Participants
Katherine Schultz, University of Winnipeg
Lynette D. Madsen, Carnegie Mellon University
Claire Deschenes, Universite Laval
This section is a synopsis of the first panel presented at the conference. It closely parallels much of the advice given in the other CRA-W workshops held. Please refer to http://www.cra.org/Activities/craw/projects/mentoring/mentorWrkshp for more information.
1. Where to Start
A research program is one of the most important and rewarding aspects of your academia career. It is a good thing to learn the informal and formal policies and procedures surrounding research at your institution. The university research office will help you with the formal policies, but your department will have both formal and informal policies that you will need to know about. Find out early about how offices and lab space are assigned. Figure out what kinds of obligations are a must with research but monitor your commitments and protect your time by committing to the right activities. When joining any new institution, another good place to start is getting to know your institution's research office. Their staff can help you understand research policies and procedures as well as best practices. They can also offer advice on how to apply for grants, and what ethics and safety procedures have to be in place before you begin your research. The last part of where to start is to apply, apply, and apply for more funding. It never hurts to be a bit audacious, and blow your own horn.
2. Building a research program
Before you start building your research program, you must be able set your research goals and ascertain your research interest. Make sure that you understand the problem by talking to colleagues and by doing a thorough literature review. Think about what your ideas, interests, and strengths are. One thing to start off with before even conducting research is to think about your long-term goals. Think ahead to start new research programs concurrently with ones that are coming to closure. If you can't reach these goals all on your own, affiliations with other researchers in other institutions and industry will help you with directions and funding
3. Getting Funding
Applying for grants and funding is a crucial part of your research program. Evaluations of grant applications both to NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and to FCAR (Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l'Aide a la Recherche) are based on the peer-review system so it is important that you set a positive impression with your colleagues. The process in getting a grant from these places is roughly the same for an individual or a collective proposal. External specialists in the field first comment on the research that you are asking for funding for, and then the comments are passed on to a committee that ranks the admissible proposals. Remember that the committee members are not specialists in the candidate's specific sub-field and that different disciplines have different research cultures. Your goal in writing a good proposal is to make the referees see you as a promising researcher who will make significant contribution to your field. The reviewers will try to decide on two main things, the excellence of your research and the merit of your proposed research program.
Make sure that your proposal is very clear and that you give a good background on your past research accomplishments. Your proposal should be original and prove your capability to do research. Outline your past scientific achievements and link them to the proposed research field. Also mention whether you have received other research grants, and whether you have contributed to the training of highly qualified personnel such as graduate students. It is important to also mention whether there have been any external circumstances, such as the birth of a child, which may have caused you to delay your research. When writing the proposal it is important to show that you put your proposed research in context with examples of relevant prior work in the field. You may also want to state the social impact, as well as the knowledge and technological advancements that your research may have. Your proposal should outline and articulate your short and long-term goals as well as your research objectives and methodologies. It is important that your proposal is feasible and congruent, and you have to show confidence, independence and clarity.
While the quality of the research description in your proposal is of primary importance, other aspects of the proposal will also be reviewed by the referees. These include the relevance of your training to the proposed subject, justification of the needs for funding, support from the university in terms of research facilities and other financial contributions or grants that are complementary to the proposed project.
For more information, please refer to Janice Glasglow’s article on ‘How to
Get (and keep) an NSERC Research Grant’ http://www.cs.queensu.ca/home/janice/.