Within the contemporary research landscape there is increased emphasis on research demonstrating industry relevance or societal application. Moving beyond personal interests or human curiosity - research is increasingly expected to help address real world problems or contribute to work being done by industries that might sit outside of traditional academia. Research degree students are encouraged to partner with end-users of their research to help address globally significant issues and demonstrate future career relevance. Many early-career researchers are also seeing their future employment not in academia, but within industry; either through think-tanks, not-for-profit agencies, or government. In working towards this relationship in a meaningful way, how do we navigate the role of migration, ethnicity, and multiculturalism research with industry? How can we support the role of research to advocate for societal change appropriately? Within this session we will hear from researchers, industry partners, and postgraduate students who have worked within this space, navigated these relationships, and applied their research meaningfully in order to help address many global and societal issues today. This session is focused on helping provide practical tips and advice for PhD/HDR candidates and early career researchers on how they can meaningfully engage with industry at various stages of their research journey.

Key Questions Include:

How can we meaningfully engage with industries involved in migration policy for research?
What should PhD/ECRs know about working with/alongside industry partners?
How can we structure our research projects and research outputs to ‘speak’ to policy? How do we speak ‘the language’?
How do we navigate the role and relationship between research in advocacy and policy development?
How to network with policy/NFP sectors in supporting migrants from a diversity of backgrounds?
How can we best tailor our resumes to demonstrate we are employable within the non-academic sector?

TASA MEM's Conversations About...Refugee and Migration Policy