Form effective research teams
We assemble post-disciplinary teams for ambitious research projects, funding applications, programmes, and partnerships.
We bring together people whose expertise sits across the edges of academic fields. This might include: researchers, practitioners, artists, designers, technologists, policy specialists, community partners, evaluators, producers; or people with lived or professional experience.
From partner identification to full procurement packages, we make team formation easier, and build collaborations which strengthen the quality, relevance, and reach of the work.
How we do it
Organise across disciplines. We assemble teams around the aims of the project, bringing together academic, creative, professional, civic, and lived expertise.
Find the people others miss. Our international network can identify contributors whose knowledge, skills, and experience may sit outside familiar networks but are vital to the experience.
Simplify procurement. We can bring multiple partners into a project through a single procurement and compliance process, reducing administration and making collaboration easier to manage.
Strengthen the proposition. Bringing the right collaborators into the project at the right moment increases the depth and range of expertise behind the work and making the proposition more distinctive, credible, and understandable.
In practice: technology and the spaces of health
Research context
The Wellcome Trust’s Research Development Award challenged academics to propose new and innovative methods for undertaking research related to health and wellbeing. Working with a team of medical humanities academics, we secured £1m in funding to establish a new research lab at the University of Leeds.
Forming effective research teams
The research brought together intentionally unlikely and provocative teams of people to conduct experimental research in the newly formed lab. Drawing upon our network of experts, we were able to bring together highly-skilled practitioners (including dancers, motion-capture artists, health workers, neuroscientists, robotic makers) to respond to an iterative research programme.
The core research team was able to focus on critical thinking, research impact, and publications while we facilitated experimental and co-creative research activities and documented the results. Finding (and paying) the ideal research partners all happened through a single procurement with our organisation.
Research impact
Our contribution directly contributed to numerous exciting outputs, such as a toolkit for values-informed medical humanities research, and book chapters for MIT Press and Bloomsbury. Other practical outputs include theatre shows, an artwork revealing the critical tensions of sleep, and a live performance where a dancer generated audio through movement.The experimental research activities we facilitated have changed the working practices of our partner organisations. For instance, a charity working with adults with learning differences are now embracing immersive technologies as an educational tool.
Working together
Our partnership can begin at any point in the project.
Book a meeting with us now.