Navigating the grant capture, interdisciplinarity and impact: the early-career researcher (ECR) perspective

Insights and takeaways from the Faculty ECR event ‘How to live well as a researcher?’

Held in an atmospheric suite at Engineer’s House, this event brought together early-career researchers (ECRs) from across the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences, offering an opportunity for a dialogue across different schools. Prof Patrick Capps, the Faculty Research Co-Director, welcomed the participants and highlighted the institutional commitment to providing the ECRs with support to develop their research career at Bristol.

Overview

Four speakers took part in an engaging morning panel: Prof Jennifer Johns (Professor of Management and Business School’s Interdisciplinarity Research Director), Dr Lesel Dawson (Associate Professor of Literature and Culture), Dr James Palmer (Senior Lecturer in Geography) and Dr Philippa Collins (Senior Lecturer in Law). The panellists presented different approaches to grant capture, interdisciplinarity and impact work, highlighting that there seems to be no ‘one size fits all’ approach, but a certain academic wisdom can help navigating the complex landscape. A practical workshop took place after the panel.

This blog post offers insights and key takeaways from the morning part of the event which focused specifically on how the challenges and opportunities related to grant capture, interdisciplinarity and impact can shape one’s research trajectory from early-on.

Grant capture

• Typically, ECRs are advised to start small in terms of grant capture, for instance applying to BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants or other similar calls. This allows building a track record and gaining experience with applying for funding (with some chances of obtaining the funding). This approach might work better for some as opposed to spending a huge amount of effort at the beginning of one’s career on large, complex applications (which often have a lower chance of success for applicants with no grant capture track record). Such smaller grants can still enable one to do significant amount of work (organising workshops, collecting data, conducting fieldwork/interviews, visiting partners and similar) and gaining experience in managing external funds. To quote Jennifer Johns, ‘Bigger isn’t always better’. Rather than focusing on the size of grants, the key thing to ask oneself is what meaningful output can you achieve with a specific funding? (Grants such as BA/Leverhulme Small Grants also carry a certain level of prestige, but again, that should not be the main underlying motivation.)
• This does not mean that an ECR should discard the idea of applying for a larger grant. In fact, one of the panellists shared his experience of several rejections of smaller bids, but a subsequent success with bigger applications, a testimony to the often unpredictable funding landscape.

Additional things to consider:

• • Some funding calls, such as New Investigator grants and similar, are aimed specifically at ECRs to enable them a transition to an independent researcher and gaining experience as a project lead of a larger project. In these instances, good mentorship is particularly valuable. You can find additional guidance for ECRs applying for these types of grants here.
  • An ECR can obtain an experience of participating in a larger bid by acting as a Co-Lead (previously called ‘Co-Investigator’), joining a team led by a more experienced, senior academic OR being included as a research collaborator. While the latter does not typically involve managing an allocated budget, it still provides an experience and association with research bids. Building meaningful connections with senior academics is key in that regard.

• When choosing partners, applicants should consider those that will complement their skills and profiles rather than having “more of the same” – this can mean venturing out of our usual academic circles or close-knit communities. As Phillippa Collins pointed out, funders will look much less fondly upon an application that is proposing a buy-out time of two academics that have a very similar skill-set as opposed to a project that brings together collaborators with different expertise.
• Acquiring grants enables ECRs to manage a more extensive project with considerable deliverables and helps them establishing oneself as an expert on a topic. For this and many other reasons, it is a meaningful pursuit.

Interdisciplinarity

• Interdisciplinary research is on the rise across different fields, also because of the belief that today’s global challenges require collaborations from experts across different scientific domains. Important to consider though is that interdisciplinarity comes with both challenges and rewards, which ECRs ought to consider carefully when laying the foundations of their academic career.
• Interdisciplinary research work entails – obviously – building connections with people from other disciplines. This requires efforts and time and it can initially also come at some cost of career progression – core disciplinary work is more likely to translate into high quality publications, while interdisciplinary work can typically be more difficult to publish. Moreover, publishing culture across disciplines can differ tremendously, as the different outputs (monographs, conference papers, journal papers etc.) carry different weight and recognition. These differences should be acknowledged in a publishing strategy which can be agreed upon in advance.
• Interdisciplinary connections can in the long run lead to more impactful work, wider scientific network and higher chance of funded projects with real-world impact (see also this article in Nature discussing the pros and cons of interdisciplinary research). For ECRs, it is important to consider these trade-offs and making sure that they build their disciplinary expertise at the beginning of their career, while exploring the interdisciplinary connections when that makes sense for their work and research area. In the long run, these connections can potentially turn out to be the most meaningful ones for ‘bigger’ projects.
• James Palmer argued in favour of “slow scholarship”, whereby focusing on quality and meaningful pursuits can allow one to deliver substantial quality over time, even though it might come at the expense of short gains. ECRs in particular sometimes focus on ‘quick wins’, also because the academic landscape is competitive, but the focus on quality over quantity can end up being more rewarding.
• Working with people from other areas requires an open mind and ability to listen in order to meaningfully connect with other discipline. Key elements are also the courage to wander into the unknown, being comfortable with understanding everything and embracing the opportunity to learn new ways of seeing things. Overall, interdisciplinary work can be very intellectually enriching.

Impact

A key part of many grant applications and scholarly pursuits is delivering impact activities. This requires a shift from thinking about academic papers – which is so often the focus for ECRs – to thinking about real-world impact. In the past, training and resources related to impact skills were typically not offered during PhD training. This is now changing. PhD students and ECRs can develop related skills by attending impact-focused events and workshops and make use of online resources. Successful examples of impact-related work at the Business School can be found here.

• Again, impact work can emerge from meaningful interdisciplinary collaborations that address real-world challenge. Lesel Dawson provided a poignant example of that when presenting the inspiring and impactful initiative Good Grief festival, through which she collaborated with academics from medical science and media studies, co-creating a large community around managing grief.
• Impact work can come in many forms – it can be related to policy-making, community impact or improvement of organisational and business activities and these are only a few examples. The key thing for ECRs when designing a project or developing a funding application, is to consider from the start what they like to achieve with their work, what activities can best support that and which external partners they should engage with.

After the panel it was time for a workshop, moderated by Prof Andrew Sturdy (Business School’s Research Director), Dr Sean Fox (School of Geographical Sciences’ Research Director) and Sam Lambshead (FALSS Research Development Manager). There, the participants worked on potential research ideas, using this Grant Planning Canvas Template. While this tool is particularly beneficial when used within groups so that you can comment on each other’s ideas, ECRs might also find this resource of value when thinking about a project idea individually.

Hopefully these insights can inspire your thinking about the exciting research trajectory that lies ahead of you.

Author: Written by Ana Javornik, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, University of Bristol Business School

This event was organised by Negar Elodie Behzadi, Manikarnika Dutta, Emily Hancox, Ana Javornik and Erika Teichert from ALSS ECR group.