Workshops

If your grant application is to have a chance of success, then you must build the strongest possible connection between your text and its readers. Your colleagues and assessors will not only judge your work by the quality of your ideas; they will be swayed by how you tell the story.

This workshop aims to build the skills of researchers as persuasive communicators in their writing to improve the quality of their applications and make them stand out within the highly competitive field of research grant funding.

Before the workshop, participants submit a short sample of their own draft application content. We then prepare tailored exercises around participants' drafts for discussion, feedback, and development during the workshop.

Participants will have access to winning grants from clients we have previously worked with across a number of ARC and NHMRC funding schemes. The workshops teach high-level writing methods and tools that can be applied across all types of proposals.

Our personalised workshop is delivered in-house as either a full-day event or across two half-days.

Do you have a brilliant idea for your next paper, prize, or research grant application, and you want everyone to “get” its value and significance? Then you need state-of-the-art communication tools to make it irresistible!

In this workshop, you will learn a range of essential rules, methods, and tools for engaging readers in your work to enhance your chances of being noticed, published, and funded.

The workshop represents a standard version of our Nailing Grants workshop. While we don’t work on people’s own texts, participants will have access to winning applications from clients we have previously worked with. The workshop teaches high-level writing skills that can be applied across all types of texts.

This workshop can be delivered in-house or online as either a full-day event or across two half-days.

It can also be offered as a flexible, self-paced online learning course that participants can complete in their own time.

Our two-part promotion workshop draws on years of experience crafting promotion applications with academics at all career levels and coaching applicants for their promotion interviews.

The workshops are tailored to the university’s or faculty’s specific promotion process, template, and guidelines to ensure the needs of sponsors and participants are met.

In workshop 1, we provide participants with practical tools for thinking through the impact of their achievements, clearly defining their vision, confidently narrating career disruptions, and other factors relevant to their university’s or faculty’s promotion process. Such tools aim to build the strongest possible connection between an applicant’s text and members of the promotion panel. Participants will then use these tools to craft or rewrite sections of their own promotion application and send samples of their revised text to the workshop facilitator or organiser prior to the next workshop.

In workshop 2, which typically takes place at least a month after the first workshop, we develop tailored content and exercises using some of the samples provided by participants. We discuss how the tools have been applied, what challenges participants encountered during the process, and what opportunities for improvement remain.

The workshop is delivered in-house as two half-day events.

There is no way around public speaking in most careers – think team meetings, trainings, conferences, and even client conversations. The need to stand up and present your work is ever-present. However, few people relish the opportunity to share their ideas from the front of a room. Instead, people’s nerves get the better of them, often while they read off a script, or cling to their PowerPoint.

So what kind of presenter are you? Do you know what it takes to capture the imagination of your listeners? And do you know how to manage your own situation, to be fully present for the audience? Whatever your answer, this workshop teaches you how to speak freely and confidently without notes.

You will master a proven system for remembering and structuring any content for any length of time in a way that engages the audience. Get ready for the next level!

This workshop can be delivered in-house as either a full-day event or across two half-day.

This half-day workshop explores both the reasons and remedies for common time management challenges experienced by researchers working in an academic setting.

Diving deeper than the usual tool-box approach to "hacking your productivity", we draw on over ten years of experience in leadership and performance development coaching in academia to share insights into why people often feel unproductive, overwhelmed, or short on time, and what they can do to reclaim time on their terms.

The workshop is highly practical and steps participants through three distinct phases: From an initial definition of their personal time-management challenges to an analysis of barriers preventing change, and lastly to an exploration of attainable strategies for shifting their own behaviour to reduce overwhelm and do what matters.

This workshop is delivered in-house as a half-day event.

Whether we like it or not, successful careers often depend on who we know and how well connected we are.

Mentors and collaborators can open doors, advocate for opportunities, and provide crucial advice that changes how we see the world. But mentors and collaborators don’t fall from the sky: While some may be “given” to us or appear in our lives by happenstance, relying on luck alone leaves many without vital career support when they need it most.

To build resilience and broaden opportunities, a proactive approach to building a career-supporting network is best. This workshop equips participants with the relational leadership skills and strategies needed to curate their own, unique career constellations, no matter their career stage.

This workshop is delivered in-house as a half-day event.