+ 'Turning ideas into proposals'

– An intensive one day workshop to enable individual researchers with an emerging research idea to develop this in to a draft proposal.

+ 'Planning for your first fellowship'

– A one day workshop to provide an overview of what fellowships are, what funders are looking for, how to start planning your proposal and developing yourself and your ideas so that you are ready to start writing.

+ Fellowship Academy Programme

– A 6-part programme tailored to your needs which takes a cohort of 6-8 participants through the process of preparing to apply for a fellowship. Typically we include workshops on developing a fellowship proposal, developing and marketing leadership skills, one to one coaching on fellowship preparation, peer review and mock panel interviews.

+ One to one coaching for standard proposals and fellowships

– I offer coaching to provide targeted one to one support for individuals preparing a fellowship application or interview, with a particular focus on leadership. For fellowships, a great research idea is not enough: demonstrating convincing research leadership is crucial for securing support. Previous clients have found that our coaching sessions have directly enabled them to recognise and have confidence in their leadership skills and to go on to impress fellowship panels at interview.

+ Feedback on draft Research Proposals

– All proposals require robust feedback both on the research excellence, but also their impact on a non-technical audience. The review panel will not be experts in your field and your proposal must impress them as well as an expert reviewer. Using a team of research funding experts, I offer a non-technical review and feedback package. This can either be done face to face, via skype or simply by providing written commentary on a proposal.

+ Peer review and mock panel workshops

– These workshops will be tailored to suit your objectives and according to the resources and expertise available in your institution. There are three main formats: 1. particpants submit a draft proposal, then peer review each others proposals following a research panel format. 2. Participants form a peer review panel to assess example proposals that have previoulsy been through a real review process. The participants then compare their views with those of the official panel. 3. Participants submit a draft proposal which they present for Q&A and feedback to a group of invited reviewers who have prior experience of sitting on panels.

+ Research sandpits

Research sandpits are a stimulating and productive way in which to foster new research projects across disciplines. A typical sandpit will bring together a group of multi-disciplinary researchers and stakeholders with different perspectives on a specified topic.

During the course of the sandpit, colleagues will be encouraged to network and understand each other’s expertise and perspectives, whilst working together to determine the big challenges, the potential research questions and to build small research teams and creative research proposals. At the end of the sandpit there will be several cross-discipline teams with proposals for genuine new research projects.

Depending on your objectives the sandpits may last between 1 and 5 days and can be residential.

+ Tailored collaboration and partnership building workshop

I offer a range of one day workshops that enable you to develop existing partnerships with collaborators, or to establish new connections with other researchers or external partners. Using a varity of techniques to encourage networking, disucssion and idea generation and decision making, each day will be designed to suit your needs and to engage your participants in a meaningful way.

Take a look at the Case Studies for further details.

+ Research away-days and meetings

Expertly designed and facilitated away-days for your research group, department or faculty. These are days designed to help you to take time out to refocus, address challlenges or set new goals and vision for your research practices and processes. These can also be combined with focus groups and interviews if you wish to address any particular team challenges in depth.