2 Forthcoming Grants Factory & ECR Network Events

The following Grants Factory and ECR Network sessions are coming up at the end of the month. Both events are free and all Kent staff are welcome, but do let me know if you intend to come along. Tea/coffee will be available, and there’ll be lunch for the Essential Elements session.

ECR Network: Social Media and Academia

21 November, 14:30-c17:30

Darwin Lecture Theatre 2

Technology is changing the way we access information, and how we communicate. 

Dr Nadine Muller

Nowhere is this more apparent than in academia. Social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and blogging platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress, are increasingly being used to raise profiles, to disseminate research, to increase citations, and to make links with potential collaborators. 

Is it possible to embrace the new technology without compromising your integrity or short-selling your research? Dr Nadine Muller is a Lecturer in English Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University, and has demonstrated how to use social media and blogs effectively. She has written on life as a New Academic, as well as highlighting her own research, and is followed widely on Twitter.

Whilst this session is intended primarily for early career researchers (ECRs), more senior staff who are new to social media are also welcome.

For more information have a look at the notes from her session last year, on the blog.

Grants Factory: Essential Elements of a Good Application

28 November, 12:00-c14:30

Darwin Lecture Theatre 3

Last year's panel

Everyone’s research is different, but successful funding proposals share a number of common elements. Mastering these is essential if your application is going to get the consideration it deserves, no matter how good your underlying research idea is.

This Grants Factory session will look at these, and will provide insights into how to get them right. The speakers come from very different disciplines, but it is this diversity that is their strength: it shows that, whether you’re applying to the AHRC or the BBSRC, the EPSRC or the ESRC, you need to understand the basics.

Prof Mick Tuite (Biosciences, with experience of BBSRC, Wellcome and Levehulme) will start by providing an overview of these ‘essential elements’. Following his talk we’ll break for lunch, and then the remaining time will be a panel session with Mick being joined by colleagues to look at the specifics expectations of different funders. Those taking part include Prof Dominic Abrams (Psychology, with experience of the ESRC), Prof Simon Thompson (Computing, with experience of EPSRC) and Prof Peter Boenisch (Arts, with experience of AHRC).

For more information have a look at the notes from a similar session last year, on the blog.