Developing your ECRs using the Research Canvas

1. Supporting postdocs at career crossroads

Postdocs are navigating a pivotal—and often uncertain—stage in their careers. Many lack clarity, confidence, and support to explore their options, whether in academia or beyond. Some avoid career conversations entirely, fearing judgment because they think they should already know or appearing unprepared or the perception that they’re “off track.”

Importantly, for many, non-academic roles are/will be their Plan A. Yet, they often:

• struggle to translate their research skills into language relevant for roles outside academia, nor do they know what skills that employers value.
• lack visibility of sectors, companies, and networks beyond the university.
• feel isolated in exploring alternatives, especially without structured guidance.

Even for those committed to academic careers, the path to securing funding and tenure is often opaque and more and more complex with funders and institutions now expecting more than research novelty—they look for clear, real-world impact and engagement with societal, economic, or policy relevance.

PIs and managers of researchers experience that researchers find it challenging to put their research into context – why it matters, who it could help and how it connects to broader challenges. Communicating the long-term value or relevance is particularly tough when research is early stage or doesn’t have an obvious application. Researchers also often feel stuck when trying to adapt their message for different audiences, making it harder to stand out in funding applications, to build collaborations across disciplines and to show the broader impact of their work.

As a PI, you don’t need to be a careers expert to make a difference. What’s needed is creating an environment that encourages open dialogue and cultivates a mindset that connects research to broader societal and economic value. Providing structure and tools that empower researchers in shaping their ideas into strong research projects and confidence to communicate their ideas to diverse stakeholder. This also helps them to identify professional development opportunities; develop their networks and explore divers career paths.

2. Entrepreneurial thinking benefits all researchers — not just founders

There is still a common belief that academic research and commercial innovation are separate worlds. This belief discourages many researchers from exploring entrepreneurial thinking or engaging with business-relevant skills.

Yet, entrepreneurial thinking encourages researchers to focus early on real-world problems, engage potential stakeholders, and collaborators, and the path from research to product or service —making their work more relevant and impactful, while also supporting career development by building transferable skills and uncovering potential pathways to non-academic roles in industry, policy, and innovation.

Embedding entrepreneurial thinking and skills empowers researchers to design impactful, fundable, and career-enabling research while also sensitising researchers to commercialisation journeys.

This means that more researchers may take their ideas beyond the lab into the world, ultimately increasing the University’s commercialisation and spin-out success.

3. Connect research planning with impact, skills, and career development

PIs and Managers of researchers can encourage researchers to shape their research ideas by proactively building networks and engaging outside the lab to gain insights in and help to define the real-world relevance of their research.

The transferable skills they gain along the way—such as understanding stakeholder needs, communicating value, planning for impact, financial literacy and pitching ideas to range of stakeholders help researchers become more effective at research planning, building collaborations and securing grants, but also support diverse career options.

4. Use practical tools like the Research Canvas to structure conversations

The business inspired Research Canvas is a simple, visual tool that supports researchers in designing impactful research projects while also supporting career development. It’s designed to:

• Frame research in terms of value creation, stakeholder relevance, and broader impact. It helps postdocs see how their work connects to broader ecosystems—academic, industrial, and societal.
• Identify key assumptions, gaps, and key stakeholders to engage for insights
• Help with strategic decisions:
  • Is the idea ready to pursue now?
  • Does it need more data, collaborators, or validation?
  • Should it be reframed to better fit a specific funding opportunity?
• Be a living document that evolves with input from stakeholders to make the research vision and proposition clear and compelling before tailoring of funding applications
• Highlight a range of skills that researchers can seek training in at their institution

The Payoff for PIs and Institutions

For PIs and HEIs, the payoff can also be significant. PIs can use frameworks such as the Research Canvas to align their team to their/the team’s overall research vision and for structuring and stress-testing new research directions in their own work.

Teams that understand and communicate impact make the group more innovative, more competitive, better at gaining funding and more successful over the long term.

Supporting researchers in developing professionally also aligns with institutional KPIs and can support a PI’s own progression toward tenure or promotion.

The lab benefits from increased visibility through broader networks, collaborations, consulting capacity and potential spinouts, boosting its reputation in academic, industry, policy, and public spheres.