Live now & Coming Soon...

All our Courses

NOW LIVE: OUR ONLINE COURSE PORTFOLIO

Out NOW: Summer RESET for exhausted researchers!

We’re working hard to convert ALL of our courses from in-person workshops to online materials and hoping to launch this new way of taking any of our existing courses and launching some exciting new material soon!  The number of courses available online will gradually build and in addition to the above will include:

  • Next level grants masterclass for experienced researchers
  • Preparing for a funding interview
  • The First 100 Days; a programme for those new to research leadership
A photo of a galaxy appearing to come out of a jar

LIVE (via Zoom!) Funding Masterclasses

Featured Course: Our funding Masterclass, 5 weeks to a compelling grant proposal, is an extended course, particularly aimed at Early Career Researchers (ECRs) or those unfamiliar with the UK research funding environment and is now open for expressions of interest!  For the first time ever we’re offering participation to individual ECR researchers from all over the UK rather than having to wait for your Research Office to sign up to one of our single HEI courses!

The course consists of 5 sessions and is equally applicable to those looking to make a research grant or an individual fellowship application.  The sessions are 3 hours long and run at the same time each week (except the 1:1 bookable slots and the longer group pitching/interviewing sessions):

  • Week 1: Creativity. Our 3 step creativity process will enable you to come up with the very best research ideas that you can, strengthen those further and then prioritise which you will use as a model application for the rest of the course.  Even if you start the course with project/fellowship ideas this session will enable you to evaluate those more deeply, making them as strong as possible before transforming one into a compelling grant application.
  • Week 2: Applications Masterclass Part 1: deconstructing the idea. We will use a range of different “lenses” to enable you to explore ways in which to make your grant application as compelling as possible.
  • Week 3: Applications Masterclass Part 2: reconstructing the idea. We will build on the previous sessions by building the idea back up to a full and compelling narrative; enabling you to convey the very strongest elements of the proposal.  We will also examine how to make it easier for reviewers to score the proposal highly and how to examine your work from various perspectives as you seek to enhance how the merits of the proposal are communicated.
  • Week 4: 1:1 bookable slots; approximately 15 minutes with the course leader solely focused on exploring any issues specific to your proposal, get 1:1 advice, etc.
  • Week 5: Pitching and interviewing. During this session participants will gain new perspectives by “sitting on both sides of the table” i.e. you will have a chance to present your work and be questioned by others as well as being an interviewer. This is an experience, which ECRs in particular, routinely cite as being instrumental in fast tracking their own grant writing craft.  Sessions will need to take place throughout a whole day to accommodate everyone. Participants will only be required to attend for one of these sub-sessions but will be very welcome to maximise their learning by attending as an “observer” during other sessions.

You should also expect to complete homework between the sessions. This will enable you to reflect upon the learning in each session and over the weeks test out and experiment with how best to convey your ideas. 

By the end of the course you will have the basics of a compelling grant application that, with a little financial planning assisted by your Research Office, and general editing could be submitted OR should you choose not to submit the idea you’ve worked on during the course you will, at least, be equipped with a set of tools and approaches that will enable you to quickly and easily develop a different idea into a funding proposal.

This course is NOT a panacea; attending will NOT guarantee that you will be 100% successful with grant applications!  What it will do is give you a set of frameworks, tools and approaches that will enable you to think logically about the most effective way to convey a particular idea, thus enhancing your skills and knowledge and making it easier for you to convey your ideas.  It will also demonstrate how a range of perspectives can be used to strengthen your applications.  Taken together these course outcomes are designed to enhance your efficiency and effectiveness in making grant applications.

These courses are small, highly interactive events, mixing best practice expert input with lots of practical sessions to try things out and develop the best approach for you and your work. There will be plenty of opportunity for questions, discussion and learning from each other as well as the instructor.   There will be no more than 12 participants in each course and your instructor will be Dr Becky Steliaros; her profile is here.

Our current course cohorts are FULL so please express your interest in our future dates using the form below. We will attempt to set session times when the majority of prospective participants are available so please indicate your optimal day/time slots on the form.

All sessions will be held via Zoom, enabling you to get the benefits of live interaction with the course tutor and peers without any of the travel hassle or needing to install additional software (Zoom meetings are accessible from all browsers). 

We regularly review all expressions of interest forms received to ensure a suitable mix of topic interests and no conflicts of interest with other participants within each student cohort.  For example, unless specifically requested we will NOT allow participants within the same cohort who may find themselves in direct competition with each other i.e. because their respective research topics are the same!  Once we have reviewed all EoIs and  developed a suitable mix of participants we will confirm your invite via email.  At that time we will also send the full course joining instructions, including Ts&Cs, code of conduct for participants, etc. You will then need to confirm your participation either by paying the appropriate fee or ensuring that your institution issues a purchase order to our finance team no later than two weeks before the course starts.  Full details will be sent within the place offer documentation.  If payment/purchase orders are not received by the deadline we will offer your place (without any further notice) to the 1st reserve.

When reviewing the pre-course offer please make sure that you can attend all sessions; we will work to ensure everyone can be interviewed during the final week; if there is excess demand for a particular time slot we will open up time slots on other days OR offer you a 1:1 interview with our course leader. The power of our courses is that they are highly interactive ; they are not lectures and as such they will NOT be recorded.  

The course fee is £950 per participant inclusive of all taxes, etc. The fee is fully refundable where required by law e.g. if we cannot fulfil our obligations as laid out above & in our course handbook but NOT where you have simply changed your mind or become unavailable, regardless of reason.  If you do become unavailable after payment has been made but before the sessions start and a reserve from our list is able to take your place then we will defer your participation to a later course without any additional admin fees, etc.

Expression of Interest:
Once we have received your registration form we will ensure a suitable mix of participants within each cohort and check for conflicts of interest. Only once that process has taken place will we formally offer you a place & your fee will become due. At that point please make your payment/organise to have a PO issued to us by your institution. Your place on our course may ONLY be considered secure once we have received your payment/PO. Please ensure that this reaches us no later than 7 days prior to the start of the course. If it does not we will automatically, and without notice, offer your place to the next suitable individual on our reserves list; you will be reassigned to a future course. We process registration forms strictly in order of receipt and we aim to respond in no more than 3 working days.
The course fee is a total of £750 per participant. Please indicate your preferred payment method.
Use this box to share any additional information that we need to know to help you make the most of this course. Also use this box if you are part of a small group of colleagues who wish to take the course together. If you do NOT do this and have very similar research interests we will automatically distribute you between different courses based on the order of form submission.
By submitting this form you are granting us permission to process the data you submit ONLY in connection with the purpose for which it was submitted i.e. registering/expressing interest in this course. We will store your information securely and NEVER ever sell it to anyone (we hate that ourselves)!

Contact Info

Email: courses@researchinfocus.com

Phone: 07949 818 721

Address: Innovation House, 4 Molly Millars Close, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG41 2EX