Talent Factory - Early-Stage Researchers
Making the right choices in your academic career
- Start date
- 3 November 2022
- End date
- 1 December 2022
Talent factory is a proposed booster programme tailored specifically to researchers of the Amsterdam Law School. It aims to develop the skills necessary to make strategic career choices supported by training on pitching, grant writing, networking and research methodologies. Talent Factory is designed to serve not only as a learning platform but also as platform for sharing experiences and discussing career challenges with peers and successful senior researchers from ALS and beyond.
Modules
Talent Factory consists of a series of modules, with workshops, intervision sessions and individual coaching, as well as support of researchers on publication, networking and grant application strategies. The modules themselves will be interconnected and build on the foundations laid in previous modules. In this way, the programme enables participants to identify a clear career strategy, and then develops the skills needed to realise that goal.
Module 1. Research career strategy
Date: 1-November 2022 / Time: 13h00-17h00
Workshop, intervision session, individual coaching.
Questions:
- How to proactively make choices which support career goals (what do you want to achieve in the longer term)?
- How to develop a research strategy about what to study, for what audiences, with what resources to support such study, with whom to collaborate, where to publish and how to time all this?
- How to choose between publishing more, applying for grants, enhancing your international profile or investing in networks with stakeholders?
- How to make the best of one’s strong points as a researcher? What is the right individual balance?
Module 2. Developing professional networks and pitching
Date: 17-November 2022 / Time: 13h00-17h00
Workshop, intervision session, individual coaching.
In this module researchers will build on the previous modules by identifying focus groups for their communications strategy. They will learn the theory behind pitching and develop variations on a three-minute elevator pitch tailored to policy makers, the general public, grant boards or journalists. Participants will learn which networks support their desired research impact (be that policy change, or public consensus building) and use role-play to develop practical networking skills.
This module will be accompanied by an intervision session with journalists and communication specialists to offer first hand advice and experience on tapping into new networks or building a media profile.
Questions:
- How do set up academic networks with other disciplines for a broad range of collaboration purposes?
- How to develop networks with stakeholders (a broader look at awareness and the pitfalls) to support everything from larger consortium projects to individual proposals?
- How to pitch your research for academics from other disciplines, for panels during grant interviews, and for a non-academic audience?
- How to identify the most appropriate publications, blogs or alternative media sources to drive policy change.
- How to develop a profile with journalists to improve impact through diverse publication and citations.
- How to identify and communicate about your underlying research theme to improve consistency of messaging for pitching and networking.
Module 3. Grant writing
Date: 22-November 2022 / Time: 13h00-17h00
Workshop, intervision sessions
Questions:
- How to choose appropriate and realistic grant schemes and the best timing?
- How to formulate research questions and frame arguments in research proposal (including normative arguments)?
- How to develop plan of work?
- How to approach impact in research proposals?
A workshop might be followed by group sessions to jointly discuss past grant proposals (successful and unsuccessful), where relevant, together with colleagues from other disciplines.
Module 4. General Research design and methods
Date: 1-December 2022 / Time: 13h00-17h00
Workshop, intervision sessions
Questions:
- From topic to question: How to design a good research question?
- How to translate research questions into appropriate research design?
- How to systematically collect organize your sources and data?
- Which qualitative and quantitative methods are essential for legal research?
A workshop will give an introduction into the art of research design (as understood by legal scholars compared to social scientists). It will give a general overview of qualitative and quantitative methods relevant for legal studies. During an intervision session colleagues with experience of methodology will share their experience with early stage researchers.