment or damaging important relationships. As an established researcher, you can probably predict the types of requests you encounter, even if you can’t predict when they will arise or who they will come from. When caught off guard, it’s easy to default to saying yes. Do you recognise the pattern of agreeing quickly, then later feeling regret, pressure, or guilt? Saying no can feel awkward, and many of us were never taught how to do it well. That’s no reason not to learn. It’s a skill like any other, and one that can be developed deliberately. One way to do this is to use structures and scripts as stabilisers while you’re learning, like support wheels on a bike or a trellis that helps a young plant grow upright until it can stand on its own. A short planning activity Write a list of activities or responsibilities that you’ve taken on in the past and then …
Use mentoring and sponsorship
In their report ‘RAIL: A model for keeping the academic Mid-career on track’, Eastern Academic Research Consortium found that overwhelmingly learning from ‘lived experience’ was the most cited enabler for academic careers. Lived experience came in many forms but broadly was about having more senior people guide you through your career path. Mentoring and Sponsorship were highlighted as key enablers to mid-career success. To learn more about these, make use of the guidance offered by the White Rose University Consortium: If you want to approach a potential sponsor, then you may find the advice on identifying and approaching a sponsor from the FLF Development Network’s Influencing Toolkit helpful. What will you take forward? One thing to try: Identify one person you could approach and one small next step you will take.
Explore tailored research leadership resources
Established researchers express a wide range of leadership and management needs such as recruitment, performance conversations, delegation, effective meetings, coaching and mentoring skills etc. There is an overwhelming amount of advice out there: some relevant to established researchers, some less so. Rather than re-create it all here, we recommend and connect you directly to open access resources that are tailored to research and academic leaders: What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What is one leadership challenge you’re dealing with at the moment? Which single external resource could you engage with this week to move forward?