Fellowship Applications: my experience Katherine Joy School of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Fellowship Applications:

my experience

Katherine Joy School of Earth Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences

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My career path

• Present: School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, UK

– Oct 2015 – Present: Royal Society University Research Fellow – May 2015- Present: Senior Lecturer – May 2012 – April 2015: Leverhulme Trust Early-Career Postdoctoral Research Fellow

• Dec 2011- April 2010: Career break for 6 months (kept my hand in publishing and went on a research trip to

Antarctica)

• Jan. 2010 - Nov. 2011: Center for Lunar Science and Exploration, Lunar and Planetary Institute (USRA) and

NASA’s Johnson Space Center, USA

– Postdoctoral Fellow funded by the NASA Lunar Science Institute

• April 2007 - Dec. 2009: School of Earth Sciences, Birkbeck College London, UK

– Postdoctoral Research Assistant funded by the Leverhulme Trust

• Oct. 2003 - July 2007: Dept. of Earth Sciences, University College London, UK.

– Ph.D. in Planetary Science

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My Research

• Geological evolution of planetary bodies

– Sample analysis of terrestrial samples – Remote sensing measurements

• Between April 2006 and Oct 2015 I have co-authored 44 publications and book
• chapters. I am the lead author of 11 of these publications, and have an H-index

record of 13 in the Scopus citation database

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Wider Portfolio Development

• Teaching and marking and exam prep

– First year course – Fieldtrip

• New academics programme
• Phd lead and co-supervisor and PhD advisor
• MSci and BSE project supervisor
• Lab responsibilities
• Co-organise school seminars
• Research council panel membership
• Space mission science team membership

– Active missions – Mission planning

• Admin – write references, interviews, read other people’s grants/paper

drafts, review papers, review grants, fight with egencia, emails etc etc… stuff that takes time and energy.

• Need to find a balance – I find time management very hard. However, feel

its critical to maintain time at weekends not working. You have to enjoy what you do. Don’t get sick. Learn to say no.

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Starting the process…

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• Applied for a fellowship at the end of my PhD which was

not funded

• Started developing my own independent research

applications during my 2nd PDRA

– And reused it time and time again – refining it along the way

• Think about career development – develop CV / portfolio

– Publish with people other than PhD supervisor – helps to move institutes to demonstrate independence – Collaborations

• Increased productivity

– Important to do more than research – Seek out responsibility

• Learn to recognise when you have made mistakes in taking on more than

you anticipated

CV building: Apply for ‘small’ grants

• Demonstrate earning income and independence
• Practice art of selling an idea
• Travel grants

– Conference travel – Fieldtrip travel

• Outreach grants
• Student intern projects

– also added supervisory experience

• Equipment grants

– I requested money for a safe to store samples during first PDRA – Success with internal university equipment funds

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CV building: supervise PhD or MSc projects

• Lot of hard work, but worth it
• Good fun – students give you new ideas and kick you into understanding new topics
• Good experience in research management

– Highs and lows (learning what doesn’t work is also valuable experience to reflect

• n)
• Research outputs - my publication list is ok as a lead author, but has very much been

strengthened by work published through supervising students

• Its great to see people you have helped do well in your career and you can work with in

future…

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Applying

• For large grants >£10k I have previously applied to:

– STFC advanced fellowship (5 years) – x2 – both failures – Royal Astronomical Society early career fellowship (3 years) – failure – Imperial College internal early career scheme (3 years) – failure – Leverhulme Trust early career – (3 years) success! – University of Manchester – deans research fund – x3 success – STFC – consolidated grant to be PI fund my own PDRA – (3 years) success! – Leverhulme Trust to fund my own PDRA – x2 failures as PI, x3 times success as a Co-I – Royal Society (5 years) – success! – Royal Society – RSURF startup grant- unknown outcome – Leverhulme Trust – Philip Leverhulme Prize – unknown outcome

• Get used to writing applications… next one is always just

around the corner.

• Accept rejection will happen.

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Applying for fellowships

• What schemes are their for your field?
• When are the deadlines?
• All about you:

– Are you independent enough to manage your own research project? – Are you at the right level of experience to apply? – Do you have good support from those around you?

• Lab infrastructure
• Mentorship

– Don’t get defeated by imposter syndrome –talk to others to get their honest opinion about if they think you are at the right level, give it a go

• And your good idea:

– Is it timely? – Is it achievable? – Is it in the remit of the funding body? – What are the flaws? How can these be mitigated?

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Applying for fellowships

• Where do you want to apply? Do this at least 3-6 months

before deadline.

– Personal constraints – Labs you need – Is there any internal school / university pre-selection round – if so what do you need to do? – Find a champion in school to support you – someone who will have to coordinate. – Get good references lined up. Critical that they are going to support you and your project.

• Do you need to get the university to financially support you?

– Plan ahead to get confirmation of support

• 50% contribution of your wages in case of Leverhulme Trust
• No overheads for many schemes
• Lab access

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Watch out for time limits

• Early careers vs more advanced scheme…

– Don’t miss the boat

• PhD award / viva date is critical
• Think about your competition

– Look up who has been awarded one before (its scary but at least you can compare and contrast) – Remember some disciplines it takes longer to publish a study than

• thers – spell this out in your application if you know that what

you do takes time and this is why your publication record may vary from a someone at a similar stage of their career from a different discipline (especially important for multi-subject schemes)

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Watch out for odd eligibility rules

• Country of present work, or where studied for PhD

– Mobility (Marie Curie) – Leverhulme Trust is a good example of where this may be a problem

• Host rules

– Royal Astronomical Society scheme for example – cant be awarded if someone at your university already holds this type of grant

• Means scheme is not biased towards particular uni… however

… get this information before you apply

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Stuff always goes wrong

• Accept that no matter how prepared you are – something will go wrong at the last

minute

• Mitigate the risks

– Get your finances sorted early – coordinate with the research office – go and meet the person you will work with and be nice to them (say thank you, understand they are human – they get sick, forget stuff like we all do) – Check that every box is filled on an application – easy to miss them requiring formatting – Check your font size and page margin and word limit requirements – stupid little things that might ding your application – Check referees have sent in their letters of support by the date (politely hassle them) – Check head of department letter has been signed (is the HoD on holiday? Make sure that your research coordinator has this in hand)

• Try not to be away on the day / week of the deadline

– I submitted by RS fellowship in Morocco at a conference, and my LT one in the middle of a conference in the US… flipping stressful – Let office know when you have submitted, so if they need to press a confirmation button then they can. Check that this has happened before deadline.

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Applying

• Everything I applied for has been a one stage application process

– Case for support – 2-3 pages (more needed for NERC?) – Lay report – Pathways to impact (seems to mean different things to different people) – CV/publication list – Budget

• Travel
• Computing
• Equipment and Consumables

– will really vary scheme to scheme at what level you can apply for – if you have a lab based project then you may need university to agree to subsidise your research (which you hope they should do to enhance your career, and make them look good for bringing in research fellowships)

• University costs

– Justification of resources – Referees (critical to choose the right ones) – need to find yourself people who will champion you and will spend time to write an excellent reference. – Head of School support letter / university approval form

• Sent out for peer review and sometimes (not always) chance to respond to the

reviews

• Lack of feedback – so frustrating
• Interview

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University Approval

• Approval before you

submit

• Funding implications
• Data management plan

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Submission Systems

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Application advice

• Case for support

– Why the science is important and timely (why now)

• Place it in context of what we know

– Why you are the best person to do this science – That the method is achievable (how are the critical flaws mitigated) – Time planning (justify why 3 or five years are needed) – That you have the resources to do it (labs, technical support, local expertise) – Broader implications of study (impact)

• Get balance in technical information (in case of reviewers who are

experts) and basics for panel member who has no idea about your subject

• Lay report is really important to explain to panel who may not

know anything about your field – don’t repeat material from case for support

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Appearance

• Make sure that the proposal looks good and the panel can read it

easily

– don’t use small font, use line spaces, use bold or italic font where

• necessary. Make sure graphics look nice and are meaningful.

– I used a large image in my application to demonstrate science problem I was seeking to test

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Royal Society Interview

• Scary as hell – about 17 people on panel. All men apart from the

Chair.

• RS provided information about format and what sorts of questions

you would be asked. I also talked with a recent recipient to get their perspective as well.

• Format:

– 5 mins to provide update on your research and project since application had been made – Specific questions based on reviewer enquiries

• What’s the point – hasn’t this already been done…
• What’s the relevance of this…

– Are there any questions we haven't asked you that you think we should know about

• Have something else to hand
• Try and stand out (not in a bad way!) faced with doing interviews all

day people / details are easily forgotten

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Lessons learnt once you have a fellowship

• Budgets

– Watch it like a hawk… check that your spend has been taken out of your account especially if your end of reporting year doesn’t match up with university end of financial year – Equipment – don’t forget VAT

• Reporting

– Keep up to date records throughout the year

• If you do an outreach talk or get an invited conference talk – write it down, add to your

CV….

• Negotiate with your school and faculty

– Try to ensure proleptic appointment – before or after appointment – Otherwise – if the fellowship scheme is movable – seek to move it and continue to apply for full time posts

• You don’t want to be unemployed at the end of your fellowship duration
• Accept that you might not meet all the goals you set up to do. But make

sure that you keep publishing to be able to secure that 2nd fellowship or permanent job role.

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University Support Suggestions

• I attended one of these courses before

and received several presentations from

• ther speakers afterwards – so it would

probably be helpful for you all to have a copy of those presentations as well

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University Support Suggestions

• Your school support research office should help with internal

advice documents

– Request school guides – Find out who has previously applied for your grant scheme – Ask to see these applications – If you get an interview meet with them to discuss their interview experience – Practice for your interview (mock)

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