Starting New Research Projects and Building Collaborations Slides

1. Starting New Research
Programs and Building
Collaborations
Prof. Michael Wysession
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri 63130
USA
Cutting Edge Early Career Workshop
Washington, DC
July-Aug, 2013

2. Relevant Professional Service:
• Editor of Geophysical
Journals
• NSF Panel Reviewer

3. Research theme:______________________
Topic A:
New or Continuing
Available Resources: Needed Resources:
Plans for obtaining facilities or instruments
Stage 1: Development
Stage 2: Implementation
Stage 3: Dissemination
Plans for recruiting students and
collaborators
Writing Proposals
Beginning Field Work or
Setting Up Laboratory
Conducting Research
Initial Presentations
Student Projects
Formal PublicationsWeb Sites
Independent Studies
Honors & M.S. Theses
Ph.D. Dissertations
New
Research
Ideas?
Creating a Strategic Plan
for Research
What to
do if not
funded?

4. Build a Portfolio of Grants
1. Mixture of types
• Federal vs. private foundations vs. industry
• Instrumentation (do as a research “group”?)
• Student support
• Collaborations (etc.)
2. Use smaller grants to
• Build your experience & capabilities
• Collect preliminary data
• Build confidence/credibility in your capabilities
• (Typical award size of a „new investigator‟ project is
not as large as that of veterans, but may have higher
success rate)
3. Set realistic goals for # & type of proposal submission.
Think about what you NEED to run your lab/research

5. Choose a Project Carefully
1. Make sure that your topic is of broad importance
 Don‟t choose a topic that is so narrowly defined that
it is only of interest to you
2. “More of the same” doesn‟t sound very fund-worthy
3. It takes as much time to do research on a problem of
low importance/interest as one that is of high
interest/importance (your time is limited!!)
4. However, don‟t aim too big; don‟t claim to answer
questions that your experiments/models could never
actually resolve.
 The topic needs to be solvable given your
experience/capabilities/expertise

6. Choose a Project Carefully
5. Do your research to find out what is being done in this
field (it is embarrassing to write a proposal for
something that someone else is already doing or has
done!)
6. Go to meetings to see the latest work and who the
major players in the field are (This also helps to inform
your Bibliography!)
7. Cultivate interesting and important ideas
• Collect ideas (keep a Notes page open)
• Allow TIME for choosing research topics, winnowing
and sorting, revision and improvement (START
EARLY!)
8. Consider institutional/departmental expectations and/or
strengths

7. Choose a Project Carefully
9. Consider a collaboration
• Collaborative grants, in additional to having the potential
to do things that individuals could not, can be very
enjoyable and rewarding (it is possible to have friends
who are collaborators! “frorks”)
• Senior colleague? (there are pros and cons)
• (Example: My Madagascar project)

8. Choose a Project Carefully
10. Foster a Community
• If you find people doing work that is similar to yours or
what you want to do, contact them
• Perhaps you can write a collaborative grant – do you
have skills or background that would be helpful to them?
• They might be at your own institution or at another
• Ask for copies of their papers (and maybe even
proposals)
• Invite them to your institution/department to give a
presentation
• Serve on professional committees and panels
• Go to small workshops (e.g., Gordon conferences)
• Go to smaller functions at big meetings (i.e., AGU)

9. Stake Your Claim
1. Let people know what you are doing!
• Reviewers, panel members, and program directors
should know of your work
2. Blow your own horn (at the right time and in “tune”, of
course)
• Publish papers, write proposals
3. Balance your time spent on activities that are
complementary to your research and help maintain your
reputation as an expert (reviewing proposals and
publications, organizing workshops, presenting papers
at meetings, being a journal editor, professional
committees and boards, public outreach, popular media
such as interviews for magazines or newpapers, etc.).

10. Professional Synergy
(i.e., Reusing and Recycling)
1. Build upon your previous papers to write your proposals
• but they have to be incorporated and edited so that
they entirely fit in the new context
2. Use parts of your proposal in your future papers
(e.g., Introduction, Data and Methods, Reference
list, Figures)
3. Align your teaching with your research when possible
• Try a graduate or senior undergraduate seminar on
the topic
4. Align your advising with your research when possible
• e.g., senior thesis; class assignments

11. Plan Ahead
1. Make Plans: Regularly set aside time to carry out
“strategic planning” for your career, without being
distracted by the little things.
• The saying, “Take care of the little things and the big
things will take care of themselves” – is not true!
• Better to say, If you don‟t steer a car, you will drive off
the road (and you will certainly never get where you
want to go)
2. Set goals for where you want your research to go, and
identify what is needed to make it happen, otherwise
your career will drift wherever chance takes it.

12. Plan Ahead
3. Chance can be a great thing, but be prepared to seize
the moment when it does
• “Chance favors the prepared”
• “Luck is spelled W-O-R-K”
• There are no coincidences. There is only
preparation.
4. Most brain capacity is untapped
• (Analogy of extreme human memory)
• “Bourne syndrome”
• Train yourself to be mindful

13. 5. Have a short-term “To Do” list (deadlines, letters of
recommendation, paper/proposal reviews, class
preparation, committee work, etc.) and a long-term “To
Do” list (research
projects, papers, proposals, collaborations, etc.)
6. Strategic Planning  “SWOT”
• What are the
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats to your research
• Actually writing these out helps to keep them clear
• Identify the Critical Success Factors that have to
happen for you to meet your research goals
Plan Ahead

14. 1. Mentor Mindfully: Try to assess what motivates the
students/staff who work for you.
• Is it a carrot or a stick? Tailor your mentoring
accordingly.
2. Assess Their Strengths: Are your students/staff good
at theory? Obtaining data? Modeling data?
Programming? Writing? Tailor the tasks you give them
accordingly.
• (This goes for you, too.)
Develop a Team

15. 1. Mentoring a Student Changes over time: At first you
may need to monitor closely, set multiple short
tasks, meet often. As they learn, you can give them
more responsibility.
2. Develop a Critical Mass: Students often learn best
from each other. It is good if you can reach a critical
mass, where students/staff are teaching and learning
from each other.
3. Monitor Closely: Even if a student is doing well, you
still want them following your direction and not drifting.
Let them explore and find new avenues, but keep a
close watch on them.
• And know when to cut them loose.
Develop a Team

16. 1. Have a Variety of Projects: Follow some areas of
research that have long goals and some with short
ones.
• If one gets stalled for external reasons (unavailable
equipment, unavailable data, incomplete theory)
you can focus on another until the time is right for
the first project.
• This will also give you multiple ideas for multiple
student research projects.
• This will also ensure that you can be writing up
papers (on the short-term goals) while you are
working on the long-term projects.
Diversify Your Research Portfolio

17. 2. But Don‟t Spread Yourself Too Thin: “A jack of all
trades is a master of none”
• It is important for you to be recognized as an expert
in some area(s), so that when people think of that
topic, they think of you (and invite you to give
talks, submit papers, etc.).
• It is helpful to branch out into other areas, but do
not lose your reputation in your main field.
Diversify Your Research Portfolio

18. Do the Research That You Like To Do:
1. After all, you only get to do all of “this” once, so you
might as well enjoy it.
2. You will do a better job. You will be more willing to
put in the effort and hours needed to make it
successful and convince others that your research
is worthwhile. (Story of “Little, Big”)
Enjoy What You Do

19. Forbes
Magazine
(from
Careercast.com)

20. “Since writing the above piece I have received more than 150
comments, many of them outraged, from professors who say their
jobs are terribly stressful. While I characterize their lives as full of
unrestricted time, few deadlines and frequent, extended
breaks, the commenters insist that most professors work upwards
of 60 hours a week preparing lectures, correcting papers and
doing research for required publications in journals and books.
Most everyone says they never take the summer off, barely get a
single day‟s break for Christmas or New Year‟s and work almost
every night into the wee hours.
.
.
All of that said, to me the most striking thing about the comments
I received is the fact that so many professors write that while they
find their jobs stressful, they are deeply satisfied and happy in
their work. This comment from David Perry is typical: “I love my
job. It‟s definitely deeply rewarding. But the stresses are intense
and the workload never ending.” (Susan Adams, Forbes staff)

21. Approach Your Research Plans
Mindfully
How do you establish priorities for your research?