The situation
ELEAD (the ELIXIR LEadership And Diversity mentoring programme) had to present its key achievements for the ELIXIR Annual Report – read by policymakers, European Commission officials, ELIXIR’s Board and internal leadership.
The first draft was accurate and thorough. It listed the year’s activities and milestones within the word count, and it was genuinely useful to the people running the programme. But it didn’t target the report’s primary audience: it read as a list of things done, not as evidence of impact or a case for continued funding of a key diversity programme.
The fix wasn’t more words – it was a change of view. The team rewrote it to be easy to skim and to surface the information that matters to people shaping policy and making funding decisions.
Before – a list of activities
Read the original version
ELEAD 2.0 opened in February 2025 a new call for participants with feedback from the community. The first half of 2025 focused on the preparation of the call launch, including the Guidelines of the ELEAD 2.0 programme and the Delivery of info session, completing the List of trainers and scheduled sessions, the selection of the List of mentees and mentors and the corresponding Pairing of mentees with mentors. The ELEAD SAB were briefed about the plans and their inputs were also incorporated. The 17 selected mentees and mentors participated in the initial trainings (F2F and remote), which marked the start of the second ELEAD cohort before the AHM in 2025.
As part of the effort to have the wider ELIXIR network benefit from ELEAD, a workshop at the AHM in 2025 collected, dissected and organised information on other women leadership initiatives in Europe, with the aim to support the creation of similar programmes at the node levels. Further, in 2025 ELEAD also conducted the Structured interviews/surveys with ELEAD pilot participants to evaluate impact. The first Diversity training for the entire ELIXIR network and remote trainings to mentees were also delivered in the second half of 2025.
After – an impact story
Consolidated as a leadership programme ELEAD 2.0 moved beyond the pilot phase, informed by evidence, participant feedback and community input. Updated guidelines strengthened the mentoring and leadership training model, and the delivery of a second cohort confirmed ELEAD’s viability as an intervention supporting gender-balanced leadership.
Expanded training to the wider ELIXIR ELEAD expanded its training beyond cohort participants in response to direct community demand. This embedded wellbeing, diversity, inclusion and resilience as shared infrastructure priorities rather than individual concerns.
Demonstrated early impact through an impact report The ELEAD Impact Report presented early evidence of impact through four in-depth personal case studies, showing how structured leadership training, mentoring and peer networks contributed to increased leadership confidence, strengthened cross-Node relationships, career progression and early organisational benefits.
Became a reference model for local investment and replication Nodes have used ELEAD as a success case when justifying local investment in leadership, mentoring and diversity initiatives. Uptake at Node level provided concrete indicators of sustainability and transferability beyond the centrally funded ELIXIR project.
Why the rewrite works
- It leads with outcomes, not process. Each point is a change that happened (“became a reference model”), not a task that was completed (“ran a workshop”).
- It’s skimmable. Bold sub-headings let a busy reader get the whole story in fifteen seconds – exactly how policymakers read (see Section 6: Writing for Non-Writers).
- It speaks to the audience’s decision. The Board and funders are looking for evidence of value and sustainability; the rewrite hands them exactly that.
- Same facts, different frame. Nothing was invented. The activities are still there – they’re just told as the story of what they achieved.