Developing policy networks with the Future of Human Reproduction team

Joining the team

Before joining the Future of Human Reproduction, I had been working with Professor Stephen Wilkinson on his previous Wellcome-funded project, 'The Transfer and Donation of Human Reproductive Materials'. When FoHR was funded, I applied for the Research Associate role and went through the full interview process, moving from my PhD into the position.

My research contributions

I was involved in quite a lot during the project. From the very beginning, the work involved helping the whole team build shared foundations through what we called 'discipline busting' workshops. I helped to organise and contributed to these workshops, introducing the team to different reproductive technologies including ectogenesis and IVG.

We secured funding to run a workshop with the Nuffield Council on Bioethics exploring the ethical and policy issues raised by IVG. This resulted in collaborative outputs including a policy briefing and Nuffield report on IVG. We then went on to secure funding to hold a second, larger event on IVG. This resulted in an international IVG Ethics and Policy symposium held in Leiden, Netherlands. I was involved in organising and contributing to these events and co-drafted the reports. This IVG work is what I'm most proud of as it took a lot of work in the build-up and is a topic of research that I’m continuing to explore along with colleagues such as Professor Sara Fovargue, with whom I recently co-organised an embryo and liminal entities workshop after successfully being awarded an ESRC Impact Accelerator Award at Sheffield. This work means we can actually have meaningful contributions to conversations by regulators and people with the chance to change things when it comes to thinking about how legal systems adapt to these novel biotechnologies. The relationships I've made along the way are also paying off for me now. For example, last year I was invited to be a member of the Oversight Group for the Public Dialogue project Nuffield is currently undertaking as part of its 14-day rule project.

During my time as a Research Associate on the project at Lancaster, Sara and I ran a discipline hopping workshop on law for the wider team. I also co-organised and co-led a Current Topic stream at the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) conference with Dr Nicola Williams in 2023 and with Dr Nicola Williams, Professor Sara Fovargue and Professor Stephen Wilkinson again in 2025. We proposed the stream because we'd started working in this area and recognised there was substantial work to discuss – it was a way to share what we were doing and bring others working in the same space into the conversation.

I also acted as the law point of contact for the project's legal visiting researchers, Dr Elizabeth Chloe Romanis and Dr Victoria Adkins, which involved reviewing blog posts, chairing seminar sessions, and giving a short scholarly response to their work.

Skills and confidence I developed

Thinking about what I have now that I didn't have before joining FoHR, in terms of skills and experience, the most significant gain is a well-established and continually growing network of collaborators, policy influencers, and stakeholders. That network simply didn't exist before this project. One of the clearest signs of its value is an invitation to join the Oversight Group for the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' public dialogue project on the 14-day rule.

I’ve also started to develop a media profile alongside that network. Through my work on both projects, I'm now on an expert database shared across radio stations. Whenever stories come out – normally around uterus transplantation – I'll get an email or WhatsApp message asking if I can come on the radio and talk about it.

The biggest lesson has been about collaboration itself. Working on an interdisciplinary project means being prepared to break out of your disciplinary silo and recognise that you don't know everything and the value of exploring issues from other perspectives. Having multiple people work together produces a better end product – whether that's a paper, a policy briefing, or teaching materials. Collaboration is an approach I now carry into everything, including my teaching at Sheffield.

In terms of specific skills, my approach to writing has improved considerably through co-writing with others on the project. I was in quite a different position to the other RAs because my PhD was on uterine transplantation, so the reproductive technology content wasn't new to me. But the knowledge I've gained from other disciplines – speculative design from Dr Andy Darby, corpus linguistics from Dr Alexandra Krendel – has been completely new and genuinely exciting.

Where I am now and what's next

I'm now a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield, where I teach on a research-led module covering IVG and embryo models – so my FoHR research feeds directly into the classroom.

What I'm keen to do next is capitalise on the networks we've built. Sara and I are determined to ensure the energy and discussions from previous workshops translate into outputs.

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  Meet FoHR's Early Career Researchers: Dr Alexandra Krendel

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