Aspect Training: Engaging with External Partners Cohort 5 (November 2025)

Gain practical insights into pathways like consultancy, Knowledge Exchange, and contract research, and how these pathways for engaging with partners (including businesses, NGOs, and charities) can help to scale your research and its impact. To support those new to these topics, we provide a pre-course offline training module, ensuring you are well-prepared. In the live course, you will learn tools for effective engagement with stakeholders for successful outcomes. This ten-hour interactive online course (four hours of live training and an expectation of two to six hours of self-learning) offers essential strategies for navigating communication routes within academic and professional contexts, validated by an Aspect micro-credential.

Date: 11 November 2025 & 25 November 2025

Time: 14:00 – 16:00 UK Time

Target Audience: Academics/Professional Service Staff looking to develop new types of partnerships

Prior knowledge: either some experience in knowledge exchange, or completion of the pre-course module (this will be provided to you upon registration)

Location: Online (Zoom link will be provided)

Registration: Please use your institutional email for registration. Your institutional email will be used for verification of your affiliation with an Aspect Member Institute.

Eventbrite registration deadline for Aspect Hub members: 21 October 2025*

Eventbrite registration deadline for Aspect network members and the general public: 9 November 2025

*If your institute's tickets are sold out, please fill in the waiting list. Further details are available at the registration Instructions below.

Prices:

Free for ASPECT HUB members

£160 pp (£206.05 incl. VAT and Eventbrite fee) for ASPECT NETWORK members

£480 pp (£616.74 incl. VAT and Eventbrite fee) for the general public

Hear from the course instructor how you can benefit from the practical course: link to video

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Describe why you want to engage with external partners
• Articulate the different drivers and motivations for universities and potential partners
• Complete a stakeholder analysis
• Articulate your prospective partner’s wants and needs
• Convey the benefits of your research concisely to a lay audience
• Plan your next steps to find and engage a suitable partner

Format

• Two online interactive sessions
• Include a pre-course training to level up participants who are new to the subject
• Interactive format allows for engaged learning and networking opportunities
• Live Q&A sessions to address your specific questions and challenges

Registration Instructions:

Aspect Hub Members: If you are affiliated with an Aspect Hub Members Institute, please sign up using your work email and select the free ticket under your institutional name. If your institution's tickets are sold out, please register your interest under this waiting list.

If any tickets are released, they will be reallocated to the members on the waiting list.

Aspect Network Members: If you are affiliated with an Aspect Network Members Institute, please sign up using your work email and select the discounted ticket under the Aspect Network Member ticket.

If the Aspect Network Members tickets are sold out, please register your interest under this waiting list.

If any tickets are released, they will be reallocated to the members on the waiting list.

Public members: If you are not affiliated with any Aspect Members Institute, please register for the Public Member ticket.

Next Steps:

Pre-course training: A link to the pre-course training materials for those in need will be shared with successful registrants by late October.

Link to Training: The Zoom link to the course will be shared with successful registrants on 04 November 2025 and 10 November 2025.

Register your attendance: To receive your microcredential upon completing the course, please scan the QR code provided by the trainer and record your attendance. Only participants with an attendance rate of more than 70% will receive the microcredential.