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Research planning for ECRs
Things to consider, regardless of your discipline
Serendipity and strategic planning can shape your research journey, from funding opportunities to building a fulfilling career. Be prepared to make the most of opportunities that come your way.
Key takeaways
- Research can involve serendipity, but for the best chance of success in your career and funding you need a plan.
- Plan for 'lead time' to secure funding and build collaborations or relationships with end-users.
- Create contingency plans for potential setbacks or funding rejections.
- Plan your research to balance leading projects for independence, with collaborative work for a host of other benefits.
- If scaling up is your goal, integrate steps for team expansion and grant acquisition into your research plans.
Read time: 5 min
Serendipity vs. planning
Much research happens by serendipity – chance encounters, accidents of fate. You read something that inspires you to investigate a hitherto unexplored gap in knowledge. You get talking to someone at a conference and it leads to your next collaboration. You see an opportunity to get funding – perhaps from industry requiring expertise for a specific project, or a chance to partner with someone on a grant – and you pivot your research direction or priorities. This is part of the dynamic nature of research.
But there can also be periods where you’re wondering what direction to proactively take your research program, where to invest your efforts, or where you just can’t get funding for that next project. And even when you grasp serendipitous opportunities, there should still be a consistent thread or overarching theme that allows you to tell a compelling and coherent story about your research. You don’t want your research to appear disjointed or lacking a longer-term vision.
Having a plan is a good way to stay on track, to ride the ups and downs, and to build towards more funding, larger projects and a bigger team. You’ll also need to explain your plan and vision in funding applications and job applications. And as your career progresses and more opportunities arise, having a plan will help you decide which ones to avail yourself of – to prioritise what matters.
Things to consider
Because research varies so much between one discipline and another, and between one researcher and another, we can’t offer any definitive guidance about how to plan it. But we can suggest some things to think about.
Pathways and ‘lead time’
To build a successful research career you must of course produce quality research, but there are several other factors that will help you on your way. These include securing funding, developing productive working relationships with ‘simpatico’ research collaborators, and perhaps (depending on your area of research) establishing partnerships with end-users and consumers.
These things won’t happen without a lot of ‘lead time’. For example, to secure a large grant, you’ll first need to do the preliminary research that will underpin it; to impress potential collaborators, you’ll first need to build your profile through publications and conference presentations; and to initiate partnerships with end-user organisations, you’ll first need to drive your research in a direction that will be of interest to them.
All of this requires advance planning. First you have to decide what you want to achieve, then you have to plot the pathway (the necessary steps) to achieving it – just like any other aspect of planning your academic career.
It’s worth bearing in mind that for team-based research funding applications, assessors typically want to know that the team has a prior history of collaboration. It provides reassurance about the project’s feasibility. Building this history of collaboration will of course take time.
Contingency planning
Things rarely work out exactly as desired. For example, you may need to apply for research funding several times before you’re successful, if for no other reason than that the schemes are so competitive. Rather than be surprised by this and having it ruin your dreams, it’s better to plan for the possibility of ‘failure’. (Failure is in inverted commas because such things are a completely normal part of a research career.) This means you should always have a contingency plan, so that if one thing doesn’t work out, you have an alternative lined up.
Going solo, leading research, or being a ‘team player’
Research careers may involve solo and/or collaborative research. Collaborative research may involve leading a team or being part of a team. STEM disciplines typically involve more collaborative research, whereas research in humanities and the arts is often a solitary affair.
In terms of planning your research, the point is to consider when and where it will be advantageous to go solo, lead a project, or be part of someone else’s project. Doing and/or leading your own projects will help you establish your independence and build your research niche. Collaborating with others will be educational and will expand your networks, help you produce more publications, and open up new opportunities including grant funding.
In general, it’s probably useful to build a ‘portfolio’ of research projects: some that you lead, some that you contribute to.
Bear in mind that you may face a ‘chicken and egg’ situation when it comes to leading research projects and teams. For example, if you want to lead an ARC Discovery Project with a couple of collaborators, then assessors will want to know that you have prior experience in leading collaborative projects. But how do you get that experience? The answer is essentially to start small. Lead small, seed-funded projects first. Lead a couple of papers with those collaborators. And demonstrate leadership in other aspects of your career – it all adds up.
Scaling up
Many, though not all, researchers will be keen to increase the scale and scope of their research over time. This is essentially a function of funding and collaborations. Research funding enables you to build and expand your own team, initially by supporting research assistants, PhD students and postdocs, and eventually by supporting project managers and other such operational positions. Collaborations give you an ‘instant team’, creating immediate opportunities to get involved in bigger and more complex projects, and giving you access to larger grants.
If you intend to scale up, then make sure you build the necessary steps into your research plans.
Ends or means?
Are you doing research as an end in itself (i.e. you simply enjoy it) or as a means to an end (e.g. to save lives or the planet)? Perhaps you’re motivated by both. Both are, after all, inherently rewarding – probably the reason you got into research in the first place. But you may find yourself undertaking another kind of means-to-an-end research that is motivated primarily by the promise of extrinsic reward or recognition – that is, ‘instrumentalist’ research designed to advance your career.
There are valid reasons for both kinds of research, but be aware that extrinsically-motivated research may not always sustain your interest. For example, you may have applied for, and won, a 4-year research fellowship by proposing a project that ‘ticks all the boxes’ but is not really your passion. Obviously it’s great to have the fellowship, but you may have consigned yourself to four years marked by endurance rather than enthusiasm.
The point is to be honest with yourself and realistic about the research you plan to do. Instrumentalist research has its place, but you may want to leaven it with a healthy dose of what you truly love.