New training sessions: Identifying funding and developing your narrative

As part of the ongoing development of its new training programme, Eastern Arc will be hosting Dr Jonathan O’Donnell at the University of Kent on 14 November to deliver two sessions on navigating the funding landscape and developing a career narrative.

Jonathan is an Australian academic and research developer at Deakin University. He has a passion for helping academics navigate the tricky world of research funding, and has previously worked at both Melbourne University and RMIT.

He created the iconic Research Whisperer community and learning resource with colleague Tseen Khoo, which is dedicated to supporting, encouraging and working together with academics to navigate life in academia, and particularly in securing research funding.

Finding funding and developing a career narrative

The programme for the day is given below. Registration is at the bottom of the page. You can take part regardless of your career stage, but we’ve given an indication of who the primary audience will be.

10:30: Arrival

Tea, coffee and pastries will be available

11:00-13:00: Think like a kindergarten

There are about 15,000 research funders globally, and between them they give out some $2 trillion. It is a confusing landscape, and can be intimidating to navigate. This session will provide you with a routemap and waymarkers to help you find the most appropriate funding bodies for you, and to develop a strategy for applying to them. 

• Intended audience: late-stage PGRs and early-career researchers

13:00: Lunch

14:00-16:00: Narrative of Ideas

As academia becomes increasingly competitive and many of those starting out have to move from fixed-term contract to fixed-term contract, it can be difficult to present a coherent career narrative to both funders and prospective employers. This session will explore how you can present your career in a way that is clear, coherent and compelling, and supports your case for support.

• Intended audience: early to mid-career researchers

16:00: Close

Registration

The sessions are free and open to all, and you can register for either one or both of them. The closing date for registration is 3 November. 

A limited number of travel bursaries will be available; if the demand is such we may consider providing minibus travel from the other EARC universities. If you would like to request this, please complete the relevant part of the registration form.