Getting Funded Lessons Perseverance Generosity Transparency
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Dr. Thomas Kador provides three key lessons for getting funded for research projects. The first lesson is to ensure all financial figures add up in the proposal. Second, perseverance is important - one should not give up and should build a track record over time with smaller grants. The third lesson is to talk to people in the field, seek advice, and learn from both successful and unsuccessful previous applications. Transparency in the funding criteria and process can also work to the applicant's advantage. Overall success requires confidence and perseverance according to Marie Curie.
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Getting Funded Lessons Perseverance Generosity Transparency
- 1. 04 February 2014 Some personal lessons for getting funded New Horizons in the Humanities Royal Irish Academy 30 January 2014 Dr Thomas Kador Marie Curie Research Fellow University of Bristol thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 1
- 2. Background • IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholarship in 2003 • Completed PhD at UCD in 2007 • John Hume Institute Post Doc (PRTLI funded) 2008 – 2010 • Commenced Marie Curie IEF at University of Bristol in October 2012 • Various smaller grants throughout Headlines for CV but the real work lies between these lines thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 2
- 4. Lesson 1: Make sure the figures add up thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 4
- 5. Lesson 2: Perseverance • Playing the Long Game • No exit strategy! • Building up a track record (smaller grants etc.) thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 5
- 6. Lesson 2: Perseverance ‘Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.’ (Thomas A. Edison) thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 6
- 7. Lesson 3: Talk to people • Generosity • Misplaced paranoia about plagiarism • Successful applications (or ‘good’ unsuccessful ones provided you have reviewers’ feedback) • Take advice (but with caution) thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 7
- 8. Finally: Transparency • Marie Curie / ERC have set the standard for national funding bodies • Criteria • Scoring • Weighting • Use it to your advantage • Take reviewers’ feedback on board! thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 8
- 9. The last word to the Madame herself… ‘Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained’ (Marie Sklodowska Curie). thomas.kador@bristol.ac.uk 9
Editor's Notes
- Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions
- Durham CARA anecdote full economic costing (FEC) & prohibitive overheadsI have no problem losing out if my application or if CV are not strong enough, but not even getting to make my pitch was frustrating
- We (i.e. researchers) are not like business leaders or entrepreneurs. We don’t start a new venture to make a killing and with a plan of selling it to Google, Microsoft or whoever the highest bidder will be and then retiring to Barbados or investing in the next big thing…Windows of opportunity and need to make a living/feed families etc. but if the project (idea) is good it deserves to be funded but it may take some time to get it right
- Anecdote: MC application & re-application. Durham 2010 89.9% (missed the cut of by 0.1%) 4th reserve panel Bristol 2011 92.5% awardedWe all had practice. PhD not awarded for being the smartest kid in class but for ability to produce an original piece of research in a 80,000 – 100,000 word discussion