Going beyond your Comfort Zone

'Create your own method' (Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash)

It is easy to feel like a fraud. As an early-career academic, it is almost part of the job description. Everyone else seems to know more than you. Everyone else is more effective. Everyone else is just, well, better than you. And it won’t be long until you are exposed as the sham you clearly are.

Six Tips on Working from Home - and one of them is actually good

Wigs: a necessity
(Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash)

Like Alice in Wonderland, it feels as if, in the past two weeks, we’ve tumbled into a new world where none of the old rules apply. Gone is the commute, the weekend shopping, and the easy access to toilet rolls. Gone are the crowds, the sport, and the traffic jams. So it’s not all bad.

It’s bewildering, and nowhere more so than in the working environment. Most of us are working from home now, but what does that mean, and how can we do it effectively? Newspapers, blogs and broadcasters have all rushed to offer advice. Here, we summarise the common hints and tips that have emerged.

Seven Steps to Perfect Partnerships

Meshing about (Photo by Kumiko SHIMIZU on Unsplash)

As funders increasingly push for larger, strategic grants through such schemes as the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) and the Industrial Strategy Challenges Fund, research development officers in universities are having to stimulate and support interdisciplinary teams of researchers working together, often for the first time.

This is no easy task. It is something I’ve been grappling with since I started in research development more than a decade ago. It is become more pressing in my new role as director of Eastern Arc, the regional research consortium that brings together the universities of East Anglia, Essex and Kent.

How to Write an Email

Pencils. But at least it's not a stock image
of someone at a computer, right? (Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash)

We’ve all received them: long, rambling emails with a detailed preamble that would make Tolstoy blush, a vaguely officious tone and the main question buried deep in the 32nd paragraph.

Worse still, we’ve all written them. So how do we stop doing it, and get people to read our messages and respond to them?

What Wellcome Wants

Aiming for the bullseye (Photo by Marc A on Unsplash)

On Monday the Wellcome Trust held an information day on the changes to its Humanities and Social Sciences funding portfolio.

Blog Roll

Passion - or frustration - led us here.
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

I started writing my blog, Research Fundermentals, a decade ago. I wanted a way to share information, notes and thoughts across the University of Kent, but also to reach out to other research managers and administrators. In effect, I wanted to ask, ‘is it just me, or…?’

I was inspired by the University of Lincoln’s blog, which is a great example of how to use an online platform effectively to communicate with the wider academic community.

Since then I’ve discovered a whole host of wonderful online resources that help me in my work but, just as importantly, make me realise I’m not alone.

What Lies Beneath

The NPIF in action
(photo andrewmalone via Flickr CC BY 2.0) 

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You've probably heard of a clutch of new, big-ticket funding schemes to be launched recently, including the Strategic Priorities Fund and the the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. What you may not know is that they're all part of the National Productivity Investment Fund. But what is it, and what's the thinking behind it? 

Coping with Rejection

Rejection is an integral part of academic life. Whether you’re applying for jobs or for funding, submitting journal articles or book proposals, or putting yourself forward for promotion, academics need to develop a thick skin in order to survive and thrive.

But rejection need not be crushing. At last month’s Early Career Researcher Network we looked at strategies for overcoming it and support available for coping with it.

The Inside Track on Applying to Leverhulme

Sunlight soap: the beginning of it all (photo: Øklands trykksaker CC BY 2.0)

Academics love the Leverhulme Trust. Other funders may be bigger, or bolder, or more ambitious. But Leverhulme seems to sing the song that academics want to hear. It funds blue skies research without the layers of political varnish. Your work doesn’t have to fit a particular discipline. It doesn’t have to be a collaboration. You don’t have to link with industry, or focus on capacity building.

For Leverhulme, it’s the research, stupid. It funds curiosity-driven research that reflects an individual vision. It disregards disciplinary boundaries. It can take risks. It can fail.

No wonder academics love it.

But what makes it tick? What is it looking for? How does it assess applications? And what are your chances of being funded?

Fundermentals Top Ten 2018

A confused smorgasbord of wonder (photo: Max Pixel CC0)

Every year we make a list, check it twice, and work out who's been naughty and nice. Or at least most read. Which amounts to the same thing, right? 

If you're curious about what was tippermost of the toppermost in previous years, here's the list from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014. Before that, well, you're on your own. 

Here's the lowdown on which articles were most read on Fundermentals this year.

Five Ingredients for a Perfect Research Funding Bid

Five ingredients for a perfect recipe.
Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash

Is there a formula for a successful funding proposal? Not quite, but there are five elements that you should definitely keep in mind when drafting your application. 

What You Need to Know: ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative

Or do you have a better idea about using the data? 
Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash

The ESRC’s Secondary Data Analysis Initiative might not win any awards for ease of verbal articulation, but it does “do exactly what it says on the tin”. Sarah Tetley hears more from Tina Haux about the scheme, and what academics need to do if they want to be successful.

What You Need to Know: Applying for GCRF Funding

Photo by Thomas Young on Unsplash

GCRF is not straightforward: there are important caveats and qualifications that all applicants should be aware of before they tentatively dip their toe in the GCRF waters.

What You Need to Know: How other Countries Assess Research

Two ends of the South African research assessment scale: kak and lekker.
Photo by Greg Bakker on Unsplash

In the UK the REF has become an unavoidable feature of the research landscape. But how do other countries assess research? We look at one example - South Africa - and their very different solution to the same challenge.

Understanding Intellectual Property

Copyright: but what does it mean?
(image: Vlad Podvorny, public domain mark 1.0)

What is intellectual property, and how does it differ from, say, copyright? Here are the basics, in plain English.

Surviving Conference Coffee

Conference coffee: a killer (Image: Max Pixel, CC0)

It's the conference season. It can be a battering and bewildering time for both seasoned delegates and novices alike. How can you make the most of it and not be defeated in the process? Well, avoid the coffee and you're half way there, but we have six more tips that will help you benefit from the experience.

Hidden Gems: Sarcoma UK

Kaposi's sarcoma. As if you didn't know (image: Wellcome CC0)

Sarcoma is a relatively rare disease, making up just 1% of cancer diagnoses annually. The charity Sarcoma UK aims to tackle it, and its grants have an impressive success rate of 22-40% in recent years.

What's on the Horizon?

Cue 'Ode to Joy' (photo: Phil Ward)

A proposal for Horizon Europe, the successor to Horizon 2020, is due to be published on 7 June 2018. However there have been plenty of hints, suggestions and straightforward leaks already, and the current plan is the worst kept secret ever. So what do we know so far? Well, unless there are significant changes in the next couple of weeks, here are the seven take home points.

Top Tips for International Collaboration

Globetrotting (image: Kenneth Lu, CC BY 2.0)

There’s never been a more important time to hear from academics with overseas experience. At a time when it feels as if many countries—including the UK—are becoming more isolationist and inward looking, it pays to reflect on what they have to say.

Ian McLoughlin, head of computing at the University of Kent’s Medway campus, is one example, “I spent 18 years working abroad,” he said, when he spoke to the Global Challenges and Newton Fund workshop at the university recently, “and it was the highlight of my career.” He is evangelical about the benefit and worth of collaborating internationally.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Downtown Brussels. Help is just a phonecall away (photo: Elliott Brown)

With the news that the UK's participation until the end of H2020 has been secured, now is the time to dust off your proposal and get working for the deadlines in the early months of next year - and beyond. But do you need help with preparing it, or questions about the detail? There is a network of national contact points (NCPs) who can help you. It is sometimes hard to track these down, so here they are, in cut-out-and-keep form: