Resources from Host Summit 2026 – Supporting Leaders in Times of Crisis
Resources, Tools, and Ideas
Below are resources, tools, and ideas that were shared at our Host Summit 2026. We have split them up into broad themes to help you navigate. There is some overlap as some resources fit into multiple themes.
The downloadable documents are linked at the end of each expandable section.
What’s going on here?
Participants highlighted increasing instability in funding environments, with declining success rates, shifting funder priorities, and growing institutional caution around high-risk or match-funded bids.
This has created a more competitive and uncertain landscape, where research leaders are under pressure to secure funding while navigating complex and sometimes misaligned expectations between funders and institutions.
There was also a sense that the rules of engagement are changing, with reduced clarity around overheads, processes, and support, making it harder for leaders to plan strategically and confidently.
Actions and Approaches
- Supporting research leaders to better navigate funding systems, processes, and expectations
- Encouraging active engagement with funder guidance and criteria
- Providing structured support at key stages (e.g. pre-application, post-decision)
- Creating opportunities for learning from successful and unsuccessful applications
- Helping leaders to make connections across institutional systems and resources
- Enabling upward influence and advocacy within institutions
What’s going on here?
Participants described a growing sense that research leaders are being asked to “do more with less”, often absorbing operational, administrative and people-management responsibilities alongside their core research roles.
This results in limited time for strategic thinking, relationship-building, and leadership development. There was also concern that systems are increasingly reliant on individual resilience rather than addressing underlying structural pressures.
Workload was frequently linked to other themes, particularly funding precarity, institutional change, and digital/AI transformation.
Actions and Approaches
- Creating space for reflection and strategic thinking (not just delivery)
- Encouraging leaders to focus on what is within their control (e.g. circles of influence)
- Supporting prioritisation and decision-making in complex environments
- Building peer support to reduce isolation and share practices
- Embedding coaching approaches into everyday conversations
- Helping leaders reframe expectations (moving away from “doing everything”)
What’s going on here?
Participants highlighted significant challenges relating to institutional structures and the instability created by frequent organisational change. Ongoing restructures, leadership transitions, and shifting priorities were seen to create uncertainty and ambiguity for research leaders.
There was a strong sense that clarity around roles, responsibilities, budgets and reporting lines is often lacking, making it difficult for leaders to navigate systems effectively. Participants also noted tensions between institutional priorities and external drivers such as funder expectations, which can create conflicting demands.
Short-term decision-making and changing goalposts were identified as key challenges, alongside internal procedures that can act as barriers rather than enablers. Overall, institutional environments were described as complex, dynamic, and at times difficult to influence, requiring leaders to operate with a high degree of adaptability.
Actions and Approaches
- Using structured frameworks to support decision-making and prioritisation
- Creating space for reflection and sense-making in complex environments
- Encouraging leaders to reframe change as an opportunity for improvement
- Embedding coaching approaches to support navigation of uncertainty
- Promoting deep listening and effective communication
- Supporting leaders to focus on areas within their control
- Encouraging more deliberate sequencing of actions during periods of change
What’s going on here?
Participants highlighted significant challenges relating to morale, trust and psychological safety within research environments. Ongoing change, uncertainty and workload pressures were seen to be eroding trust, contributing to anxiety, and in some cases leading to more defensive or territorial behaviours.
There was particular concern about the impact on committed and “loyal” staff, including those who take on informal support roles within teams. These individuals were seen as both vital and vulnerable, often carrying a disproportionate share of emotional and relational labour.
Psychological safety was described as a fragile but essential condition for effective research leadership, with risks that it can be easily undermined during periods of instability.
Actions and Approaches
- Creating space for open and honest conversations, including difficult topics such as trust and perceived betrayal
- Actively reviewing and reflecting on team and organisational culture
- Making psychological safety visible and discussable within teams
- Recognising and supporting those who take on informal or relational leadership roles
- Embedding values-led approaches to leadership and decision-making
- Encouraging shared responsibility for maintaining trust and safety across teams
What’s going on here?
Participants highlighted a growing gap between the leadership responsibilities expected of research leaders and the preparation and support available to them. Many individuals are stepping into roles with significant people-management and leadership responsibilities without having had access to consistent or relevant development opportunities.
There was a strong sense that leadership development provision is often fragmented and not well aligned across career stages. This can lead to a lack of continuity and coherence, with individuals experiencing support as ad hoc rather than part of a structured development journey.
Participants also raised questions about what “effective leadership” means in a research context, and noted ongoing confusion between management and leadership roles. The transition from being an individual contributor to taking on a leadership identity was seen as particularly challenging.
Actions and Approaches
- Moving towards more coherent, career-spanning leadership development pathways
- Creating space for reflection and identity development as a leader
- Using role models and real examples to illustrate different leadership approaches
- Embedding values-led and people-centred leadership practices
- Supporting research development professionals to act as curators and connectors across resources
- Encouraging active and intentional leadership practice, rather than passive role adoption
- Normalising reflection as a core component of leadership development
What’s going on here?
Participants identified significant concerns around career precarity, with limited clarity about progression routes for both academic and professional services roles. Short-term contracts, funding constraints, and rigid institutional structures were seen to restrict long-term planning and reduce confidence in career development.
There was also concern that existing pathways are not always meaningful or accessible, particularly for those outside traditional academic trajectories. This creates challenges for both individuals and those supporting research leaders in providing effective guidance.
There was also a strong sense that there is no longer a single or “traditional” career pathway, and that many research leaders experience their careers as non-linear, messy and circuitous. However, institutional promotion and progression frameworks do not always reflect this reality.
This can lead to individuals feeling that they have “failed” or are off-track, despite having rich and varied career experiences.
Actions and Approaches
- Supporting structured career planning conversations
- Encouraging exploration of alternative and non-linear career pathways
- Providing mentoring and coaching to build confidence and skills
- Supporting networking and connection-building opportunities
- Helping individuals to recognise and articulate transferable skills
- Encouraging reflection and unlearning of limiting assumptions about careers
- Using real career stories and personas to normalise diverse and non-linear career pathways
What’s going on here?
Participants described a context of ongoing and often relentless change, with a sense that the system is unlikely to return to a previous “steady state.” Instead, change is becoming a permanent condition rather than a temporary disruption.
This creates tension between short-term survival pressures and the need for longer-term adaptation and improvement. Research leaders are required to operate in environments where priorities shift rapidly, and where there is limited space to pause, reflect, or make sense of change.
There was also recognition that the emotional and cognitive load of constant change is significant, and often underacknowledged.
Actions and Approaches
- Supporting leaders to reframe change as an ongoing condition rather than a temporary phase
- Creating space for reflection and sense-making in the midst of change
- Encouraging open conversations about the emotional impact of change
- Using structured frameworks to slow down thinking and support decision-making
- Building peer support to share experiences and approaches to navigating change
- Promoting a mindset of experimentation and incremental improvement
What’s going on here?
Participants highlighted the significant emotional and cognitive impact of ongoing change on research leaders and those who support them. Rather than being a temporary response to specific events, this impact was described as cumulative, with sustained exposure to uncertainty, pressure, and shifting expectations contributing to fatigue and anxiety.
There was a strong sense that individuals are often expected to absorb and manage this impact themselves, with an implicit expectation of resilience. Participants noted that this can lead to emotional strain, particularly where there is limited clarity, high levels of ambiguity, and pressure to continue performing at a high level.
The emotional cost of this environment was seen to fall disproportionately on those who are highly committed or who take on informal support roles within teams. These individuals often carry significant emotional labour, which is not always recognised or supported.
Participants also highlighted the cognitive load associated with uncertainty, including the challenge of making decisions without complete information and navigating situations where “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Overall, the emotional impact of change was described as an important but often underacknowledged aspect of research leadership in uncertain environments.
Compared to other themes, participants shared relatively few formal tools or resources in this area, with contributions focusing more on lived experience and informal approaches.
Actions and Approaches
- Creating structured spaces for individuals to reflect on and process their experiences of change
- Making the emotional impact of change explicit and open for discussion
- Recognising and supporting those who carry significant emotional and relational labour
- Shifting from a sole focus on individual resilience towards more collective and systemic approaches
- Embedding reflective practice as a regular and expected part of leadership development
- Providing opportunities for shared sense-making through group discussion and peer exchange
- Encouraging realistic expectations about capacity and performance during periods of uncertainty
What’s going on here?
Participants highlighted the importance of building inclusive research environments, alongside significant challenges in achieving this consistently in practice. There was a concern that current systems and structures do not always recognise or value the full range of contributions made by individuals across research ecosystems, particularly those in research-enabling or non-traditional roles.
There was also a perceived risk of losing diverse talent, including neurodiverse individuals, early career researchers, technicians, and professional services staff, due to lack of recognition, limited progression pathways, and structural barriers.
Participants noted that inclusion is not always embedded in leadership development or organisational processes, and that access to opportunities, resources and support is not consistently equitable. Short-term decision-making and internal procedures were also seen to reinforce exclusion rather than support inclusive practice.
Actions and Approaches
- Ensuring leadership development opportunities are accessible and inclusive across all roles and career stages
- Improving clarity and transparency in communication and decision-making processes
- Creating mentoring, coaching and networking opportunities to support inclusion
- Encouraging shared responsibility for inclusive culture across teams and institutions
- Regularly reviewing and evaluating whether inclusion efforts are effective
- Supporting forward planning to ensure inclusive approaches are sustained over time
- Embedding distributed and values-led leadership approaches
What’s going on here?
Participants highlighted significant uncertainty and rapid change associated with digital and AI transformation in research environments. There was a strong sense that research leaders are being asked to engage with new technologies without clear institutional guidance, policy frameworks, or shared understanding of best practice.
Participants described a combination of skills gaps, ethical concerns, and lack of confidence in how to use or challenge AI effectively. The pace of change was seen as particularly challenging, with new tools, expectations, and applications emerging quickly, often outpacing institutional responses.
There was also a perceived pressure to adopt AI tools without sufficient clarity about appropriate use, governance, or impact. This created tensions around issues such as transparency, academic integrity, sustainability, and the evolving expectations of funders.
Overall, participants framed digital and AI transformation as both an opportunity and a source of uncertainty, requiring new capabilities, shared learning, and more coordinated approaches across institutions.
Actions and Approaches
- Developing clearer guidance, policies and frameworks for responsible AI use
- Creating opportunities for open discussion and peer learning to share experiences and approaches
- Providing training and development opportunities at different levels of experience
- Encouraging critical engagement with AI tools, including understanding limitations and risks
- Signposting and curating existing resources to support more consistent approaches
- Supporting research leaders to explore practical use cases and applications
- Building cross-institutional collaboration to share knowledge and reduce duplication