These could be local groups (eg. School/ Institute or campus-based groups) or could be cross-institutional interest-based groups (eg. Postdocs who are parents or carers, postdocs interested in careers outside of academia, postdoc mental health and wellbeing, etc).
We are offering ten awards of up to £500 for postdocs to spend to enable these activities.
Larger awards may be considered in the case of exceptional proposals including larger-scale events that would bring together postdocs from across The University, whilst scoring high on all assessment criteria (with special focus on plan and execution).
For guidance notes and an offline form you can use to develop your application, download this document. Postdoc Community Fund - Application [DOC 57KB]
Your application will be assessed by a panel including postdocs. If you would like to be a part of the panel, complete this form. Applicants can participate as panellists, but they will not vote on their own applications.
Applications will be distributed to panellists on 2nd April 2024.
The Panel will meet on the 8th/9th of April and decisions will be communicated on 10th of April.
Applications will be scored in four areas (each out of 6)
In the event of a tie, applications with a higher ‘benefit’ score would win, or if difference scores are equal, highest ‘inclusion’ score wins. If still tied, the chair chooses.
This is a great opportunity to develop the activities/ events/ opportunities that you need to help support you as a postdoc
To develop leadership skills, learn how to put together a successful funding application/ business case, and gain familiarity with how events are planned and run at a univesity
You'll get to meet and work with likeminded postdocs from across Queen Mary!
We encourage applicants to consider events throughout the whole funding window, and where possible, to coordinate planning with other efforts to avoid conflicts.
Indicate whether you can be flexible with your dates to help the Panel co-ordinate plans to ensure that we can fund as many projects as possible.
Planning an opportunity to bring together postdoc peers from different parts of the University? Consider how you will engage these groups and disseminate about your plans.
Consider how you're going to track enrolment with your event. Where possible, we encourage you to take attendance at your event and report this back afterwards.
If you are planning an event at Queen Mary you may need to engage other colleagues in order to book space to run the event, or book other types of support like porterage or catering. Consider things like venue access and accessibility.
NB: Proposals for events planned off-campus will need to demonstrate a good degree of preliminary planning, with evidence such as venue information and details, dates, contacts, plans for QM postdoc access and accessibility.
The Queen Mary Academy will offer event planning and management training to those involved in the funded projects. You can indicate your interest about this on the application form.