Laura is prioritising collaboration over competition to help develop impactful research projects.
Laura Breen is Research Development and Impact Manager at the University of Manchester where she helps bring together diverse, multi-partner research teams to tackle big challenges.
Sarah and Laura talk about
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We've been pairing academics with people within the community.
Laura Breen:And I did the pairing for that and quite a lot of come back and said, how?
Laura Breen:How did you do that?
Laura Breen:Like we really hit it off and I was like, I don't really know, but
Laura Breen:it must be that kind of intuition.
Laura Breen:I hate the fact that everything becomes a competition between
Laura Breen:universities, especially around public engagement and anything that becomes
Laura Breen:a hot topic for REF or wherever suddenly you find yourself competing.
Laura Breen:A very senior leader said the other day that one of the governance groups that I
Laura Breen:coordinate said was the best example of one university thinking that I've seen.
Sarah McLusky:Hello there.
Sarah McLusky:I'm Sarah McLusky and this is Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:Each episode I talk to amazing research adjacent professionals about what
Sarah McLusky:they do and why it makes a difference.
Sarah McLusky:Keep listening to find out why we think the research adjacent space
Sarah McLusky:is where the real magic happens.
Sarah McLusky:Hello and welcome along to episode 81, where I am joined by guest Laura Breen.
Sarah McLusky:Laura is research development and impact manager at the University of Manchester.
Sarah McLusky:Her role is a cross University one.
Sarah McLusky:She helps to bring together interdisciplinary teams, connects
Sarah McLusky:researchers with community partners, and prioritizes collaboration over competition
Sarah McLusky:an approach, which has been described by senior leaders as one university thinking.
Sarah McLusky:Laura found her way to this work via the museums sector and a PhD in
Sarah McLusky:ceramics where she wrestled with what impact might look like for the arts.
Sarah McLusky:Now, working across disciplines, she still believes in convening what she
Sarah McLusky:calls creative relational spaces and leads with empathy and intuition.
Sarah McLusky:We talk about creating culture change, why big challenges need
Sarah McLusky:multi-partner interdisciplinary teams and giving relationships time to grow.
Sarah McLusky:If you're listening to this soon after its release, you'll have a chance to
Sarah McLusky:meet Laura in person at the Impact Ignite Conference in Southampton next
Sarah McLusky:week, where she will be talking about supporting participatory research.
Sarah McLusky:I'm gonna be there too, recording a live podcast interview that
Sarah McLusky:will be broadcast in early 2026.
Sarah McLusky:So if you're going, make sure that you come along and say
Sarah McLusky:hello to both me and Laura.
Sarah McLusky:But for now, let's listen on to hear Laura's story.
Sarah McLusky:Welcome along to the podcast, Laura.
Sarah McLusky:It is absolutely brilliant to meet you and to hear all about your story today.
Sarah McLusky:So I wonder if we could begin just by giving the listeners a
Sarah McLusky:little bit of an introduction to you, who you are and what you do.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Thanks.
Laura Breen:It was lovely to meet you finally.
Laura Breen:I feel like I know you through all these podcasts and all the other
Laura Breen:people that we've got in common.
Laura Breen:So yeah, at the moment I'm the research development and impact manager in
Laura Breen:the central research strategy team at the University of Manchester.
Laura Breen:Kind of before that, I've got a background in having worked in impact.
Laura Breen:I think this is my fourth institution.
Laura Breen:Different levels.
Laura Breen:Different roles in impact, and a research and practice background
Laura Breen:in museums, and worked in project management and kind of as a magazine
Laura Breen:editor and things like that in between.
Laura Breen:So lots of things going on.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, really varied background.
Sarah McLusky:I'm looking forward to digging into all of that.
Sarah McLusky:I think I said before we came on the call, I've been reading through your
Sarah McLusky:profile and I was like, oh, that's very not necessarily unusual background,
Sarah McLusky:but just really varied and interesting.
Sarah McLusky:So yeah, definitely hear about that.
Sarah McLusky:But let's talk a little bit, first of all, about the job that you do.
Sarah McLusky:So research development and impact.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Having those two things together seems quite unusual from my experience.
Laura Breen:Yeah, I think it is.
Laura Breen:I think and I came across it, I, how's that gonna work?
Laura Breen:But I think, as I thought about it and as the job evolved, it became really
Laura Breen:obvious in that there's this focus on challenge based research coming
Laura Breen:through, and a lot of that is about both impact and research development.
Laura Breen:So how you weave those things together, how you convene teams from different
Laura Breen:disciplines around bids, but are thinking about kind of the impact of that,
Laura Breen:but how that's written into the bid.
Laura Breen:The same with co-production and things like that.
Laura Breen:So I think for university of this scale.
Laura Breen:Because we, I think we're one of the five largest universities
Laura Breen:in the country or something.
Laura Breen:So I think for that, it really does make sense for those things
Laura Breen:to be woven together because you've got the faculty based teams
Laura Breen:working on those things, in detail.
Laura Breen:But you need somebody to join it up and say we've got, a bid
Laura Breen:going forward in this focus area.
Laura Breen:How do we convene teams from science and engineering and somebody from
Laura Breen:humanities that might know about that?
Laura Breen:And how do we bring health in and how do we bring in cultural institutions, you
Laura Breen:know, the comms team, how do we convene all those people to do this work in a way
Laura Breen:that really answers societal challenges?
Laura Breen:So yeah, I think it's the scale of the university and thinking about
Laura Breen:it from that perspective really does bring them together and make
Laura Breen:sense when you're doing the job.
Laura Breen:I think
Sarah McLusky:It, it does make sense actually.
Sarah McLusky:I think saying it's unusual to me, it makes a lot of sense, 'cause as you
Sarah McLusky:say, it's about having that strategy.
Sarah McLusky:It's about having that sense of everything from the original concept of
Sarah McLusky:the research through to the difference that you want it to make in the world.
Sarah McLusky:So actually joining those two things up together makes a lot of sense to me.
Sarah McLusky:It's just that not many other universities are doing it that way.
Sarah McLusky:I think that's.
Laura Breen:But know, yeah.
Laura Breen:When I saw the job, I was like, what is that gonna involve?
Laura Breen:Can I do this?
Laura Breen:Like, why is this And it, yeah.
Laura Breen:And then it does entirely make sense when once you're in the thick of it,
Laura Breen:it's oh, of course it's an ecosystem.
Laura Breen:It makes perfect sense to bring these things together.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:But that's a big job though, if you've So have, you've got oversight
Sarah McLusky:of that for the whole university.
Laura Breen:Yeah, but we have , i'm in a team where we've got research
Laura Breen:culture other bits of research policy.
Laura Breen:My manager's, the research strategy manager, so we all work together quite
Laura Breen:closely on different aspects of those.
Laura Breen:And then we've got managers in each faculty who are doing, overseeing the
Laura Breen:team, so they do the line management.
Laura Breen:They do a lot of the kind of stuff on the ground down doing the, how
Laura Breen:do we do this as a joint process?
Laura Breen:How do we make sure we're not replicating things across different teams?
Laura Breen:How do we not have three different processes of this and have one
Sarah McLusky:yes.
Laura Breen:Make sure we're bringing in all the right people.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:So I imagine that evolves on a day-to-day basis.
Sarah McLusky:Lots of meetings.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Lots of just coordinating, emailing, joining things up.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:I think that my manager, again, she's described me like you are glue.
Laura Breen:It's it's thinking about who should be in the room for this?
Laura Breen:Who are we missing?
Laura Breen:Who are we forgetting?
Laura Breen:Who should have been brought into this beginning?
Laura Breen:So it's building those relationships really across all
Laura Breen:different bits of the university.
Laura Breen:So.
Laura Breen:And knowing who should be there in that project.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Having that awareness.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:No, it's fantastic that you're, as I say, thinking about it at that top level scale.
Sarah McLusky:So you are, you've said there that your background coming to this point
Sarah McLusky:then maybe let tell us a bit about your story of how you, you came
Sarah McLusky:to where you are now and then I'll ask the question I was gonna ask.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:I came into kind of the world of impact as it is when I was finishing my PhD
Laura Breen:at the University of Westminster.
Laura Breen:So that was on kind of ceramics slash museology.
Laura Breen:So I was working with three contemporary ceramics practitioners in three museums.
Laura Breen:And looking at kind of the evolution of ceramic practice and how it moved
Laura Breen:from object to project and some of that even brought in REF even then.
Laura Breen:So as I was writing this up, I was like, the impact agenda is shaping what people
Laura Breen:are producing because people are used to making objects, have suddenly got
Laura Breen:to talk about the impact of their work.
Laura Breen:So it's actually shaping artistic practice at the time.
Laura Breen:And then the impact was obviously arrived in the REF.
Laura Breen:The team at the university looked at me and said, you know about
Laura Breen:this, your background's in museums.
Laura Breen:I'd worked in museums for kind of seven, eight years beforehand.
Laura Breen:You are used to reporting to the Arts Council, used to talking
Laura Breen:about the impact of these things.
Laura Breen:Can you help us to deal with this thing?
Laura Breen:And we learned what impact in REF was together and navigated it.
Laura Breen:Through that.
Laura Breen:Got through that REF and went from there really.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:I think it's one thing that's really interesting that I found from, so
Sarah McLusky:a lot of my career I worked in the sciences and then I came into a job
Sarah McLusky:where I was working with arts and humanities and the way that the different
Sarah McLusky:disciplines conceive of impact and participatory research and things like
Sarah McLusky:that, I think is really interesting.
Sarah McLusky:And from what I've seen And it sounds like maybe from your experience as
Sarah McLusky:well, the arts and humanities are almost doing this stuff already.
Sarah McLusky:It's baked into just the practice of doing the arts and humanities stuff,
Sarah McLusky:and so there's a lot that the sciences can learn from that, which sounds
Sarah McLusky:like exactly what happened to you.
Laura Breen:Yeah, I think it is baked in it, it's almost, it's more
Laura Breen:complicated as well because it is so threaded through everything.
Laura Breen:When you're trying to evidence things in that kind of quite linear, REF
Laura Breen:way, it's it's through our processes.
Laura Breen:It's not just one impact.
Laura Breen:It's all these little things that going off it's impact on artistic practices.
Laura Breen:So things like that come up.
Laura Breen:And like I said, the fact that it does shape artistic practice is
Laura Breen:potentially problematic in some ways.
Laura Breen:Are you producing what you would produce as an artist, or are you working in
Laura Breen:this way so that you can save for REF?
Laura Breen:I've worked with a museum that has seen an explosion of projects,
Laura Breen:reinterpreting museums by people that might not have worked in that way before.
Laura Breen:I think there's that, but I think yeah, definitely that way of reporting, that
Laura Breen:way of thinking about audiences was, is, was more baked into a lot of that
Sarah McLusky:stuff.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Definitely.
Sarah McLusky:And that, so it makes sense why people look to you to help
Sarah McLusky:tell that story of impact.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:What you said there about when it changes artistic practice that has
Sarah McLusky:been I've seen that come up so many times in science and art collaboration
Sarah McLusky:projects where you're sometimes what the scientists want or they think they want.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Is a kind of, almost like a literal interpretation of the science.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Pretty much.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Whereas what the artist wants is to create their artistic
Sarah McLusky:vision inspired by the science.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And sometimes that sense that what the scientists want is almost like
Sarah McLusky:some pretty picture that they can put up in the foyer of the lab.
Sarah McLusky:And that's not the way the artist would approach it.
Laura Breen:Yeah, and that starting with the end point, which again is
Laura Breen:common to the way we work in impact quite often is like, where do you want to be?
Laura Breen:Quite often it's, you learn this through the exploration, you learn this
Laura Breen:through the people you're working with.
Laura Breen:It shifts as it goes along, and that's a kind of different thing to wrap
Laura Breen:your head around as well, I think.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, it is a different thing to wrap your head around.
Sarah McLusky:There's some funding applications I've been involved in helping with recently
Sarah McLusky:where it, once you start to get the co-production and the participatory
Sarah McLusky:research into it, it's very difficult to say what the end point's gonna be.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:You can see what the process is gonna be, but you can't really see
Sarah McLusky:what the end point's going to be.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, so you got into impact that way.
Sarah McLusky:And then you said you, you went through a few different organizations
Sarah McLusky:working in impact type roles.
Sarah McLusky:So is drawing in the research development side of things then, is that new
Sarah McLusky:for you in this role you're in now?
Laura Breen:Kind of, but I think I always, when I was doing my PhD,
Laura Breen:I was always working on research funding applications with the team.
Laura Breen:When I worked in museums, I was working with funding teams.
Laura Breen:As I said, it was like a magazine editor at one point, so I'm used to
Laura Breen:writing narrative and crafting a story.
Laura Breen:So that was always there as well.
Laura Breen:And I always worked on bids with the research development teams throughout.
Laura Breen:At my last institution I basically wrote a lot of the public
Laura Breen:engagement bids with the academics.
Laura Breen:I wrote the impact sections at most of the institutions I've worked with.
Laura Breen:So like I worked really closely with them on that.
Laura Breen:So it wasn't, I always did the costings, did the reading of the
Laura Breen:guidance, the, like that side of things.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:I was always been involved in teams convening people around these things, so
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:So just the first time having it in your job description, maybe.
Sarah McLusky:And then is it the and is it the strategic part of it as well, I guess the kind of
Sarah McLusky:horizon scanning and that sort of thing?
Laura Breen:Yeah, very much that.
Laura Breen:And again, I think that's something I've always done.
Laura Breen:It's always been the way that my mind has worked is what's going on in the sector?
Laura Breen:What should we be thinking about three years down the line?
Laura Breen:How is that gonna inform what we're doing now?
Laura Breen:But yeah there's more space for that because I'm not line
Laura Breen:managing because the teams and the faculties are doing a lot of that.
Laura Breen:Then it's right who can sit back and look at the way we are doing things and how we
Laura Breen:can improve them 'cause they haven't got the space to necessarily do that, and it's
Sarah McLusky:Yes.
Laura Breen:And they've not got that overview.
Sarah McLusky:Yes.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:When they're in the weeds day to day, getting all the, yeah.
Sarah McLusky:The paperwork and the costings and everything like that together,
Laura Breen:more specific to their funders.
Laura Breen:So yeah, you get to know your specific funders, but when it's
Laura Breen:cross council or interdisciplinary, it's a different thing so.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:But that very much, that space, that I think is where a lot of the most
Sarah McLusky:exciting things are happening, isn't it?
Sarah McLusky:These interdisciplinary spaces.
Sarah McLusky:Are there any particular, I guess there's some things you maybe can't
Sarah McLusky:talk about if they're in the process, but are there any particular bids that
Sarah McLusky:you've helped pull together that you can tell us about that you're proud of,
Sarah McLusky:that work came together really well?
Laura Breen:Not really I know I tend to sit apart from that.
Laura Breen:Our teams have done some amazing bids like this.
Laura Breen:So the joined up Center for Sustainable Transformations, I think it's called,
Laura Breen:so it's about the transition to net zero, but making that inclusive and
Laura Breen:the humanities team worked on that, but with the Young Foundation, with people
Laura Breen:from quite different disciplinary areas with the local authorities, they'll be
Laura Breen:working with people out in communities to really co-produce this work.
Laura Breen:So that was, that's a really nice one, which I've not had much to do
Laura Breen:with myself, but it's kind of part of that way of working, which is a.
Sarah McLusky:It is these kind of interdisciplinary ones, bringing
Sarah McLusky:lots of different people together and I feel like that's, it feels to me
Sarah McLusky:like the way forwards, but not not necessarily everybody's on board.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Not for everything.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And not for everything.
Sarah McLusky:Exactly there's certainly some parts of research.
Sarah McLusky:And is that something you ever get a bit of pushback on?
Sarah McLusky:People saying, oh, that just doesn't work for the community, research or, yeah.
Laura Breen:So we've got a lot of people doing fundamental research , blue
Laura Breen:skies research at the university, and that's always been one of our strengths.
Laura Breen:So we are really clear that not everything we have to do has to be challenge based.
Laura Breen:This is also an area of strength.
Laura Breen:But think about it, think about the impact, think about
Laura Breen:how it's, where it might go.
Laura Breen:So it's the thinking about it, it's the not, we're gonna push
Laura Breen:you all down that route because.
Laura Breen:That's not right either.
Laura Breen:Some of our biggest discoveries have come through that fundamental research
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, because sometimes you're just fiddling
Sarah McLusky:around with stuff and then you never know where it's gonna end up.
Sarah McLusky:Thinking about maybe then just your career more broadly, the
Sarah McLusky:sorts of things you do now.
Sarah McLusky:Are there any projects or things you're involved with that really stand out
Sarah McLusky:as things that you're really proud of?
Laura Breen:I think it's been culture shifts.
Laura Breen:So after working at Westminster, I did a bit of work there as a
Laura Breen:research associate working on impact.
Laura Breen:But then I moved to the University of Huddersfield where I was based
Laura Breen:in the school of arts, humanities media and arts humanities, media,
Laura Breen:music, humanities, and media.
Laura Breen:And they'd just created that role 'cause they saw the value of impact.
Laura Breen:So it was the only role in the university that dealt with impact.
Laura Breen:There was a kind of a central role that was overseeing things.
Laura Breen:But in terms of the culture change, there was that role.
Laura Breen:I think in terms of that, I had to work a lot with senior management
Laura Breen:'cause I was the only role, even though I was faculty based, I was
Laura Breen:working with the senior leaders to push for change in areas like that so,
Sarah McLusky:mm-hmm.
Laura Breen:we were kind of making friends across the university.
Laura Breen:We had a, what we called like PE Club.
Laura Breen:It's just a few of us are interested in public engagement in the basement.
Laura Breen:We brought together some people to talk about this showing the
Laura Breen:university it mattered, and then they went for the Engage Watermark.
Laura Breen:Or they saw when they decided to review the the REF impact case study draft, they
Laura Breen:saw that it was working in our faculty and then other faculty started creating roles.
Laura Breen:So I think seeing that kind of thing come through and then I worked
Laura Breen:at Manchester Met in a faculty based impact management role.
Laura Breen:And again, there it was.
Laura Breen:I think sometimes seeing some of the people that were most resistant at the
Laura Breen:start when I left with the people that seemed to be saddest about me leaving.
Laura Breen:So I thought, okay, this is, you really didn't wanna work
Laura Breen:with me at the beginning.
Laura Breen:You're sad that I'm going, I must have done something right there.
Laura Breen:And people, especially like the early career researchers I'm working
Laura Breen:with, seeing them become more confident, seeing some of the bids
Laura Breen:that we work with come through and watch, watching their careers grow.
Laura Breen:So it's that kind of culture change.
Laura Breen:And I think, yeah, where I am now, similarly 'cause I'm joining up people
Laura Breen:from across the university, I've had a few people come to me and say I feel seen.
Laura Breen:Like I don't feel that my area of research was seen before, like
Laura Breen:somebody I've been working with.
Laura Breen:She said, oh, I just went off and wrote a load of stuff the other day.
Laura Breen:She said, I've not been able to do it.
Laura Breen:But working with you has given me that kind of freedom and
Laura Breen:kind of head space to do it.
Laura Breen:And then a very senior leader said the other day that like one of the
Laura Breen:governance groups that I coordinate said was like the best example of like
Laura Breen:one university thinking that I've seen.
Laura Breen:I thought this is, that's the achievement.
Laura Breen:So it's not like I won a massive bid, but in terms of culture change, it
Laura Breen:seems to be that kind of coworking.
Laura Breen:So it's more that kind of thing I think.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:But that is when it comes to it and that, that's one of the challenges,
Sarah McLusky:isn't it, in this kind of work, is actually in the grand scheme of things.
Sarah McLusky:That's the stuff that makes more of a difference, isn't it?
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Is actually, if you can change somebody's thinking that's more important than
Sarah McLusky:winning some big bid or running some event or something that you can point
Sarah McLusky:to and say, I did that and it is this challenge, isn't it, with the way
Sarah McLusky:that we value and assess research.
Sarah McLusky:It's all about these kind of tick box outputs.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:It's what's your KPI for that?
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:So what have we done that's worked this year?
Laura Breen:And it's I could tell you about all these things, but trying to
Sarah McLusky:actually put numbers or statistics or Yeah,
Sarah McLusky:even anecdotes around it sometimes is really challenging, isn't it?
Sarah McLusky:But really powerful.
Sarah McLusky:So what do you think is the secret then, to making these kind of culture shifts?
Laura Breen:Listening I think, caring.
Laura Breen:I think sometimes it's that you care about what you do.
Laura Breen:Listening to people and that join up, I think not trying to own everything
Laura Breen:you can see something that you can't help with but somebody else can.
Laura Breen:Being able to let go of things and go, actually, no, I can't help
Laura Breen:you with that, but why don't you go and work with the policy team?
Laura Breen:Why don't you go and work with them?
Laura Breen:I think that kind of openness to different ways of thinking different
Laura Breen:with different expertise, I think.
Laura Breen:But it's very relational.
Laura Breen:It's about the people and I think my friends said to me find your
Laura Breen:people and it's I found my people.
Laura Breen:And then through those networks, they've got other networks and
Laura Breen:that seems to create the, I dunno, the force to make things happen.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh it is, there's certainly with all the people I've spoken to on the
Sarah McLusky:podcast, different people have different approaches to making things happen,
Sarah McLusky:but it sounds like you've got that kind of quiet, relational, diplomatic
Sarah McLusky:yeah, way of influencing people, which can be incredibly powerful,
Sarah McLusky:but also unrecognized sometimes.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Sometimes just not, the time and the care that has to go into that sort of
Sarah McLusky:approach is sometimes not recognized.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:And it's the, it's tiring as well, isn't it, when you care so much.
Laura Breen:I think somebody said to me the other day is you have to not care so much.
Laura Breen:I was like, I can't.
Laura Breen:It's in my DNA.
Laura Breen:It's like I'd love if I didn't care, but then also I wouldn't be me and
Laura Breen:things wouldn't work in the same way.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:I think maybe that's what we, sometimes I feel like a little
Sarah McLusky:bit of that is what's lacking.
Sarah McLusky:I just said, we did an interview when with I'll mispronounce
Sarah McLusky:her name, Johanna Stadlbauer,
Laura Breen:Oh, she's amazing.
Sarah McLusky:Yes.
Sarah McLusky:And she was talking about how we need just academia to be a bit more kind.
Laura Breen:Yes.
Laura Breen:lately
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:It's so adversarial sometimes, and some in some sectors.
Sarah McLusky:And and particularly with the, the financial challenges and things like that.
Sarah McLusky:At the moment the last thing we need to be is.
Sarah McLusky:Fighting against each other.
Sarah McLusky:It's better.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Fight together.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:I think it's that protecting yourself as well, isn't it?
Laura Breen:So care, but also realize that what you can and can't take on is what
Laura Breen:I've learned over recent years.
Laura Breen:It w on't be good for me or anyone if I keep taking on.
Sarah McLusky:So no, true boundaries.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Incredibly important.
Sarah McLusky:That sounds like we're, it sounds like we're coming now to talk maybe
Sarah McLusky:about some of the things that have been a little bit challenging.
Sarah McLusky:So have boundaries been something that's been a bit challenging for you at times?
Laura Breen:Yeah, I think so.
Laura Breen:I think it's interesting.
Laura Breen:Yeah, I think there's probably two things challenge wise that really stick out.
Laura Breen:So I think universities, they are strange places, aren't they?
Laura Breen:'cause they're very strange places.
Laura Breen:You can have decades of experience in your area, but then have to win
Laura Breen:the agreement of, or defer to people that have got extensive academic
Laura Breen:experience, but maybe not in your area.
Laura Breen:And they're not usually the most senior.
Laura Breen:I find, like I've got really good relationships with our
Laura Breen:senior people who respect that.
Laura Breen:But there can be other people that don't.
Laura Breen:So that could be frustrating because you can see it holding things back, or
Laura Breen:you can see things don't work as well as they can, or they could do, or you can
Laura Breen:see that two years down the line, you're doing what you suggested two years ago.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Was needed.
Laura Breen:So I think that it can be yeah, living with that and learning to live with the
Laura Breen:fact that you can't control everything.
Laura Breen:I think, especially in a centralized role like me, I was like, that's
Laura Breen:not working, that's not working.
Laura Breen:It's what can you feasibly do?
Laura Breen:You can steer, you can guide, but you can't go in and fix everything yourself.
Laura Breen:So I think, yeah, that bit.
Laura Breen:I think the second one would be value clashes.
Laura Breen:So again, over the past few years I've probably learned that,
Laura Breen:probably forever, I'm really driven by my values and behaviors.
Laura Breen:I think when I've been in job interviews, I remember someone saying
Laura Breen:to me that was an academic answer.
Laura Breen:When you're talking about the reasons that we do things, I'm not
Laura Breen:thinking maybe in terms of how a lot of professional services people in
Laura Breen:think why should we bring in income?
Laura Breen:Why should we do all these things?
Laura Breen:And I default to well it's our public duty, you gotta
Laura Breen:make the world a better place.
Laura Breen:They're like, oh, this is interesting.
Laura Breen:And I think my current manager actually said to me, manager,
Laura Breen:that was a very ethical answer.
Laura Breen:So it's so that comes through a lot and I think, yeah, I've also been
Laura Breen:called like a canary in the coal mine is something someone said.
Laura Breen:I'm very sensitive to what's going on.
Laura Breen:So if there are microaggressions and that kind of, I was reading an article
Laura Breen:about it the other day about incivility, that kind of subtle level of unkindness.
Laura Breen:I'm, I can't, I can't work within that I found myself having to, trying
Laura Breen:to change those situations first of all, but then having to admit when I'm
Laura Breen:not gonna change that is bigger than me to, to move course, I think it's.
Laura Breen:Understanding that, and I'm thinking yeah I can't fix this.
Laura Breen:No, this is bigger than me.
Laura Breen:So understanding those things, which, I'm lucky.
Laura Breen:I've got a very nice team now.
Laura Breen:I've worked with many wonderful teams.
Laura Breen:But I think it's learning about yourself, isn't it?
Laura Breen:What are your lines in the sand?
Laura Breen:What's.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:I think the older I get, the more I realize that our careers
Sarah McLusky:and, it's all just a huge long process of self discovery.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Isn't it?
Sarah McLusky:It's about learning, what you're good at, what you're not so good at, what you
Sarah McLusky:can tolerate, what you can't tolerate, where your boundaries are, where's the
Sarah McLusky:line that, that, if that's crossed,
Laura Breen:yeah.
Sarah McLusky:It's not gonna be good for anybody.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:I am.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:I think, okay.
Laura Breen:My manager said when I came in the room she said, oh we've got
Laura Breen:an empath, but in a nice way.
Laura Breen:She's we've got an empath.
Laura Breen:And I was like, really?
Laura Breen:How have you got that from me in a few weeks?
Laura Breen:But I think, yeah, I probably am more sensitive to some of these
Laura Breen:things than other people, but usually it plays out a bit down the line
Laura Breen:when things start falling apart.
Laura Breen:It's oh yeah.
Laura Breen:Yes it's spotting those things, but yeah, knowing, again, boundaries.
Laura Breen:Boundaries, very important.
Sarah McLusky:It sounds like as well as being empathetic, you're
Sarah McLusky:also very intuitive as well, so like you say, maybe recognizing
Sarah McLusky:almost like that gut feeling of this is the way things are going, which I can
Sarah McLusky:see is useful both from the relational point of view, but also that kind
Sarah McLusky:of horizon scanning, for your job.
Sarah McLusky:Like intuition about which people will work well together.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Or which projects are gonna be like a good fit.
Sarah McLusky:Which ones are gonna be the, where's the world going, where's that gonna be?
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:That does happen.
Laura Breen:Like we pair, we had a lovely project the other week where we
Laura Breen:were pairing, we've been pairing, academics with kind of people we've
Laura Breen:got relationships within the community.
Laura Breen:Working with a social responsibility team, just sending 'em out and
Laura Breen:they've gone for three brews together.
Laura Breen:I gone for, three chats together.
Laura Breen:Just get to know each other and see what learning there is and if there's
Laura Breen:learning from the university about that.
Laura Breen:And I did the pairing for that kind knowing things about them, speaking
Laura Breen:to people who knew them, reading about their backgrounds and quite
Laura Breen:a lot of come back and said, how?
Laura Breen:How did you do that?
Laura Breen:Like we really hit it off and I was like, I don't really know,
Laura Breen:but it must be that kind of intuition about Yeah, there's
Laura Breen:very impact mindset, isn't it?
Laura Breen:I think it's, I know like I'm an art historian, I guess cultural historian
Laura Breen:by background and it's that picking up evidence, piecing things together it's,
Laura Breen:I think it comes with that as well.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, potentially.
Sarah McLusky:I think it's, I think as well, I wonder if it's with the arts
Sarah McLusky:background that often in the arts, it's about intangible stuff, isn't it?
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:It's about how does this art affect how you feel?
Sarah McLusky:Yes.
Sarah McLusky:Or that sort of thing, or the story that it's trying to tell.
Sarah McLusky:Not in a literal sense, yeah.
Sarah McLusky:But in that more kind of sensory intuitive kind of way.
Laura Breen:Probably with museums as well, I think, 'cause museum
Laura Breen:audiences are, you can break them down, but they're potentially everyone.
Laura Breen:So you've got to think about what's gonna appeal to this person?
Laura Breen:How are they gonna learn?
Laura Breen:Are they gonna learn anything about history?
Laura Breen:Do we care?
Laura Breen:Or are they gonna learn from their granddad, talking to 'em about
Laura Breen:their past as they go around?
Laura Breen:So I think it's some of that as well.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And just recognizing that different people are different and need different
Sarah McLusky:things and different levels of support and all that sort of stuff.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, really interesting.
Sarah McLusky:I love thinking about this stuff.
Sarah McLusky:And so I think, as I like to ask my guests if they had a magic wand, what would they
Sarah McLusky:change about the world that they work in?
Sarah McLusky:What would you like to use your magic wand for?
Laura Breen:Blimey so you, yeah, you mentioned the adversarial stuff.
Laura Breen:So that would be one.
Laura Breen:I hate the fact that everything becomes a competition between universities and
Laura Breen:things like that, especially around kind public engagement and anything that
Laura Breen:becomes a hot topic for REF or wherever suddenly you find yourself competing.
Laura Breen:But I think for me it's, it is a relational space, so I think it would be
Laura Breen:more funding, more time, more support for the stages, either side of the research.
Laura Breen:So create time and space to co-create research questions, but also to
Laura Breen:sit in that space and get to know different groups, different individuals
Laura Breen:that we might do research with.
Laura Breen:Find those commonalities without it being transactional.
Laura Breen:On, same on the other side, time to maintain those relationships and
Laura Breen:evolve them without just thinking about the next funding bid or the project.
Laura Breen:So I think of it as like creating space for what you might have water
Laura Breen:cooler moments, if you were at a conference, if you worked in an office
Laura Breen:together, which you don't get with these kind of groups, but something
Laura Breen:like that kind of bring you together and that creative relational spaces.
Laura Breen:And not everything have to be in transactional because.
Laura Breen:I've seen that these seem to be the places that are actually most productive.
Laura Breen:But again, you can't put a price on them.
Laura Breen:You can't say no can, because this will lead to this.
Laura Breen:But quite often they do.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:No, and it is it, and it's, I agree, it's so valuable, but because it's slow.
Sarah McLusky:Time consuming and there isn't always a clear, definite outcome for it,
Sarah McLusky:it can feel hard to prioritize.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:But I've seen that.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:When people do prioritize it, it moves mountains.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Just getting to know people on a level as people can just be just just like you say
Sarah McLusky:about people feeling seen and understood.
Laura Breen:And build that trust and the things that come up when you've not got
Laura Breen:an agenda and you find some commonality that you haven't even thought about.
Laura Breen:So yeah, you can never plan for that.
Laura Breen:If you've got a really strict agenda, it's, you're not
Laura Breen:gonna find those things out.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah, absolutely.
Sarah McLusky:You need that space and time to talk about things.
Sarah McLusky:And it's one of the challenges now, isn't it, with things being online.
Sarah McLusky:There are huge benefits, obviously.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:With things being online, but I think we lose that space for
Sarah McLusky:casual conversation, don't we?
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, I think we're moving.
Sarah McLusky:I dunno, things are moving and changing, aren't they?
Sarah McLusky:All the time.
Sarah McLusky:But I think people are starting to realize the downsides of living online.
Laura Breen:Yeah.
Laura Breen:And I think there's slightly more space for that kind of test and fail thing.
Laura Breen:Like we're trying to do bits of it, but people seem to be moving a bit more.
Laura Breen:It's hard in this financial climate, but, allowing a bit of space for
Laura Breen:risk in kind of what happens if you have those failed spaces.
Laura Breen:It's,
Sarah McLusky:yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:No, really such, again, a kind thing to do for people if you can create those spaces.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, lovely.
Sarah McLusky:We should think about wrapping up our conversation.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:And and I think that idea of making things a little bit kinder is a lovely
Sarah McLusky:place, A little bit kinder, a little bit slower, is a lovely place to leave it.
Sarah McLusky:And if people want to get in touch with you, find out more about what you do,
Sarah McLusky:where is the best place to find you?
Laura Breen:Usually on LinkedIn, I think is, it's the easiest place to, to find
Laura Breen:me otherwise on the research strategy pages at the, on the university website.
Laura Breen:It's linked to me there as well.
Sarah McLusky:Excellent.
Sarah McLusky:We'll get links to those and put them in the show notes.
Sarah McLusky:Definitely.
Sarah McLusky:Yeah.
Sarah McLusky:The LinkedIn is where we connected and you're certainly very active
Sarah McLusky:there, so good place to come and see what you're up to.
Sarah McLusky:Oh, thank you so much for taking the time to come along and share your
Sarah McLusky:story and, it's been so interesting.
Sarah McLusky:Thank you.
Laura Breen:Lovely to meet you.
Sarah McLusky:Thanks for listening to Research Adjacent.
Sarah McLusky:If you're listening in a podcast app, please check you're subscribed and then
Sarah McLusky:use the links in the episode description to find full show notes and to follow
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Sarah McLusky:You can also find all the links and other episodes at www.researchadjacent.com.
Sarah McLusky:Research Adjacent is presented and produced by Sarah McLusky,
Sarah McLusky:and the theme music is by Lemon Music Studios on Pixabay.
Sarah McLusky:And you, yes you, get a big gold star for listening right to the end.
Sarah McLusky:See you next time.