One good way to cultivate your independence as a researcher and build your profile is to establish a track record of independent research funding. You can start small with small grants, prizes, or awards that could support you to attend a conference, carry out fieldwork or starting small-scale independent research.
You may already have the track record to make you competitive for postdoctoral fellowships. These independent career development awards are generally intended to support postdocs to carry out independent project-level research. Successful postdoctoral fellows typically make strong candidates for permanent academic staff posts.
The Queen Mary Academy has a programme of support for postdocs interested in independent research funding and fellowships. For more information, visit their Postdocs page.
Research funding support is available to Queen Mary and Barts Health NHS Trust researchers, provided by the Joint Research Management Office (JRMO). They can offer advice and support on research funding sources (including EU funding sources), application and proposal support, project costings and contracting, ongoing financial management of research funds and relevant reporting, ethics approval preparation, research governance and good clinical practice, business development and intellectual property, and on how to improve patient engagement. They offer Governance and Good Clinical Practice training and 1-to-1 drop-in services. Visit the JRMO website for more details.
Most Queen Mary schools and institutes have a dedicated research manager who helps support their research funding applications. This is a critical contact for any postdoc who is thinking of submitting an application for independent research funding (including fellowships). You can consult the staff directory or your School/Institute homepage.
The University is subscribed to The Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding, which all applicants and current students can access. This guide details how to find and apply to alternative sources of funding – especially charities – which make awards to current and prospective graduate students. Charities are an underrated funding resource, and often make awards to students of any subject and any nationality.
The Guide was written by two postgraduate students who between them have won over £45,000 from 55 different charity awards. It contains model personal and financial statements, and over 300 links to voluntary sector funding sources. The Alternative Guide is independently published by GradFunding.
Creating an account takes about 30 seconds. You will need to register for a personal username and password. All you have to do is enter your Queen Mary email address in the green box on the Gateway page and you will be emailed an automatically generated username and password. Once you have these details, you can use the blue box on the Gateway page to log on, using option 1.
In addition, if you are on campus, you will also have the option to just use the automatic login by clicking on the button in the blue box, option 2 – no registration required.
If you would like to find out more about the guide and how to use it consider attending the workshop PHD-QMA-003 – Postgraduate Funding – Considering the Alternatives, which can be booked on the CPD bookings site. Alternatively, you can watch a recording of the online workshop by self-enrolling on QMplus.
Research Professional is a funding portal that has a search tool that can help you find fellowships, travel and conference funds, small research awards, and more. It also keeps you up to date with the latest news from the research and development and higher education sectors.
In addition to helping your find opportunities, their Funding Know How section offers you case studies and interviews with researchers who have had funding success in various ways. These researchers offer you tips and insights that may help you better communicate your proposals, and increase your chances of funding success!
Create an account and set up a weekly email reminder to keep you up to date on funding opportunities and relevant news that are of interest to you.
If you access Research Professional through a campus connection, you don't have to create a guest account or login.
Otherwise, find Queen Mary in the list on the left (and login using your credentials). Once you have logged in, you can create an account in order to set up email reminders and other subscription features.