What are the most important things to know when starting up your own independent research group in academia? While the authors of this presentation set up their groups in another, more generous era, there are lessons they learned which have stood the test of time (better than their hair).

1. Roderick McInnes
Alva Chair in Human Genetics,
Director, Lady Davis Institute, McGill
Acting President, CIHR
Dalhousie CIP Retreat, April 6, 2017
The 19 Things You Have To Do
To Succeed In Research
Presentation to CHIRM, June 13, 2017, mentor/mentee meeting
Note, Rod McInnes lent me some slides from his original presentation (below)
- these are marked “RM”

2. What’s in a life of research?
• The chance to make a difference
• The chance to discover a fact of nature
• Every day is utterly different
• The joy of continuous learning
• The pleasure of working with a team
RM

3. What do you need to succeed?
RM
Mentorship starts with a question:

4. Why is your Start Up phase important?
h-index over time
After first 5 pubs, trajectory
relatively consistent
The exception
First 5 years of
independence often most
productive
h-indexh-indexh-indexh-index
h-indexh-indexh-indexh-index
year
year
year
year
year
year
yearyear

5. Twitter Poll on Start Up $
0
150
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600
750
1992 1996 2001 2004 2006 2007 2009
$K
@jwoodgett

6. Twitter Poll on Start Up $
0
150
300
450
600
750
1992 1996 2001 2004 2006 2007 2009
$
Dry Lab3DSIMWet lab
$ $
$
$
$
$
$
$

7. Negotiation Tips
• Be reasonable - build a list of equipment and ask what is accessible/can be shared.
Understand the environment you are entering, inc. policies
• Be prepared to write grants to support equipment (CFI, etc) - but secure guarantee
• Don’t over engineer what you likely won’t use & remember the small stuff & service
contracts
• Lab size & layout - possibilities for expansion?
Split into infrastucture/operating/people
Infrastructure:

8. • Depends on type of lab but rules of thumb:
• Wet lab: ~$16K per person/year
• If mouse lab, add $2-3K
• Dry lab: ~$5K per person/year
• Include software seats
Operating

9. • 3-4 people: e.g. postdoc, technician, student
• Negotiate for 2-3 years but be prepared to cede one to each grant
• Can be in form of student stipends/fellowships
• Technician is critical hire (3 months probation)
• May not be eligible to recruit PhD student initially, dependent on
rules of department (may be able to “co-supervise”)
Personnel

10. • A start up budget is like an ancient grant budget (when salaries, equipment,
consumables, were all eligible expenses)
• Consider your start up as grant zero
• Build it by thinking about what you need to do in advance of & to enable your
first grant
• You get one shot. It looks bad to go back & ask for changes. Moving money
between the elements is OK but ask permission
• A start up budget buys time but it’s value immediately drops (like driving a
new car off a lot)
• Clawback (on awarded grant) is OK. It will be remembered & helps next
recruit (your new colleagues)

11. • Departments want/need you to succeed. Build your budget from bottom up. Don’t start
with a target number. You’ll lose credibility without justification/priorities
• Your departmental assessment at ~5 years (often with intermediate checks) depends on
many factors but don’t:
• grow too fast OR try to protect start-up for a rainy day
• Share and collaborate within and without dept.
• Be a good citizen (dept duties) but realize these don’t substitute for your scientific
productivity.

12. Supporting Your Team
• Grants: show independence, recognition by peers, competitiveness, etc. But
are only means to an end (grants /= good science)
• Don’t submit prematurely, have your grants read by peers, read your peers
grants, get on panels/review other grants
• Plan ahead (deadlines, preliminary data, awareness of opps, etc)
• Look for small, targeted grants as well as the bigger ones (RFPs, etc)
• Encourage your trainees to write for studentships and fellowships
• Publish…….
• 5 years goes by in an instant

13. • Be aware of pending changes in grant programs
• especially CIHR (Project & Foundation)
• but all grants frequently change their eligibility & requirements (LOI, ROI, etc.)
• Keep CV up to date, build ResearcherID & ORCID files
• Keep web profile up to date (reviewers often browse)
- I am guilty of not doing this…
Grants

14. Work in Institutions with Great
Scientific Cultures
# 1
RM

15. Some components
Supportive: Strong formal mentoring
Excellence: An absolute belief in it
Professionalism: In everything you do
Civility: It’s fun to come to work
Collaboration: Learning from others
In research, culture is everything
RM

16. The Role of Mentors
# 2
RM

17. Mentors
• Two types:
- Career mentors: Senior/junior collegues
- Topic mentors : could be several
• Good fit with you - personally
• Respected
• Accessible
• Listen and act on their good advice
• Ignore their bad advice (no one is perfect)
RM

18. Know thyself
# 3
Am I smart enough?
Recognize your intellectual & personal strengths
and weaknesses
RM

19. Is my research question important?
• If you can’t tell the lawyer next door why it’s
important, either it isn’t or, more likely….
Work only on important (and interesting) questions
# 4
RM

20. 1. It’s mainly about getting the job done, well
2. There is no necessary relationship between
intelligence and judgement, or intelligence and
achievement
There’ll always be someone smarter than you!
So what!
3. Don’t obsess with competitors/new papers/
presenting unpublished work
RM

21. • Write well (compelling, narrative, write to where the reviewer is)
• Speak well in formal & informal settings (practice)
• Communicate well at all levels (never know who is in audience)
• Leadership/management skills (usually mislearnt on the job)
#6. Core skills for research
RM

22. Write well – in english
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/27491.html
(from 2013 so a little dated on programs but principles are spot on)

23. Also, Physician-Scientist Workforce Working
Group Report (just released):
https://acd.od.nih.gov/documents/reports/PSW_
Report_ACD_06042014.pdf

24. Most grants & papers are rejected!
• Recognize that failure is part of the process
- most grants are not funded, not most investigators
- learn from journal and grant rejections but don’t take it
personally
RM

25. # 9. Be willing to go your own way
If you’re on a bandwagon,
you’re already not there first RM
(Not sure that Rod noticed
the rails as a clue others had
been this way)

26. • “In the fields of observation, chance favors only
the prepared mind” - Louis Pasteur
#11. Be prepared
- Sir Alexander Fleming
RM

27. “Discovery consists of seeing what
everyone else has seen, and thinking
what no one else has thought”
- Albert Szent Györgyi (Nobel Laureate)
RM

28. Be an expert in an area, and known for it,
but….
#14. Focus
RM

29. #15. Be “mutable” during your career
➢ Be opportunistic
➢ Don’t hesitate to enter new areas but
don’t dilute yourself
- you can get stale, and stop thinking
- change is rejuvenating, for you & your team
- reviewers get tired of the same old thing
➢ Go where your research takes you
RM

30. No one is outstanding at everything
Different groups of successful researchers
- doers
- organizers
- thinkers
- imaginers
- experimentalists
RM

31. Work – Life balance is critical
• If you’re doing research 10-12 hr a day, most
days
- you’re brain dead
- you’re not really getting it done
- you’re incredibly inefficient
- you’re not happy
- in the lab, you’re a safety risk
RM

32. • The mess at CIHR is being cleaned up but no amount of good policy can
rescue the agency without new investment.
• The Naylor panel report on fundamental science made 35 recommendations
(30 too many).
• On funding, it recommended a 30% increase in tricouncil $ over 4 years at
cost of $1.3 billion. This would return buying power to 2007/8 levels.
• Government has competing priorities and likely believes science is now in
good hands.
• The 2018 Federal budget will be largely baked by the Fall. Now is the time to
engage with elected representatives.
• http://www.acechr.ca/summerofsciencecan.html #SummerofScienceCAN
One More Thing…