The challenge of managing the research process: initial ideas to cocreated new knowledge

This article reflects on the experiences of a PGR leading a Research England funded project that commenced in summer 2022. The project is being carried out under the auspices of the University of Leeds Research Culture Crucible. The project remains ongoing and focuses on how best to support teachers to engage with professional development (PD). The main activities from which data has been sourced were three online roundtable discussions, each held in July 2022, supported by pre- and post-event surveys. However, the focus of this article is not the research itself but the process of bidding for funds, planning for and undertaking the initial research, and building on that research, leading to newly co-created meaning and avenues of investigation. For example, the researcher led a discussion about the project at the AEA-Europe Annual Conference in November 2022, and is now developing 10 case studies of successful teacher engagement with PD, based on the original findings.