You're listening to Significant Impact, the podcast for early career researchers ready to take the next step toward independence. I'm Sarah Dobson, Grant Consultant and Academic Career Coach, and on this show I help you navigate the transition from mentored K Awards to your first R01 without losing your mind, your focus, or your sense of purpose. If you're ready to move from I hope I'm ready to I know I'm ready, join the wait list for the next cohort of K2R Essentials at Sarahdobson.co slash K2R. That's S-A-R-A-H-D-O-B-S-O-N.co slash K number two R. Now let's get to the episode. You're listening to Uncharted Academia, a series about navigating research careers in a time of transformation. In part three of the series, we talked about protecting your focus and your capacity. But protecting your capacity doesn't mean isolating yourself. We've also talked about your number one job being the survival of your lab, and yes, that's true in the short term, as we make sense of all the changes to the flawed but fairly predictable federal funding system that has been the bedrock of biomedical research for a long time. But I want to clarify something right off the bat. I don't want to give the impression that that's your ultimate goal, because that sounds pretty miserable, honestly, to devote your career to keeping the lights on at your lab. That's why we talk about the North Star, the vision and the mission behind your work that motivates your research. When I say your number one job is the survival of your lab, I mean it as a counterpoint to your number one job being to meet the requirements and expectations of your institution, to please the administrators. That is not your number one job. That is a nice to have compared to the must-have of the survival of your lab. I just want to make that clear before we move on. And again, this moment might feel a lot like survival mode, which is understandable as you're reimagining your funding pipeline and perhaps disentangling yourself from some of those institutional expectations and obligations. And look, if you are thinking to yourself, I did not sign up for this, I did not sign up to be more independent than I anticipated, to focus half my time on running this small business instead of just doing science, that is understandable because it's not usually framed to you in that way. And it's not usually something that academics aspire to, right? But the other beautiful thing about the North Star, if if you decide that, look, I don't want to continue like this, the beauty of the North Star is that it is expansive. There are lots of ways for you to fulfill your vision that don't necessarily involve you having a faculty position and securing grant funding to support your research, your salary, and the salaries of everybody in your lab. There are other creative ways for you to pursue that vision. But that's not what we're talking about in this series. We are assuming that you are committed and that you are focusing on navigating this period successfully. And so moving from survival mode to sustainability to eventually thriving, one of the characteristics that is common to all of those stages is connection, community, collaboration. I want to think about this in a couple of ways. The first is more obvious, I think, and that is building your research network, the connections and collaborations that support your research. And the second is building your career network. And those two can overlap, of course, but not necessarily. So let's talk first about building your research network. I would suspect that many, if not most of you listening will be engaged in team science and working in a cross-disciplinary or multidisciplinary team to answer complex research questions. You're probably noticing that some of those collaborations are more successful than others, whether that's scientifically or interpersonally. And so I want to talk about that for a minute, the importance of choosing your collaborators carefully. In earlier parts of this series, we've talked about the temptation to say yes to any offer from a well-meaning colleague to join a grant for a small percent effort as a way to cover your bases, right? As a response to feeling like you're in survival mode. And some of those offers can be genuinely beneficial if they're aligned with your North Star, if you work well with this person, and if you're crystal clear on the parameters of your involvement. If any one of those three is missing, it can spell trouble pretty quickly. So let's talk about why that is. If you say yes to joining a project that's not aligned with where you're ultimately headed, it can spread you thin and be a distraction in a moment when you need to stay focused, right? We've already talked about that plenty. If you don't work well with this person, it's going to be frustrating for the duration of the project. My K to R Essentials graduates will know that one piece of advice I always give is that if it's a pain to work with them on a grant application, do not expect it to be any easier if the project is funded. And finally, if you're not clear on the parameters of your involvement in the project, if those aren't clearly discussed and negotiated, you will almost certainly have scope creep. And that small percent effort is not so small anymore. But if all three of those things are in place, those can be really fruitful collaborations that can continue to grow throughout your career. And one of the other great things about that is that they can outlast any relationship with your home institution. You can build and nurture those collaborations as your own career evolves. And that, of course, is because no one's career is linear anymore. If you stay true to your North Star, your career will evolve faster than you can imagine, which means you need a network that moves with you. And that's also true of the second type of collaboration, which is your career network. This is about the mentors, peers, and allies who can help you strategize and adapt when circumstances shift. And think of it as an ecosystem, right? You need a mix of people: those who open doors, those who challenge you, those who share resources and offer support. So if your research network protects your science, your career network protects your future. This type of network is most effective when the benefits are reciprocal. So when you can give as much as you ask for: feedback, information, introductions, amplification, right? The big caveat here, of course, is to be extremely discerning about who makes it into this career network and at what level of trust. You can think about it in the sense that your research network keeps your science alive and your career network keeps you alive in the work. Both are built on that same foundation of clarity and communication and trust. So, how does leadership come into play here? Well, the way we talk about it inside K to R Essentials, which I consider to be a foundational program, in the sense that we're laying the foundational pillars for a successful research career and especially for successful grant writing. The way we talk about leadership in the program is first being able to lead yourself. And what I mean by that is that you know yourself well enough to communicate honestly with others. You are dependable within yourself so that others can take you at your word, and you can take yourself at your own word. And it also means being solid and confident in your vision so that you can communicate that with others and bring them on board. And all of those things are important both on the research network and career network side of things. If you want to be a reliable collaborator or mentor, you need to be able to show up for yourself and do what you say you're gonna do. And that requires knowing the limits of what you can take on and being honest with yourself and with others when you don't have the capacity. And that requires asking questions of your potential collaborators or trainees to understand the scope of their request and not being afraid to say no if they can't give you the particulars. You need to be able to clearly communicate your vision, your capacity, and your expectations to other people. But first you need to know what those are, right? Leadership isn't about authority, it's about stewardship of people, of ideas, and of culture. Those of you who have already been leading this way, collaboratively, relationally, are the blueprint for what's coming next in academia. At least I hope so. When enough of us lead and collaborate in this way, we form small networks of safety that are flexible, humane, and resilient. We're not rebuilding that old structure, but we can basically prototype the next one. So in part five, we'll talk about redefining success and security. Thanks again for listening, and I'll see you in part five. Thanks for listening to this episode of Significant Impact, from K Award to your first big R0. If you want to dig deeper into what we learned today and move a significant step closer to a smooth K-2R transition, visit Sarah Dobson.co slash pod and check out all the free stuff we have to help you do just that. Don't forget to subscribe to the show to make sure you hear new episodes as soon as they're released. And if today's episode made you think of a colleague or a friend, please tell them about it. Tune in next time and thanks again for listening.