Equipping researchers with the essential skills to enable them to succeed in their careers.
Applications are now closed for 2023/2024.
Hosted by the ACU Supporting Research Community, the Supporting Research Community Training Grants fund staff at ACU member universities to organise and deliver training for their early and/or mid career researchers, including doctoral candidates.
Formerly known as the Early Career Research Training Grants, the grants fund training that equips researchers with essential skills to enable them to succeed in their careers, whether they remain in academia, or utilise their skills in other professional fields.
Universities can use their internal criteria of what defines an early career researcher (ECR), but this must include doctoral candidates, and the training must be made available to ECRs from multiple disciplines.
Skills which are in scope of the training include:
- Presentation skills
- Networking
- Time management
- Public engagement and communicating with non-academic audiences
- Media training
- Social media
- Relationship/stakeholder management
- Grant writing
- Research data management
- Career training, including doctoral careers outside higher education
Please note that this grant scheme cannot fund existing training courses.
One output from the training must also be made available to be shared with other ACU member universities.
One of the aims of the Supporting Research Community is to share knowledge and good practice through international collaboration. Therefore, we strongly encourage applicants to make their training available to other ACU member universities if possible.
What does the grant include?
- 10 grants of up to GBP 1,000
How to apply?
- Be a staff member of a research office or any staff member who leads on providing training for early and mid-career researchers at an ACU member university.
- Review the FAQs/application guidance.
- Submit an application through the online application form when applications are open.
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- If you do not already have a MyACU account, please ensure that you first register for an account here and then follow the instructions in the registration email to log in to the system before accessing the application form
Priority will be given to those member universities that have not previously been awarded an Early Career Researcher Training Grant.
These grants are delivered as part of one of the ACU Supporting Research Community’s aim to help the development of early career researchers across the Commonwealth. The Supporting Research Community is a forum for staff at ACU member universities who are involved in supporting the research process, including research management and administration, research impact and uptake, and library services. Researchers at all levels are also welcome to join.
The community brings together colleagues from across the Commonwealth and creates a space for sharing knowledge, experience and good practice, discussing issues and solutions, showcasing ideas, and discovering potential avenues for collaboration. Members can also keep up-to-date with the latest trends and opportunities in the profession and promote the work of their team and university.
I really enjoyed the course platform and the use of different interactive modules. I also appreciated that the discussion about knowledge mobilisation was not entirely technical, and that the course encouraged me to think about what excites and matters to me knowledge mobilisation. Overall, I really enjoyed the course - it's great to see all of the unique ways academics are choosing to share their research!
