On writing for research funding
with Prof. Roger Barker
Prof. Roger Barker talks about his approach to seeking research funding and what he has learned over the years as a reviewer of research grant and fellowships applications.
About Roger
Prof. Roger Barker is a clinician working as Professor of Clinical Neuroscience on Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. Roger is Honorary Consultant in Neurology at the University of Cambridge and at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He trained at Oxford and London and has been in his current position since 2000, after completing an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship. He is the Director of the “Pluripotent stem cells and engineered cells” hub of the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform.
Find Roger here:
https://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?barker
Words of wisdom
o Have clarity of what you really want to do when you start writing for research funding.
o It is easy to let yourself be driven by what you think the funders want to hear and to end up writing applications that are just over-squeezed into the frame of a funder. This is likely to not help your application.
o Being overambitious with a funding application is a mistake often observed. Remember to really ask yourself whether what you are proposing is realistic to achieve.
o Identifying what you really want to do with your research project is incredibly critical as you will need much perseverance and resilience to access research funding.
o Pilot data are there to provide evidence to the reviewers that you can do the work that you are proposing, and that the techniques are adequate to answer your research question.
o Your proposal needs a hypothesis (testable and interesting)- that is the research question you want to answer- and some clear aims, which are the approaches you are going to take to answer your question.
o Clarity of narrative
o Simplicity of ideas
o Don’t smother your reader with details and technical language.
o Be cautious with over-the-top and exaggerated language when presenting why your project is important.
o Do not attempt to write proposals in a rush; you need to give yourself the time to spot the problems and get plenty feedback from multiple sources.
o Resilience in research funding can be helped by reviewing in depth failed applications through conversations with the research team; critical feedback and panel reviewers may help you develop a much better project than you had originally planned.
o Put yourself in the shoes of the reviewers. You want them to understand quickly and easily what it is that you want to do and what the big question you want to address is.
o If those providing feedback are not critical enough, seek other harsher critics, so that their inputs really challenge your thinking about your proposal.
My meandering reflections and some ideas for you to ponder based on my discussion with Roger
When seeking to collaborate
o Collaborations are relationships that you need to nurture
o Avoid “false marriages” in collaboration- you need to bring into your project the “right” collaborator for your project.
o “Sometimes well-intentioned collaborations don’t work”
o Collaborators need to have their own identity in a project. They need to know exactly what it is that they bring and what their roles are in the team.
o Building trust with your collaborators will mean:
- Communicating well
- Developing trust
- Being transparent with what you are doing
- Keeping people informed and on board
Are you ready to develop your own research project for a research fellowship?
If you are, have early conversations with your Principal Investigator so that you both have clarity about the research you want to take forward. Your research fellowship project will need to be faithful with what you have done during your PhD/ Postdoc, but will need to become distinct from what your previous supervisor is focusing on. Take what you have learned and channel it to a related area that you will make your own. Your next independent project is likely to need to be at the periphery to what your supervisor/ PI is working on. No need to make any assumptions about what your PI may want or not. Just have the conversations as early as you can, so that you both understand what you are seeking to pursue.
From a well-funded research lab to setting up your own group
As a Postdoc, you may not have yet been much involved in the financial aspect of running a research group. So, when you get started in setting up your own research team, the financial element of running a research group may come as a shock to the system!
Improving research culture
Discussing what belongs to whom in research
Postdocs may worry about the conversations they need to have with their PIs about what is next for their Postdocs projects. Postdocs will make projects their own and may want to develop fellowship proposals on the basis of some of the work done during their postdoctoral time. If you are a PI, make it easy for them to have these conversations, initiate them early on by asking them about their intentions and interest in continuing projects. You need to let them know if there are areas that you want your own research group to carry on working on, but open the doors for them to know what you are happy for them to build on.
Generosity with research ownership
Depending on the career stage of a PI, there is probably a difference in the ability of academics to let Postdocs take ownership of research project post- funded period. If you are a fairly recent PI who is starting to recruit Postdocs, you may want to ask yourself early on about your intentions regarding the continuation of research projects. If you are working with a Postdoc, at which point in their contract and in the project, will you initiate conversations to address where the project will lead at the end of the funded period. Your Postdoc may want to apply for a fellowship on the basis of the work they have done with you. What part of the project are you happy for them to take further independently and which area do you want to maintain as your own area for your research group. For a more established academic, it may be easier to let go of a research area than this may be possible for a research leader getting settled. Thinking ahead and having these early conversations will help build trust in your team and provide transparency and clarity for all.
“Simplicity is a wonderful thing”
