Although this website is new, I’ve been in business helping researchers achieve their research goals for 4 years now.
Every year, I spend most of May travelling to universities to give presentations about Research Grant Success and Managing Your Research Career. Last week I spoke at the University of Windsor for the 5th time. This week I spoke at St. FX University for the 1st time.
I enjoy these trips. It is great to meet researchers and answer their questions. I get immediate feedback and know that people come away with enthusiasm for their projects and ideas that will help them find the time.
My approach
Although I am hired by the university (usually the Office of Research Services but sometimes the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities), my approach focuses on your goals.
You have research goals. Research is why you became an academic in the first place.
And research is the one thing you often struggle to fit into your day to day life. Not doing it makes you stressed. Institutional pressure just makes that stress worse.
This year, I am doing workshops.
The first one was in Windsor last Wednesday. And it went really well.
We did some brainstorming exercises to figure out where the debate each participant wants to contribute to was happening and identify journals (and presses) where they should be publishing. We looked at their current publications and work in progress. And we worked on clarifying their research objectives in preparation for a grant application.
Everyone came out of the workshop with a clear plan for the summer that included
- taking a vacation
- writing 2 or more articles
- preparing a grant application for the October 2009 SSHRC deadline
Some participants are also doing data collection or analysis, or attending an intensive summer institute.
A couple of participants are not ready to submit a grant this October and have plans to write more, plan their next project, and get themselves in a good position for October 2010.
Participants ranged from researchers finishing their first year in an academic position after completing a PhD, to a tenured associate professor with a substantial publications list and past grant success.
Afterwards I received this e-mail:
Thank you for yesterday. Even after all these years it is often hard to be objective about yourself. You allowed me to create a realistic set of writing projects for the summer. (Patricia Weir, University of Windsor)
