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Oops did we do it right? Lessons from Successful Collaborations

At the SSI Collaborations Workshop 2026, Eleanor Broadway and Eva Fernandez-Amez ran a session exploring how we can design and support successful collaborations. This is the write-up from that session, capturing the experiences, challenges and advice shared by participants.

Want to run your own session? Check out the slides to see how we did it.

Objective of this session: from Oops... to ...Aha!

Collaboration is a huge part of how we work, learn and solve problems together. It can take many forms, from large formal projects to small moments of shared problem-solving:

  • Joining a working group or committee
  • Preparing for a conference or workshop session
  • Informal problem-solving with other teams or people
  • Working with a colleague on a shared goal

So, at its core, a collaboration is about people working together towards something they cannot achieve as effectively alone. Collaborations are essential for robust, sustainable and impactful work because they bring together different perspectives, skills and experiences.

However, successful collaborations do not happen automatically. They need intentional design, strong foundations and ongoing support. Without this, even collaborations that start with enthusiasm and shared goals can struggle to maintain momentum, lose valuable time and resources, or put relationships under strain.

Why this session?

This session was itself a collaboration between CAKE and SHAREing.

Both initiatives recognise that strong collaborations do not happen by accident — they need support, structure and opportunities to grow. CAKE supports the development of new, long-term collaborations through funding, while SHAREing focuses on building structured learning pathways for Research Technical Professionals (RTPs) to support skills development and community building.

Together, we wanted to explore what can we learn from the collaborations we have been part of, both the successes and the challenges, to help us build better collaborations in the future?

How we ran it

We started by introducing why collaborations are important and then shared examples of collaborations from the session leaders.

Participants were then invited to reflect on a collaboration they had been involved in and discuss:

  • How did it start?
  • What did you wish you had at the time?
  • When did things become challenging?
  • What made it work (or not)?

The discussion happened through a mixture of Slido responses and small group conversations, with key themes captured throughout.

Summary of discussions

Participants described collaborations that began for many different reasons, from funded research projects to networking and opportunities for shared value across institutions. Despite these different starting points, many of the same challenges and lessons came up again and again.

Communicating across boundaries and knowledge exchange:

A lot of collaborations bring together people with very different expertise. Diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences is often the most essential aspect of a collaboration, but it can also be the hardest.

A recurring challenge was finding the balance between making progress and taking the time to understand each other. How do we make sure everyone has enough context to contribute without needing to become an expert in every area?

Another challenge raised was what happens when someone leaves. Sometimes the person who leaves takes with them exactly the knowledge that the collaboration depended on. A replacement may have the right skills, but rebuilding that shared understanding takes time.

Some of the advice from the group:

  • Everyone involved should document important decisions, knowledge and context as they go.
  • Science communication skills can be so important to learn how to distil your knowledge into the key concepts for others. Move away from the technical intricacies and think "What do they actually need to know?"

Time, availability and keeping things moving

The biggest challenge that came up was time and when time is limited, communication can quickly become a bottleneck. There is a tendency to lean into more meetings, but this can descend into too much chat and not enough progress. Different preferences in communication channels can leave people frustrated, waiting for a reply.

There was also a lot of discussion around online, in-person and hybrid working. Each approach has benefits, but they support different parts of collaboration:

  • In-person time is often where relationships are built, ideas develop over informal conversations, and people feel more connected.
  • Online communication can be more efficient for sharing information and keeping projects moving.
  • Hybrid working can increase accessibility, but only when it is designed carefully. Otherwise, it can unintentionally leave people out.

Some things that can help:

  • Agree how you will communicate at the start.
  • Set expectations around response times, meetings and availability.
  • Regularly review to check whether the way you are working together is still helping.

Sometimes, people don't click

Not every challenge is about the work itself and sometimes collaborations are difficult because people do not naturally work well together. Participants reflected that successful collaborations often come from wanting to work with the people involved and building a sense of trust. When there is friction, ignoring it rarely makes it disappear—it can grow and become harder to resolve.

The group also discussed the importance of community. Collaborating can sometimes feel isolating, particularly when you are the only person bringing a particular expertise. Having wider networks and communities to turn to can provide support, new ideas and a place to share challenges.

Standout advice

The overall message from the discussion was that collaborations do not succeed by accident. They need attention throughout their lifetime:

  • Plan carefully, but expect the plan to change: build in opportunities to revisit goals, expectations and ways of working.
  • Be realistic about the time and resources available.
  • Don't measure success only by whether everything happened exactly as planned.

Sometimes collaborations do not succeed in the way we expected but they can still teach us something valuable or lead to unexpected outcomes. As one participant reflected: this is research after all!

Sprinkles of Knowledge

This session inspired the Sprinkles of Knowledge!

We wanted to share the great discussion we had during this session, but felt we didn't have a representative portion of the community to write a definitive guide on successful collaborations. So, Sprinkles of Knowledge is a lightweight way for everyone to share their tips and advice, in quick form, without needing to write a full guide. Removing the barrier to sharing your experiences.

The most helpful ideas are often simple: a practical tip, something that worked, a mistake to avoid, or a small insight from experience.

Have a collaboration lesson to share? Add your own Sprinkles of Knowledge and help us build a community resource of practical experiences.