Sixty doctoral students from across the NIHR Infrastructure gathered in Leamington Spa for a three-day residential camp centred around the theme of “Applying for further funding”.
Two trainees from the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) attended the camp; Roisin Stout and James Stanway.
Roisin (pictured) shares her reflections of the camp below:
I am now coming to the end of my PhD and wish to stay in academia, so I wanted to get more of an understanding of the grant writing process. As an early career researcher, I also wanted to know what kind of funding was available to me and how to get it. Both points were addressed thoroughly during the camp.
The atmosphere was great, and everyone was incredibly friendly. It was a good environment to meet new people. We had to write a mock grant in a day, which was stressful at the time but was a good exercise to get familiar with the whole process.
I learned that the process takes time. I also learned that is it important to seek advice from experts in different areas during the process. We learned that no two grant briefs are the same, so you should always write a specific application for the grant in question, instead of trying to change old applications. Lastly, don't ever try and write a grant in one day.
Absolutely.
The grant writing day can be stressful, but it is a good skill to have. We spent too long coming up with a research question, so I would advise running with whatever you have early on, to get the most out of the process.
Registration for future training camps is only open to delegates nominated by the relevant part of the NIHR infrastructure.
Please note, the date for the 2022 Training Camp has not yet been released, but details will be shared through the NIHR Newcastle BRC channels when available.