Connecting with an academic for research
If you are an artist, NGO, or community group looking to connect with academics for research but are not sure where to start, we understand that this might feel particularly difficult as the University is large organisation, with a lot of unfamiliar systems. Please understand that you are not alone in this! Even within the University academics can find navigating the systems difficult, and with so many staff constantly changing, academics will often only know other academics within their immediate community.
To help all navigate these systems and find potential collaborators we have created a short guide to help you find a University of Bristol academic who may have similar research interests to you.
How to find an academic in person:
- Attend a networking event at the University
- Brigstow hosts regular networking events around particular themes called “Brigstow blends”
- Search other networking opportunities. Go to a public lecture or workshop related to an area of interest and network with attendees. You can find some listed here: UoB events page
How to find an academic online:
If you are looking for specific disciplinary or methodological expertise
Visit University of Bristol Research Information profile pages https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/.
This will show you all academic members of staff within the university. To filter this list you can use the options to the left of the staff profiles.
- To find some of the methodological skills you are looking for the “concepts” list might be useful. Here you could filter by methodologies such as “narrative” or “mixed methods”.
- You can also filter the staff profiles by school, for instance “School of Education”.
If you are looking for academics who are interested in a similar theme / topic as you
Visit University of Bristol Research Information project pages : https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/projects/
Here you can search the Research Information website by a project theme / topic that you are interested in, for instance “human trafficking”.
In the results you will be able to view past and present projects around this theme, and also who was part of these projects.
You can click through to find out more details about the project, and also click on the academics names to find out more about that person and their research interests.
Working out if an academic is a good fit for your idea
Once you have found some academics that either have the methodologies, discipline, or areas of research that you are interested in. We recommend doing a bit of research on them to see if they are a good fit for your idea:
- Read some of their papers to get a sense of their research.
- Explore other projects they have been part of, are all their projects related to the topic or do they use the same methodologies across very different topics?
- Google them to find out what else they are involved in, maybe you would find a video of them presenting their work, this could be good to get a sense of the person, and more insight in to their role within projects or their way of working.
Contacting an academic
If you find an academic whom you think will be a good person to collaborate with, the next step is to contact them. Academics are used to being contacted out of the blue by an individual they have not met.
- Briefly outline your research interests.
- Clearly state why you are contacting that specific individual: “I am interested in incorporating methodologies similar to those you used in project X ...”
- Say what your end goal is: “ I am looking to build a research team to apply for x funding” .
- Give a brief overview of your own background and skills or previous work. Include a link to your website or online presence so that the academic can find out more about you.
- Ask if the academic would be willing to have a brief call.
- If they don’t have time, ask if they know of another academic working in this area and if they could introduce you to them.
- If you don’t get a reply, give them a nudge after two weeks. If there is still nothing – don’t take it personally, some academics are very busy with a lot of different pressures, this might not be the right time for them to get involved in something new.
Brigstow Blends
Brigstow is committed to creating spaces for the cultivation of ideas and new practices. To achieve this we hold regular events to connect academics, creatives, professionals, and anyone interested in working with us, or with those who hold similar or even opposing interests, but are all committed to the pursuit of knowledge.
Find out about our next Brigstow Blend on the Events page.
Still got questions?
If you have a question that has not been answered on this page or elsewhere in our website, please submit a question to Brigstow using our online form.