You have joined this platform and browsed around for opportunities. You may have been inspired by collaboration opportunities or upcoming grant proposals. Or you’re looking forward to an event organized for the ENGAGE.EU community. But how can you make good use of this platform and all the opportunities that the ENGAGE research community brings you? How can interdisciplinary collaboration benefit your own research? And where to start? This article will guide you to ENGAGE successfully in this international research community*.
Join the community via the platform and events
You have already completed step 1. By joining this platform you introduce yourself into the ENGAGE.EU research community. But in order to really get acquainted with your international colleagues, you will need to meet them during events, conferences or online gatherings. Keep an eye open for all the events and collaboration opportunities that are on offer for your research theme and express your interest in them.
Interact and share what you’re doing
Be sure to communicate about your interest. You can use the platform by blogging about what inspires you, or by sharing first drafts of a paper in a collaboration group. Whenever you plan to attend local events that are of interest to others in our community, you can easily add them to our event calendar. That’s an easy way to meet new people and grow your network.
Gain confidence by starting small
Research collaboration often starts with a small project or task. You can ask for support from colleagues. For example by asking for ‘someone to code my dataset for 3 weeks’, ‘a peer to read and comment on a draft paper’, or ‘someone to brainstorm on theories’. By helping each other out, you gain confidence for a bigger project. Be sure to share the result, even if it’s small, with the community. In this way you inspire others to also start collaborating.
Form a collaboration group
When you decide to collaborate on a research project, take your time to agree on the process and outcome of the collaboration. Find a way to keep in contact and how to communicate with each other, for example via our collaboration groups, or via weekly videocalls. Be clear on role division and responsibilities and remind each other of these process agreements when something goes astray.
Find an opportunity to meet-up
International research collaboration is made easier with all kinds of online communication tools. But be sure to also plan an offline meet-up. You can plan a writing week, attend a conference together, etc. On top of that, make sure to include a social activity for team building and celebrate your success so far.
Share and include others
When you have reached your intended outcome of the collaboration, be sure to celebrate the success! Share it with others in the community, for example by writing a blog about your research project or by giving a presentation in another ENGAGE.EU event. In this way you grow your community and you’ll be inspired for new research collaboration.
*This article is based on a workshop and presentation during the Science Communication Workshop in Vienna on 27 September 2023.
Ps: want to know more about how the platform works? See How to use this platform
