The University of Manchester’s “Teams Build Dreams” (hereafter “UoMcr”; “TBD”) Team Research (Team Science) Programme launched in 2022, and is leading the way in England for its innovative awareness-raising and capacity-building activities. In this presentation, we will describe the process taken to design and deliver a multi-modal, multi-channel training offering for a large research-intensive university. We will reflect on community reach, learnings, and sustainability plans.

Using insights from i) staff community workshops and ii) knowledge development through external training, the TBD team built an initial set of five training modules for the UoMcr community. These were piloted in in-person workshops, co-facilitated by the TBD team. As these first sessions were commissioned via connections from the programme’s pilot phase with the Biology, Medicine and Health faculty, attendees came only from this one of UoMcr’s three faculties.

Learnings from this phase directly informed the content, format, and facilitator model, to improve breadth and depth of the training offering. The strategies we employed included:

Recruitment of a Training Manager (in 2024) with pedagogical expertise to develop content and lead facilitation.
Targeted communications & Identifying key influencers and actioners to ensure training take up across disciplines and groups and staff types. The impact of this recruitment and targeted relationship building is demonstrated in the increase of reach and breadth:

YEAR No. Cohort

2023 34 One faculty only

2024/25 118 All three faculties and Central services

Module Development: Our Training Manager assessed and uplifted the modules, improving the content, structure, and presentation using pedagogical knowledge and learner feedback. They also developed an additional Team-Building module.

Delivery Options: we reviewed our platforms and modes of delivery and prioritised their implementation of with our steering group. This has resulted in the following suite:

• A Self-led online learning platform: six modules for offline individual learning
• Content for six taught standard training modules for in-person workshop format
• Content for extended enhanced versions of all six modules for in-person workshops
• Self-led content for Train-the-trainer training for sustainability
• Option to commission bespoke training modules based on needs assessment
• Content for taught standard training modules for online workshop format

We use a developmental, iterative, feedback-driven, and learner-centred approach to improving content and delivery continuously and solicit feedback after all sessions. Recent verbatims include:

“Great facilitation...really engaging and interactive. Can take a lot of tools to use in my role....”

“The training was well-structured and engaging, with clear real-world applications for teamwork in research. The interactive elements, such as group discussions and activities, were particularly helpful in reinforcing key concepts.”

“I liked that the.... group discussion and activities, media and self-reflection...”

In evaluating progress, we have found that driving parity and inclusiveness in attendance across different disciplines and faculties continues to be challenging; as does engaging senior academics (senior lecturers, professors). We are currently undertaking an evaluation of delivery and impact and a sustainability planning exercise as current funding ends July 2025. We will use the findings to inform the future options for the programme.