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Whether you are academic or professional staff use your UWA Profile to showcase how your research and professional expertise can specifically address issues, problems, and solutions required across different social and commercial scenarios. |
Your future professional role as a researcher and evidence-based practitioner will increasingly depend on your engagement and networking with external partners and research end-users during your candidature. |
Why outreach to industry and external partners?
How does your UWA Profile help?
Industry, government and not for profits often have different priorities and perspectives than academics, so it's important to communicate your research in a way that resonates with their interests and needs.
By following these guidelines, you can create a UWA Profile that effectively communicates your value to industry professionals and increases your chances of attracting industry collaborations and opportunities.
Work through the following tabs for specific tips on optimising your UWA Profile to attract industry and external partners. See also the Using your UWA Profile for Outreach handout (PDF) and the Raising your Profile webinar recording on the last tab.
The "Overview" area in your UWA Profile is the first area your potential industry and external audience will land on to learn about you. As well as following the basic requirements of setting up your profile covered in this guide, here are some ideas for how you can further utilise your Overview page to attract external partners.
Include a compelling summary within your biography: Crafting a concise and engaging summary at the beginning of your profile within your biography heading is crucial. Don't leave potential external partners wondering about the potential benefits of collaborating with you. Clearly communicate the value you can bring to industry and society through your research. Don't dwell on theoretical concepts or research methodologies without connecting them to practical applications or potential industry and social benefits. See the Your Biography step in this guide for instructions for adding your biography.
Add Industry relevance, Community Engagement, Role and Responsibilities sections: In addition to your biography, you can add dedicated sections to your Overview page. See instructions for adding these sections on the Your Biography page in this guide. Some exemplary biographies and profile overviews are provided in the Raising your UWA Profile handout, and here are some ideas for how to use these sections effectively:
Add Industry keywords: Use the Industry Keywords function to add a summary of keywords that describe how your research links with community and industry needs and to improve discoverability in search results. These will be displayed at the top of your UWA Profile overview together with your “Research Expertise” keywords and support search results for your UWA Profile.
Include a call to action: Show you are open to collaboration opportunities and invite industry to contact you within your Overview page. Here are some examples of calls to action:
“I am enthusiastic about fostering collaborative partnerships with industry professionals, and I welcome inquiries from industry leaders interested in exploring mutually beneficial research and innovation opportunities.”
“I am open to industry collaborations and look forward to connecting with potential partners.”
“If you are interested in innovative solutions for [specific topic(s)], I welcome the opportunity to connect and explore potential collaborations.”
There is a broad range of publication and content types that you can add to your UWA Profile. Even if you have not yet begun to publish in scholarly journals about your research, these alternative publication types can be important to an external audience. Here are some examples of the kind of industry-related content you could add:
Research outputs: This isn't limited to traditional scholarly outputs, and many non-traditional research outputs can be added to your profile. For example, government policy, technical reports, policy statements, working papers, newsletters, government documents, speeches, white papers, urban plans and more. See the instructions in this guide for adding publications.
Awards and Honours you have received are important to include particularly those related to your research contributions or collaborations with industry. See the instructions in this guide on adding awards and prizes.
Engagement activities could include any research internships, collaborative projects, partnerships, scholarships, grants, or research conducted in collaboration with industry partners. There is a dedicated set of Industry and government engagement/consultancy templates that you can use to record your involvement in other industry-related events, committees, conferences, and advisory boards. Add your public speaking and media engagements, especially if you've given talks or presentations to industry audiences. Mention any outreach efforts, such as workshops or seminars you've conducted for industry professionals. See the instructions in this guide on adding engagement activities.
This is a recording of a 2023 webinar offered by the University Library and the Office of Industry and Commercial Development. It offers guidance on how to craft your UWA Profil to promote your experience and capabilities to industry and external partners.
For more information and guidance on engaging with industry and external partners contact the Office of Industry and Commercial Development at industry@uwa.edu.au
For support editing your profile, contact with the Library at staffsupport-lib@uwa.edu.au or hdrsupport-lib@uwa.edu.au.
Except for logos, Canva designs, AI generated images or where otherwise indicated, content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence.