The Conversation

Ensure your research leads to positive change...

As The Conversation UK’s commercial subsidiary, we help researchers boost the reach and impact of their work.

We create and deliver bespoke training, mentoring and communications plans for research institutions, drawing on the trusted academic and media expertise behind The Conversation.

“If you want to get better at talking about your research or enhance your ability to deliver impact, this should be your first point of contact.”
Paul Jones, former Senior Research Manager at Aston University

What we offer

Specialist Training

Our interactive workshops empower researchers to communicate their work confidently to a variety of audiences, including the media, research funders, industry, policymakers, the REF and other targeted beneficiaries. All of our courses are tailored to your specific needs.

Courses include:

  • How to explain your research in two minutes
  • How to identify and communicate with different audiences
  • How to write for the media 
  • How to explain your research to broadcast media
  • How to engage parliament and policymakers with your research
“The course was very well tailored to us. Probably the most useful staff development course I have done here for around a decade!”
Dr Lewis Bingle, Senior Lecturer, Microbiology, University of Sunderland

Mentoring

Through one-on-one sessions, we collaborate with researchers to further refine their work into media pitches and articles, policy briefs, reports, fact sheets, REF impact case studies, podcasts and more. 

“Matt helped me craft the initial stages of a book proposal. I can now happily say I have a book deal signed with Bloomsbury Sigma and BenBella. In addition, the book is being considered for a TV series by documentary companies.”
Dr Nafees Hamid, Senior Research Fellow, King’s College London and Research & Policy Director for the XCEPT project
Matt Warren, Managing Director of Universal Impact, delivering training at XJTLU

Communications Consultancy

We develop and manage communications plans that boost the reach and impact of your research.

Our services include communications and impact strategy, stakeholder mapping, content creation, events planning and matchmaking.

We recently partnered with UCL and the universities of Glasgow, Cardiff and Queen's Belfast on the £4m ESRC-funded International Public Policy Observatory. The project assessed global evidence on Covid recovery, inequality and net zero to help UK policymakers address social harms and benefit the British public, particularly disadvantaged groups.

"UI’s Sarah O’Meara made an important contribution to IPPO’s work, ensuring that key outputs communicated complex academic ideas in clear, accessible formats with key takeaways which were tailored for the public, policy professionals and the wider research community."
Sarah Chaytor, Director of Research Strategy & Policy, UCL

Our team

How to work with us

We have worked with dozens of research institutions around the world and understand that everyone’s needs and goals are different. If you’d like to know how we can support yours, please email our managing director, matt.warren@theconversation.com

Who we've worked with

Clients