Especially when pursuing funding from mission-driven organizations, establishing collaborations with scientists and engineers at related government labs can give you an edge. Generally, these will be government employees who must serve as unfunded collaborators. For example, if you are pursuing funding from the Office of Naval Research, you may want to explore collaborations at the Naval Research Laboratory. Collaborators may have just a small involvement with the research, quite a bit, or somewhere in between. So how do you initiate these interactions?

You must listen for what the other party wants out of the collaboration, rather than consider only what you want. We will talk about what you can listen for in this final week of our series on Listening in the research funding process.

Before I get into how to do this listening, let me give you an idea of what your prospective collaborators may be looking for. None of these reasons is mutually exclusive, but some could be driving an individual more than others:

• Access to expertise that fills a gap in their team

• Access to new samples, instrumentation, or field areas

• To publish journal articles with academics

• The excitement of working with those on the cutting edge (that is, you 😄)

• Documentation of certain types of collaboration to help them grow their careers, perhaps to qualify for a promotion or move to a new position

• Workforce development. For example, a student hosted in a government lab may be employed by the government upon graduation.

So how do you learn what your prospective collaborator is looking for? You’ve got to ask and then really listen. Here’s how this can go after you have identified someone you may want to work with.

When you first approach them, perhaps by email, introduce yourself and then see if you can have a phone or video call so that you can learn more about their research. Reference something about their research so they know you have done some preparation.

Don’t ask if they are interested in collaborating over email. You’ve got to actually speak with them to learn if what they are currently working on is relevant to what you want to do and, just as important, if you have chemistry with the person.

On this call, just let them tell you about what they do. You can later ask follow-on questions such as:

• What specific technical challenges are they facing?

• Is the research area now and will it continue to be a priority for the organization?

• What, if any, external collaborators are they working with now?

Then, you can tell them about what you do. At this point, if there’s any chemistry you will be in a technical conversation with another subject matter expert. The conversation will take care of itself. Before you end the call, ask if you can follow up and then do.

Alternatively, if the conversation indicates that there’s not a great match between interests or aims, thank the person for their time but before you end the call, ask if they can think of anyone (in their organization or elsewhere) whom you can talk to about the topic.

If you want to continue discussions, follow up with a second call. On that call, you can ask about what they aim to get from a collaboration. Here are some questions to consider:

• How easy is it for them to work with academic collaborators? (They may need special permission or there may be a lot of red tape.)

• Specifically, what are they looking to get out of the collaboration?

• Do they keep a schedule of regular meetings with collaborators and, if so, what does that look like?

• Do they host interns or students?

Finally, if you are drafting a proposal, you can ask if they would provide a letter of support. Just don’t lead with that. Do the listening first. No one wants to feel that what you want from them is just a letter; they want to feel like they are a true partner.

Many government labs are working on the cutting edge, but some are not. Those that aren’t are still contributing in important ways, especially in terms of bringing real solutions to society. Things in their workplace operate differently than yours, but if you listen well, you can understand their challenges and collaborate to solve problems together.

Ready to really grow you career?

Are you tired of hunting down opportunities? How about if the tables were turned and the opportunities starting coming to you? I’m offering a new program to uplevel your career big time!

Workshop for New Faculty & Researchers

For the Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI) PI Intensive for New Faculty and Researchers: Building the Tools for Your Career in Research

This day-and-a-half workshop will take place in Chicago on October 24-25th .

We will dive into topics such as

✔️ Understanding the responsibilities of a principal investigator

✔️ Developing competitive grant applications

✔️ Negotiating effectively with your institution

✔️ Employing project management approaches in research

I am co-leading this event. Please see this page for more information and to register. Note that this is an SRAI (not a Wise Investigator) event.

It would be wonderful to meet some newsletter subscribers in person in Chicago. Please send me an email ([email protected]) if you have any questions. 👋 

When you are ready, here’s how we can help

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Ready to book a call to discuss our training, websites, or to have Dr. Barzyk provide training at your institution? Let’s chat!