5 tips for engaged researchers

1. External funding might be needed.
   To do engaged research, academics not always need external funding. However, if you do, always connect to your Faculty Funding Officer and/or the Funding Officers at ERS.
2. Fruitful collaboration with external stakeholders can depend on the tool you use.
   To store, collaborate, and share data during the research project, always contact your faculty Research Data Steward. These colleagues can advise you on all the tools/software we have already available at EUR for you to use. Bonus tip: chances are, they already got that question from someone else, so just reach out to them.
3. Research support staff are here to help you, reach out!
   EUR’s support staff is growing very rapidly, which is great, but it is also more difficult to align everyone’s message, when posting a question to your research support, if the solution is not satisfying, please reach out again, advice and tools change quite rapidly.
4. Research publications are written to peer-researchers, not to non-academic stakeholders.
   When disseminating your research to non-academics, make sure that your results are written in a way that is it understandable to non-experts, your faculty communication officers and/or the communication officers at ERS can help you with it.
5. Everyone’s input counts (and should be acknowledged and recognised).
   One way of acknowledging the work of non-academic stakeholders, is to include them in a follow-up session where your research results are analysed to better understand how these results will benefit them directly (impact assessment).

How did we arrive at these insights?

First, we engaged researchers and support staff to share their experiences. We heard from Adrian Sneeuw (Head of Funding Support, ERS), Associate Prof. Christian Handke (ESHCC), Roel van den Berg (Erasmus Initiatives Program Manager), and Prof. Hans van Kippersluis (ESE). We then split into groups to discuss the different challenges researchers face and the support they need when conducting engaged research.

Thank you to all participants

The event was co-organized by ERIM and the Design Impact Transition (DIT) platform, with chairs Dr. Chrysoula Papacharalampou (Executive Director of ERIM) and Dr. Julia Wittmayer (DIT academic). Our gratitude goes to the speakers for sharing their stories, and to all participants for their invaluable contributions.