This research brief explores the pragmatics of implementing conflict-sensitive applied research in violence-affected contexts, an approach integrating local context and stakeholders into research strategies to minimize negative impacts and enhance positive outcomes. Emphasizing the dynamic interplay of communicative, relational, and bureaucratic factors, the study delves into how these elements can either enable or impede the effectiveness of conflict-sensitive approaches on the ground. It illustrates this with examples of communicative barriers, the gatekeeping of access to target communities by local stakeholders and the importance of institutional relationships for project implementation. Moreover, it presents three separate strategies for collaboration across multiple organisations, a major institutional challenge for conflict-sensitive applied research.