A programme of online support to help you submit your proposal on time
We know fellowship deadlines run all year, but this programme will bring you together with other postdocs who are working to submit sometime in the near future. Join a group of colelagues with whom you can discuss your progress and help keep you accountable to your submission deadlines.
The first part of this programme involves information seminars organised within Schools and Institutes. These sessions focus on specific fellowship programmes and feature previously funded fellows, academic staff who povide expert peer review and committee/panel review for these programmes, as well as representatives from funding bodies.
Following on from these information sessions are a regular series of online meetings and writing retreats to support the submission process. Each will focus on a particular part of a typical fellowship application submission, and will feature Queen Mary research support staff who can assist you in crafting the narratives in your submission to make your application submission competitive. During this programme, we will pair you up with a buddy for peer support and to help you set goals to keep you on track for your submission deadlines.
We will group you in small groups of 5-7 researchers who are similarly working towards deadlines in the next year. These cohort meetings will allow candidates to meet and set goals with the group, and to meet your 'buddy'. We would like you have a go-to person to check in with about progress, and to troubleshoot issues you might encounter on the road to submission.
Winter Programme: [1] Meet & Greet in October [2] mid-programme check-in December [3] late-programme check-in Jan/Feb
Spring Programme: [1] Meet & Greet inMarch/April [2] mid-programme check-in May [3] late-programme check-in July
Many fellowships target academic researchers at developmental points in their careers, so some of the most important parts of your submission package include your CV and your career development narrative. Half of this session (90 min) will be spent on CVs (including Narrative CVs and R4RI formats), and the other half on writing about your career and professional development (90 min).
This is your main research proposal and will be the most scrutinised part of your application. You must convince the peer reviewers and panel of your research idea’s relevance, excellence, impact, and that you’ve planned it sufficiently well as to convince them of the project’s feasibility.
This retreat will feature support from the Research Impact support team, as well as the Joint Research Management Office, EDI, and the Queen Mary Academy.
Though these are some of the first things that people will read in your application, there is a logic to them being some of the parts of the application that you will finalise last.
We will also use part of this retreat to discuss writing style and the readability of your application narratives.
We will use this session to dedicate to anything else that you want to focus, or revisit. This may include elements we’ve covered in previous retreats that we can focus on in more detail.
For candidates whose applications are selected, we will provide bespoke support in crafting responses to peer reivewers, and help to organise mock-interviews.
For those looking to develop their ideas and learn about funding opportunities, visit the Transition to Independence section of the Academic Career Development Programme.