Early career research: possibilities & opportunities for success

1. Early career research: possibilities & opportunities for success Chris Phillipson Keele University

2. Areas covered • Key principles • Life course model • Funding possibilities • Structuring proposals • Concordat • Future challenges

3. Early Career Key principles • Institutional/researcher responsibility • Importance of mentoring • Publishing strategy • Research management • Training and professional development • Disciplinary development • Life course

4. Research Career – Funding Pathway Professorial Fellowship Professorial Fellowship On-going Training and Development Centres Centres Priority Networks/ Groups Priority Networks/ Groups Mid-career Fellowship Mid-career Fellowship Large Grant Large Grant Small/Standard Grants First Grant Scheme First Grant Scheme Postdoctoral Fellowship Postdoctoral Fellowship +3 Studentship +3 Studentship Research Masters Research Masters Research Opportunities Research Opportunities

5. Early career possibilities ESRC • Postdoctoral Fellowships – eligible up to 3 years after submission of Ph.D (steer towards particular subject areas in 2010) • Small grants scheme – less than £100,000k useful for new researchers Response Mode • First Grants – open to those who have not been PIs; must be within 6 years completion of Ph.D; up to £400,000 Next call in Oct • Standard grants - £100,000k plus Response mode • Mid-Career Development Fellowships – between 5 and 15 years postdoc experience

6. Early career possibilities • ESRC Research Methods Festival - Festival aims to engage social scientists across a wide range of disciplines and sectors and at different points in their research careers. • Support from professional bodies (e.g. BSA, SPA, BSG) • Researcher Development Initiative http://www.rdi.ac.uk/projects/round4/ • National Centre for Research Methods http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/TandE/calendar.php

7. Early career possibilities • Leverhulme early career fellowships – 70 were available in 2010. Anticipated that Fellowship will lead to permanent academic position. • British Academy: Small grants scheme (up £7,500) Postdoctoral fellowship scheme – aimed at strengthening research and teaching experience in a university environment • Nuffield Foundation: Social Science Small Grants Scheme (£15,000) • International

8. Structuring proposals • The research question • The theory • The analysis

9. Early career Research Staff • Implementation of Concordat to support career development of researchers – agreement between funders and employers of researchers. http://www.researchconcordat.ac.uk/documents/concordat.pdf

10. Concordat Principles • Recognition of the importance of recruiting, selecting and retaining researchers with the highest potential to achieve excellence in research. • Researchers are recognised and valued by their employing organisation as an essential part of their organisation's human resources and a key component of their overall strategy to develop and deliver world-class research. • Researchers are equipped and supported to be adaptable and flexible in an increasingly diverse, mobile, global research environment.

11. Concordat Principles • The importance of researchers' personal and career development, and lifelong learning, is clearly recognised and promoted at all stages of their career. • Individual researchers share the responsibility for and need to pro-actively engage in their own personal and career development, and lifelong learning. • Diversity and equality must be promoted in all aspects of the recruitment and career management of researchers. • The sector and all stakeholders will undertake regular and collective review of their progress in strengthening the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers in the UK.

12. Future challenges • Adjusting to inter-disciplinary challenges • Funding issues • Management • Training • Changing university and public sector environment