This paper by Steiner et al. describes how a five-institution research collaboration built and sustained effective multi-site coordination from launch through delivery. Whilst written in a health research context, the infrastructure challenges it addresses are directly familiar to anyone leading a multi-site UK research project: partners with different institutional systems and norms, data sharing complications, the risk of fragmented governance, and the practical difficulty of keeping distributed teams aligned around shared goals. The paper’s value lies not in providing a generic framework but in showing exactly what one team actually did, and why – making it a rich source of transferable ideas rather than abstract principles. The consortium’s approach was organised around six interconnected practices, each of which has a clear parallel in UK multi-site research contexts: The authors are explicit that most of these elements need to be planned and resourced at the proposal stage, not retrofitted once problems emerge. Application of team science best practices to the project management of a large, multi-site research consortium (Steiner et al., Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 2023) What will you take forward? One thing to consider: Reading this as a case study rather than a prescriptive guide, which one or two …
Plan and manage your research group budget
This practical Science Careers article by Megan T brown introduces the financial realities of running a research group for the first time. Whilst framed for early career researchers, this guide has much practical advice for Established Researchers. The article provides a clear overview of the financial principles PIs need to run a sustainable research group. The resource is particularly relevant because it emphasises treating the lab as a small organisation with its own financial model. It highlights the importance of understanding institutional and funder rules, staff costs, equipment planning, and aligning spending decisions with longer-term research priorities. Key insights include: For new Lab Builders, the central message is that financial stewardship is a core leadership responsibility. Good budgeting enables researchers to support their team and respond strategically to emerging opportunities. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: How well do you understand the financial structure of your grant funding – and what conversations with finance colleagues might strengthen your financial planning?
Systematically plan, deliver, and evidence Knowledge Exchange and its impact
This Oxford Education toolkit provides practical tools and prompts for thinking through pathways to impact and knowledge exchange (KE). It is especially useful when you are beginning to design Knowledge Exchange activities and includes information and advice on: It also contains an extensive bibliography linked to KE and research impact. “Impact takes time, and from the inside it often looks slow, relational and messy.” Martina Egedusevic, Impact Fellow, University of Exeter. Read more from Martina. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What is the one most important outcome you want to enable, and what is the most credible piece of evidence you could capture to show progress toward it?
Redefining progression: building influence and expertise as a long-term researcher outside traditional academic hierarchies
Contributor role: Research Fellow Discipline: Environmental Science / Chemistry 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 gained my PhD in 2007 and have been employed as a postdoctoral researcher since then. While still precariously funded, I am no longer an early career researcher. Instead, I see myself as a “long-term researcher” — someone whose role now includes some responsibilities and activities more akin to those of an academic or mid-career researcher, even if the title does not formally reflect that. This was not an intentional career path. For several years I worked part-time (0.4 FTE) in research while pursuing a separate career. For a complex set of reasons, I eventually returned to research as my sole career and am now navigating a university system that, in my view, benefits greatly from experienced researchers like me but does not provide many formal routes for recognition or progression. Over time, I have found being a more senior researcher – working across multiple projects and taking on informal leadership responsibilities – more enjoyable and rewarding than my early postdoctoral years. It suits my …
From big fish in a small pond to tiny fish in a vast one: recalibrating identity, patience and progression after moving institutions
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 After my PhD, I worked for five years in a very small post-92 institution. One real advantage was that it was easy to take on responsibility and to engage with university leaders, right up to the Vice Chancellor. I sat on several university level committees and was vice chair of one; I was seen as a safe pair of hands, and colleagues often came to me with questions about assessment policies, ethics, REF processes and more. I usually had the answer at my fingertips. Over time, though, I felt I had outgrown the institution. I was looking for something with more hustle and bustle, having done all my own studies in the Russell Group. I moved to Sheffield and am now in my fourth year. I imagined that a Russell Group institution would solve the “problems” I had experienced in a small university. There would be more people, more training, more money and more student buzz. All of that was true! What I did not anticipate, however, was how hard it …
Building long-term impact through international moves, field shifts and strategic patience
Contributor role: Research Fellow Discipline: Medical Physics 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 involved moving between institutions, countries and research directions. After my PhD, I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in Japan, working in a field related but quite different from my doctoral work. Moving into a new language, culture and discipline at the same time was a significant professional reset. It felt, in many ways, like beginning again. The first phase required perseverance. Establishing methods, understanding a new research landscape and building collaborations took time. Publications did not appear immediately. However, later in the fellowship – and even after it had formally ended – the work began to bear fruit. A subsequent move to the US involved a similar shift in field and environment. Although the language was familiar, the professional transition still required rebuilding systems and approaches. Again, it took time to get experiments working and establish momentum. The outputs followed later. Looking back, those experiences reshaped how I think about career progression. Outputs do not always align neatly with effort in the short …
Becoming a Head of School and a father on the same day: rethinking research, leadership and asking for help.
Hugo Dobson Role: Professor and Faculty Director of One University Strategy Delivery (Arts and Humanities) Discipline: International Relations and East Asian StudiesInstitution: University of Sheffield 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 was interviewed for and offered the position of Head of School on the same day I found out I was going to become a dad. Either of these events would have required me to rethink my approach to research. Both at once made this rethink an absolute necessity. Looking back, I would tell myself: ask others for help, at work and at home, and do not suffer in silence. I assumed at one point that leadership roles are lonely. They can feel that way, but they do not have to be. One of the practical changes I made was to stop trying to do everything alone in my research. I actively decided to seek out co-authors and invest more in collaborative projects rather than working in isolation. I also became much more intentional about quality. Instead of trying to produce as much as possible, I focused on producing fewer, higher-quality outputs. …
From flood engineer to boundary-spanning impact fellow: designing a career at the intersection of science, policy and lived experience.
Martina Egedusevic Role: Impact FellowDiscipline: Nature based solutionsInstitution: University of Exeter 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 sits at the intersection of engineering, environmental science and public decision-making. I trained as a hydraulic engineer in Serbia and spent seven years working on flood protection and river basin management across the Danube, Sava and Morava catchments. The 2014 Balkan floods were a turning point for me personally and professionally. My family home was affected, and I experienced first-hand the gap between emergency response and long-term risk reduction. That experience led me to pursue a PhD in Natural Flood Management in Scotland, focusing on how land use change and woodland creation influence flood risk. Since then, my work has increasingly moved across sectors: academia, consultancy, government, NGOs and communities. I have worked on nature-based solutions, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation in the UK and internationally. I am currently an Impact Fellow at the University of Exeter, working closely with policymakers, practitioners and communities to translate research into real-world change. Looking back, I would tell myself that impact does not come from doing …
From over-extension to intentional focus: redefining progression while balancing leadership, maternity leave, and long-term impact.
Jiao Ji Role: Lecturer in FinanceDiscipline: Accounting and FinanceInstitution: University of Sheffield 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 Over the past several years, I have balanced a full academic workload with two periods of maternity leave, returning each time to a demanding teaching and leadership environment while maintaining an active research agenda. Alongside my role as Programme Director, I have taken on significant EDI and pastoral responsibilities, particularly supporting early-career colleagues and academic parents, while working toward long-term progression to Senior Lecturer and Professor. Earlier in my career, I equated visibility with progress. I said yes frequently, took on service roles, and absorbed expectations without always questioning whether they aligned with my longer-term goals. Over time, and particularly after maternity leave, I realised that sustainability and focus mattered more than constant availability. If I could advise my younger self, I would tell myself to be more selective earlier – about projects, service, and expectations – and to trust that focus matters more than visibility. I would advise myself not to internalise structural barriers as personal shortcomings, and to align effort with long-term goals rather than short-term reassurance. Most importantly, I would remind myself that sustainability is not a …
Be strategic with your time investment: Pay your future self
Many established researchers describe working in a constant state of response: dealing with urgent requests, keeping projects moving, and absorbing the needs of others. Over time, this can create a sense of firefighting, fatigue, and guilt about the work that never quite happens. This short exercise offers a way to step back and think more strategically about how you invest your time and attention. The Two-Account Idea: Most of us accept that in everyday life we need to manage both a current account to get by day to day and a pension account to look after our future self, and that neglecting either one eventually creates problems. Imagine your work time as being split between two accounts: If we only pay into the current account, we may cope in the short term but make life harder for our future self. A Short Reflection Without judging yourself, take a few minutes to consider: Now imagine a brief end-of-week review with your future self: One Small Shift: Rather than aiming for major change, consider one deliberate adjustment: A Prompt to Keep in Mind: At the end of a busy day or week, ask yourself:If my future self were reviewing this week, would …
Avoid Overwhelm: Plan and review in waves
To prevent feeling overwhelmed, approach your planning in ‘waves’ or ‘horizons’, breaking down strategies and long-term activities into manageable phases. Planning too far ahead in intricate detail often leads to unrealistic expectations and potential setbacks and setting yourself up to feel a failure. An approach to consider: Rolling wave planning is used for projects where there are unknowns or risks, and so is very appropriate for research projects where all the data isn’t immediately available. You can learn more about the technique in the project management blog. This dynamic approach keeps your plans flexible, realistic, and aligned with evolving circumstances. ‘Stock-take’ to review progress Being strategic requires us to be honest with ourselves about where we are, what we have achieved, what’s working and what is getting in the way. In this video, you are guided through a structured process to review your career (have a pen and paper at the ready!). The same technique can also be used to review progress of a project, a relationship or collaboration, or a PhD student you are supervising. You can also download a Stock take – progress review (pdf) worksheet to use separately from the video or share with colleagues, students or collaborators. What …
Step out of the ‘Waiting Room’ for the mythical quiet periods
Stop postponing your plans, waiting for things to “calm down” or expecting your diary to magically clear after a certain date. That horizon you envision is elusive – no matter how close you get, it will always fill up with new commitments. We often have an overly optimistic view of how much time our future selves will have, but this is rarely accurate. Take some time to review your calendar from the past year or so. Identify recurring themes and activities and reflect on how long these tasks actually took in reality, not just how long you think they took now that time has passed. Consider examples such as: Using these insights, pre-populate your diary for the next two years with realistic estimates of these generic activities. Your diary will soon fill. If, in the end, some of these commitments don’t materialise, you’ll find yourself with bonus free time to enjoy or reallocate. What will you take forward? One thing to try: What are you currently postponing for a mythical quiet period, and what would be the worst that could happen if you started anyway?
Create a Gantt Chart – even if it’s imperfect and you only do it once!
Gantt charts are divisive in the planning world – love them or hate them, they can save time and aid influence and negotiation. While often criticised for being created then ignored, they hold value even as a one-off exercise. Why? Even an imperfect Gantt chart can clarify milestones, highlight potential workload bottlenecks, and prompt decisions. Use them to suggest ideal deadlines, demonstrate periods of high pressure, and justify changes in priorities, rescheduling, or resource requests. Visual timelines make it easier to persuade others than simply claiming, “I won’t have capacity then.” Gantt charts also help identify lighter periods for progressing lower-priority tasks or scheduling breaks. They reveal task dependencies to encourage timely completions and highlight independent activities that can be tackled during quieter spells. Moreover, they foster realistic expectations about task durations and clarify mutual support timelines within teams. Not sure how to make a start? Learn more here in the Research Whisperers blog that gives a simple guide to creating a Gantt Chart. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What would become easier to explain or negotiate if you could show your workload visually rather than holding it in your head?
Get to grips with promotions criteria, process and people
Many people have misconceptions about the criteria for promotion and how they are evaluated. To effectively assess yourself and plan your development, rely on accurate information and trusted advice, not on myths or assumptions. Download your institutional promotions guidance and talk it through with a mentor. You can find your institution’s guidance here: Work with your mentor to understand what is really being looked for under each criterion and where you might need to gain some greater experience. For example: At the same time, get to grips with the annual cycles and deadlines for the process and find out if there are people within the Department or Institution who you might draw upon for help. What will you take forward? What do you currently assume counts for progression, and how confident are you that this is based on evidence rather than myth?
Stand in the future and look back
When planning for the future, adopt the perspective of standing in the future and looking back, rather than remaining in the present and looking forward. This approach fosters a positive mindset, shifting from “How on earth do I get there?” to “I made this happen—how did I do it?”. As a reflective exercise, imagine visiting yourself two or three years from now. Spend five minutes free-writing a vivid description of this future version of yourself. Consider: For each key element of your vision, trace your path backwards in time. Identify the steps you took to reach that point and consider the milestones along the way. For further guidance, refer to the first section of the FLF Being strategic blog or watch the strategy videos linked to in ‘Strategic planning – envision and plan into the future.’ What will you take forward? Which part of your future self’s story feels most energising, and what is the first small practical step you can take now, to move in their direction?
Planning multiple activity/ year strands: use a Work Breakdown Structure approach
At an established career stage, work rarely comes in neat, single-track projects. Most established researchers are holding multiple strands at once: long-running research programmes, teaching and supervision, leadership or departmental roles, external commitments, and opportunities that arrive mid-cycle. These strands sit on different timescales, are owned by different people, and often come with expectations that are only partly explicit. Individually, each strand may feel manageable. Collectively, they can create a persistent sense of overload, uncertainty, or even stress and anxiety. One experienced academic described their solution simply: “Every year or so, I need to see everything in one place.” Their approach was deliberately practical. They started by mapping all current and anticipated tasks and activities on a single large whiteboard, often beginning with a loose mind map. The map would soon reveal themes or work strands. For each strand, they identified the person who ultimately defined success (not necessarily themselves!). This might be a programme director, head of department, collaborator, or mentor. Naming this authority helped replace assumptions that could lead to overwhelm with conversations. Each strand was then built out to include: They also added a final layer: purpose. Why does this matter? What does it contribute to career …
Acknowledge that it’s impossible to excel at everything simultaneously
Give yourself a break. Understand and plan for the fact that different elements of your career and personal life will progress at varying times and rates, and that’s perfectly fine. Many established researchers often feel demotivated, believing they’re not making significant progress across all areas—whether it’s research outputs, visibility and reputation, teaching programmes, research group development, or personal roles like being a parent, spouse, or carer. Instead of dwelling on what you haven’t achieved, focus on celebrating what you have accomplished. Adopt a positive psychology approach by intentionally dedicating periods of time to excel in one area. For example, decide, “This day/week/month/year, I’m focusing on advancing element X of my career and feeling good about this progress. I accept that elements Y and Z may slow down or pause, but next day/week/month/year, I’ll shift my focus to element Y, allowing X to take a back seat.” Each month, make an appointment with yourself to take a few minutes to reflect on and celebrate the progress you’ve made and the tasks you’ve completed, rather than focussing solely on what remains on your to-do list. Seeking inspiration? This blog from Tress Academic suggests five small wins to celebrate and serves as a …
Strategic planning – envision and plan into the future
This two-part video series from the Imperial Academic’s Success Guide, helps you to start developing a career strategy. It gives you prompts and ways of thinking to turn vague and aspirational ideas into something more actionable that you can share with others. You can use the prompts to envision your career strategy in general, or to apply to a specific research idea or funding proposal. It may also help you to put together a strategy to present to a probation review panel, a funder or your research group. Whilst it is focussed on research leadership strategy, you can easily apply the questions to other leadership roles in education, outreach, commercialisation, etc. Being Strategic part 1 In this video, you are prompted to explore the big picture and envision the future – this can help you to get the important ‘headlines’ in place. Being Strategic part 2 In this video for Part 2 you will look at practical ways to turn the big picture in to a plan with a coherent narrative. You can also download the horizon scanning questions and a PESTLE Analysis (doc) that is referred to in this video. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What is …
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?