Established Researchers Hub

This hub brings together curated resources to support established and mid career researchers navigating the evolving responsibilities and expectations that emerge beyond early career stages.

Resources are organised around established researcher personas and informed by researchers’ career experiences, helping you engage with content that reflects how you work and lead. Peer discussion guides support shared reflection and learning with colleagues and career stories offer honest, grounded reflections from established researchers on their own pathways.

Personas

Our research-informed personas offer a distinctive way to explore the hub. They group resources around different experiences of research careers, helping you recognise your situation, reflect on priorities, and focus on support that fits how you work and lead.

Peer discussion guides

Our light-touch peer discussion guides help established researchers reflect with colleagues, share experiences, and develop practical next steps. Designed for small groups and flexible use.

Career stories

Learn from the career experiences of established and senior researchers. These honest reflections share real decisions, challenges, and turning points - offering practical insight and perspective on navigating mid-career academic life.

These resources were developed through a White Rose research project exploring the experiences and support needs of established researchers. The collection will continue to grow, with new materials added over time.

Dip in briefly, focus on a specific issue, or return as your role evolves.

Something to add?We'd love to hear from you if you'd like to suggest an addition to this resource. Click here to email us.

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Growing your research group – online resource for independent fellows and Early-Career PIs

Support the shift from being a researcher to a group leader, with practical insight on scaling teams, roles, and processes sustainably.

Learn from a case study of effective coordination of a multi-site research consortium

See, in practice, how one consortium structured governance, infrastructure, and coordination of six organisations.

Build your project team deliberately, from first meeting to close

Use a clear model to guide team development across the full lifecycle of a project.

Make interdisciplinary collaborative projects more explicit, practical, and workable

Surface and address the practical issues that often derail interdisciplinary work.

Build collaborations that allow projects to scale up without fragmentation

Learn how to structure and lead large collaborations effectively as they grow.

Learn approaches to setting up and managing a research lab

Make better early decisions about space, hiring, and ways of working that shape the long-term success and culture of your research group.

Build a research group culture that is open, collaborative, and intellectually rigorous

Learn practical, research-informed heuristics for shaping a strong, collaborative culture as your team grows.

Improve partnership health by explicitly addressing equity and power

Strengthen collaborations by addressing hidden risks around power, credit, and decision-making.

Leading an institutional move with a research team, navigating what cannot be controlled, and prioritising the success of others over my own agenda

Understand your group culture

Take a quick, practical temperature check of your group culture and surface issues before they escalate.

Quick overview of leadership and management advice and tools for research leaders

A concise overview of tools and advice in the Academic’s Success Guide to support your leadership and management responsibilities.

Plan an effective induction to the lab

Tools and templates to help you create a welcoming, well-structured lab induction that supports good research practice and culture from day one.

Know the landscape: concordats, charters and commitments that support you as a research leader

Understand the key concordats and commitments that shape your role, without needing to memorise them all.

Learn from research exemplars: lab management practices

Learn what effective PIs actually do day to day to support good research practice, integrity and rigour.

Create a group charter or lab book

Clarify expectations, values, and ways of working in your group to save time, reduce friction, and support inclusion, creativity and good research practice.

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