RLUK Research Shift Programme: 2.3 Collaborative

RLUK's Research Shift series of events are open to all and free to attend.

The Research Shift Programme (RSP) is an RLUK series of online events designed to empower and support librarians, archivists, information professionals, and colleagues across the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAM) sector to actively engage in research.

So you have a research idea...*

The second season running from April to July 2026, will continue to explore and define the evolving role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and GLAM sector colleagues as research leaders and partners. The overarching theme will be around developing your research idea. It will provide a platform to share experiences, help develop ideas, and address challenges related to practitioner research.

(*) having a research idea is not prerequisite to joining any of the session and we hope that you will be inspired, assured and encouraged to develop your research ideas through these sessions.

The series is co-created with members of our AHRC-RLUK and TNA (The National Archives) Professional Practice Research schemes as well as our Research Catalyst Cohort programme to ensure it reflects the diverse needs and interests of professionals across libraries, archives, museums, and beyond.

Find out more about the Research Shift Programme

Building Capacity, Capability, Confidence and Community

RLUK champions the role of academic and research libraries as active participants and leaders in the production of scholarly research and to bring wider recognition to the pivotal contribution libraries make to the research process, as enablers, partners and leaders of research excellence. The Research Shift Programme support this vision and will help to inclusively develop a growing community of practitioners, mentors and researchers to further build their research capacity, capability and confidence across the sector.

Find out more at libraries X research

Who Should Attend

The RSP is open to librarians, archivists, information professionals, and colleagues across the wider GLAM sector. This includes professionals working in academic and research libraries, public libraries, and special collections, as well as those in archives, museums, and cultural heritage organisations.

Whether you are an early-career researcher looking to get started with the glimmer of an idea (or no research idea at all yet), a librarian or archivist interested in contributing to scholarly research, or an experienced professional seeking to expand your research engagement, this programme will offersvaluable insights, connections, and opportunities for your professional development.

Session 3: Making it Collaborative

The third session will explore opportunities and challenges in making your research idea collaborartive. This session will use case studies to highlight how collaboration has been embedded and applied in research projects.

The 90 minute session will include breakout sessions to provide an opportunity for colleagues to meet and share their own ideas and challenges as well as more curated conversations drawing on the case studies.

Agenda

• Welcome and Overview
• Research Shift Recap
• Breakout Sessions: Introductions and Sharing
• Case Studies
• Curated Conversations
• Wider Discussion
• Closing comments

Joining details

This event will be held via Zoom. Attendees will be sent a joining link the day before the event and should ensure their email is entered correctly in the registration form. Attendees should check junk folders if no joining email is received.