One university thinking with Laura Breen (Episode 81) – Prioritising collaboration over competition to develop impactful research projects
For this episode of the Research Adjacent podcast Sarah‘s guest is Laura Breen.
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
- Prioritising collaboration over competition and convening creative relational spaces
- Her journey from museums and ceramics to universities and impact
- How the impact agenda and REF are shaping research culture and even artistic practice
- The importance of empathy and intuition in how she works
Timestamps
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:58 Meet Laura Breen: Research Development and Impact Manager
- 02:21 Laura’s journey: from ceramics to impact
- 03:15 Connecting research development and impact
- 05:17 Interdisciplinary collaboration and challenges
- 06:39 Impact in arts and humanities
- 14:22 Culture shifts and career highlights
- 20:09 Challenges and values in academia
- 25:46 Creating relational spaces and final thoughts
- 28:44 Conclusion and contact information
Find out more
- Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
- Laura is leading on Engaged Research at the University of Manchester – you can see what this looks like via some case studies and videos on participatory research. The University of Manchester has also just released their strategy for 2025-35 which includes research impact as one of it’s 5 main themes.
- Find out more about the Impact Ignite Conference that Laura is speaking at in late November 2025
Theme music by Lemon Music Studios from Pixabay
