Student Placement: Royal British Legion
Student Profile
Sarah Rabin – King’s Centre of Military Health Research (KCMHR), King’s College London
PhD topic: The health and well-being of UK LGBTQ+ serving and ex-serving military personnel in the post-ban era.
Placement host: Royal British Legion (RBL)
When: February – May 2025
Overview of the placement
Sarah Rabin undertook a three-month internship with the Royal British Legion (RBL), aimed at fostering bidirectional learning between academia and policy. Her placement focused on translating academic research into practical policy recommendations, building networks for dissemination, and gaining insight into how charitable organisations operate within the UK policy landscape.
Key Activities and Contributions
- Policy brief development: internal policy brief synthesising LGBTQ+ military research across the 5EYES countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US and UK). This brief informed RBL’s internal guidance and will also contribute to Sarah’s PhD thesis.
- Data visualisation with PowerBI: Creation of a geographic profile of the Armed Forces Community, learning new software skills and preparing visualisations for future dissemination.
- EDI event organisation: Sarah co-organised a sector-wide Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion event, connecting with key stakeholders and expanding her professional network.
- Public engagement: Sarah attended high-profile events including a Parliamentary celebration of LGBTQ+ military inclusion and contributed to RBL’s social media outreach during Pride Month.
Impact on PhD and career development
Sarah’s placement significantly enhanced her ability to communicate research to non-academic audiences. She gained confidence in writing policy-relevant outputs and taught RBL staff how to interpret statistical data and conduct systematic reviews. The experience also opened potential career pathways beyond academia, with RBL expressing interest in future collaboration and even exploring funding options to retain her post-placement.
Student’s reflections
Sarah strongly recommends the LISS DTP Internship Scheme, especially for students seeking to understand how research gets turned into policy changes. She highlighted the importance of genuine allyship and relationship-building in research with marginalised communities. Her placement not only reinvigorated her PhD journey but also positioned her as a trusted partner within RBL.
The placement learning opportunities were mutual: Sarah showed the policy team how to read statistical analyses and understand research methods, while they helped her write for non-academic audiences.
“At RBL, I was afforded the opportunity to speak directly to policy advisors, who helped me practice writing research outputs in layperson’s terms. I honed my skills translating research into digestible content for non-academic audiences, which I have struggled with thus far in my PhD.”
PhD supervisor’s view
Dr Rachael Gribble noted that the placement was highly beneficial, allowing Sarah to engage directly with policy implementation and develop transferable skills. The experience enriched her understanding of the broader context of her research and supported her professional growth.
“Sarah used her time with the Royal British Legion well and was able to enthusiastically work on a number of work packages directly related to her PhD topic… All in all, a successful placement!!”
What the host said
Ellen O’Connor, Research Manager at RBL, praised Sarah’s professionalism, insight, and collaborative spirit. Her contributions to projects on hearing impairment and LGBTQ+ veterans were particularly impactful, strengthening RBL’s research and policy outputs. Sarah’s involvement left a lasting impression and deepened RBL’s relationship with King’s College London. RBL particularly valued Sarah’s expertise in LGBTQ+ veterans’ issues and her ability to break down complex research findings into clear insights they could use.
