Leadership
development for the
health & medical research sector

Strengthening leadership capability to drive collaboration, innovation, and impact in complex research environments.

We partner with leading organisations across health and medical research, supporting leadership development, mentoring, and sponsorship initiatives that strengthen collaboration, capability, and impact.

Trusted by top executives across global organisations

The current context in health & medical research

Health and medical research organisations operate at the intersection of scientific excellence, funding pressure, and real-world impact.

Leaders are navigating increasing competition for funding and investment, growing pressure to translate research into measurable clinical or societal outcomes, and the need for cross-disciplinary and cross-institution collaboration. They are doing so against a backdrop of rapid advances in science and technology, and rising expectations around diversity, inclusion, and representation in research leadership.

This creates an environment where leadership must extend beyond technical expertise to enable collaboration, influence, and strategic focus.

What this means for leaders

Leading in more complex and interconnected ways

Leaders in this sector are often highly specialised experts, now required to lead in more complex and interconnected ways.

They must be able to influence across research, clinical, and commercial stakeholders, lead multidisciplinary teams with deep technical expertise, and balance scientific integrity with funding and organisational priorities. Increasingly, they are expected to build partnerships across institutions, industry, and government, and to create clarity and direction in environments defined by uncertainty.

Developing these capabilities is critical to enabling both scientific impact and organisational performance.

How we work with the health & medical research sector

We design and deliver leadership development solutions tailored to the realities of research environments.

Our work typically focuses on supporting researchers transitioning into leadership roles and strengthening collaboration across disciplines and institutions, while building the leadership capability to influence and engage diverse stakeholders.

We deliver this through leadership programs, mentoring, and sponsorship initiatives, executive coaching, and targeted workshops. As a digitally enabled consultancy, all Serendis leadership development programs are supported through our proprietary platform, MentorKey. This extends learning beyond workshops and coaching, embedding development into the flow of work. Leaders are prompted to reflect, apply insights in real time, and track their progress over time, ensuring capability is reinforced, sustained, and embedded into day-to-day leadership practice.

Our work typically focuses on:

  • Supporting researchers transitioning into leadership roles
  • Strengthening collaboration across disciplines and institutions
  • Building leadership capability to influence and engage diverse stakeholders
  • Designing mentoring and sponsorship programs to support diverse talent pipelines
  • Enhancing leadership effectiveness in high-stakes, outcome-driven environments

We deliver this through an integrated suite of services, including leadership development programs, mentoring and sponsorship initiatives, executive coaching, and tailored leadership team facilitation.

As a digitally enabled consultancy, all Serendis development programs are supported through our proprietary platform, MentorKey. This extends learning beyond workshops and coaching sessions, embedding development into the flow of work.

Leaders are prompted to reflect, apply insights in real time, and track their progress over time, ensuring capability is reinforced, sustained, and embedded into day-to-day leadership practice.

Talk with our team about your organisation’s needs.

Contact us

Leadership advisory grounded in health & medical research experience

Our work in this sector is informed by deep experience partnering with leading research institutes and health-focused organisations, including those across academic research, medical research institutes, and government-funded bodies.

We understand the balance required between scientific excellence, collaboration, and delivery of outcomes. This grounding ensures our programs are practical, relevant, and aligned to the realities leaders face, enabling us to work as credible partners who strengthen capability and support sustained performance and outperformance.

Organisations we work with typically see:

  • Stronger cross-disciplinary collaboration
  • Increased leadership confidence in influencing and stakeholder engagement
  • Greater alignment between research priorities and organisational objectives
  • Enhanced ability to lead high-performing, expert teams
  • Improved capacity to translate research into meaningful outcomes

Insights

Explore insights for leaders shaping high-performing, inclusive organisations. Discover blogs, podcasts, videos, webinars and guides grounded in practical experience and current leadership thinking.

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INCLUSION

The Diversity Dilemma: Why a new approach is needed for real inclusion

Maud Lindley's perspective on the current diversity and inclusion discussion.

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INCLUSION

Julie Washington, Director, Serendis Leadership

How can our mentors help us break free from limiting beliefs and see the world in new ways? This question is the core of Maud’s conversation with Julie Washington, Director of Talent Development at Serendis Leadership, who is “living the dream” with her role in shaping the leaders of tomorrow. The impact that a great mentor has on their mentee stems from understanding that the world is not black and white.

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MENTORING & SPONSORSHIP

Whitepaper: The Measurable Impact of Serendis Structured Mentoring Programs

This whitepaper goes beyond the vanity metrics, to expore the real impact of mentoring on organisations.

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WHY COMPANIES PARTNER WITH SERENDIS

"The greatest benefit from the program was the thoughtful matching. I have been challenged to think deeply about my role and what are the important key factors/considerations when looking into the future in terms of personal and career growth and roles. The workshop days were a fantastic benefit giving me breathing space to think and meet new people. Connecting with people in similar / yet different situations balancing career and life was also reassuring."

Participant, Franklin Women Mentoring Program