Day 1: The whole picture
- Government and Research Council current strategy
- Prospects for REF 2020
- Sources of funds
- The review process, and how decisions are made by funders
- Citations, h-indices
- Interdisciplinarity
- Critiquing successful bids
Day 2: Pathways
to success
- Tackle the craft of bid writing, demonstrating impact and public engagement; building a track record; titles and opening paragraphs; the importance of time management, networking, publishing and making a pitch to funders
- Completion of a Bid Checklist
Day 3: Writing
your bid
- 60 word precis and synopsis exercise
- bid writing exercise
- the lay summary
- responding to referees
Day 4: Refining
your draft
(with critiques by expert practitioners)
- Full day writing clinic, redrafting and finalising your own bids
- Undertaking the demanding process of creating the final draft bid
- We will offer detailed responses to what you have written and provide individual guidance as to how the bid can be converted into an award winning form
Participants can use evenings for redrafting bids, informal discussion or playing our new Bid Prevention Game.
By the end of the programme each participant will have the tools to build a successful research active career, a certificate of attendance and the final draft of a bid for submission to a selected funder.
A suggestion for directors of research
The purpose of our Masterclasses is to promote, recognise and reward research initiatives among your colleagues. You might like to book one or more places then launch an internal competition for a ‘Research Pioneer Award’, allocating the places to the candidate(s) who demonstrate the greatest potential as your research stars for the future. By backing such research initiatives among the academic staff, you would reward creativity and signal the priority your institution is putting on research.
The proposal would be counter-signed by their head of department or line
manager to confirm that they would release the successful candidate from
other duties to attend.
