Researcher blogs

It is grant application season and you sit in your research group meeting. While all the faces look familiar and the discussion topics are on shared grounds, you feel partly outside of the conversation. ‘Yes, this makes sense, but it does not apply to me’, ‘this topic is important, but not really where I would want to go’ or ‘this method seems great but unfit to my project idea’. You feel like you are contributing but not really contributing. Sitting in between two chairs. Knowing what you are doing but also not really knowing what you are doing. Everyone else seems to have a plan, while your own research project ideas appear like some scribbled sentence scraps that you wrote down in the middle of the night (which maybe you did). Loose threads of thoughts that need to be woven together so that eventually they may make some sense, whilst coming along with an ever-growing to-do list. 

The project idea generation phase can feel like entering an open space – you, on your own – with steps and voices echoing from non-existing walls. Ideas floating by like passing clouds in the sky. Some make you feel giddy, as they catch your interest and seem important; others you let pass by, as they appear unfeasible or out-of-reach. The choice to select which clouds are worth pursuing, seems impossible to make, on your own. This phase can feel especially intense as a postdoc, since this is often the first time you get to realise your own research ideas. Creativity, ingenuity and passion – this combination can be both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes you may ask yourself: ‘why do I make my life so much more difficult than necessary?’.

The main mission of a scientist is to find a research gap, and to respond to this gap with your research. Projects, papers and project grant applications – all are centred around and based on the gap. There are many tips and tricks out there on how to find this gap. You can get inspiration from the ‘more-research-is-needed’ part of research articles, from conferences, and from being long enough in the field to know what is missing. Personally, I get a lot of inspiration from teaching and supervising students. Yet, this blog entry is not dedicated to how to find the gap, but rather, on how to exist and persist in an excellent research gap. A gap so excellent, that you feel lonely and lost in this space, since no one else is really working on it. If you are in this gap – congratulations! It is nowadays an achievement to find a knowledge gap so big that you lack good literature to back it up and/or miss extensive support from colleagues in the field. 

Being in the gap also means that you are following your interests and want to make an impact, and that you are not bending your ideas ‘only’ to get the next grant or easy publication. This is admirable.  

Personally, I feel like I found a significant research gap, allowing for valuable contribution, but at the same time I feel like I am decreasing my chances for successful grant applications. To begin with, one needs to write project proposals from scratch, without having an exemplary template from similar and previously successful projects nor can one rely on colleagues’ extensive and detailed guidance if they have not really worked in this area of research. Often those projects do not only fit in one box or belong to one specialty, but intersect and overlap thematic fields, bringing up the question as to where you belong and whether there is even a funding agency that fits well. Inter- and transdisciplinary projects are widely requested, yet the research and financing infrastructure still seem to catch up to accommodate such projects. Additionally, one wants the novel elements of the new project to connect to the other things you are doing in your postdoc. It should align, at least partly, with the expertise in your group and your supervisor. All with the main aim to create a project where all the puzzle pieces of your research and teaching activities are fitting neatly together in one big research mission – by finding the suitable puzzle pieces, answering the gap and aligning with or finding new interests. Wow, what a task. But not unfeasible, I would hope – but I am not sure yet, as I am only entering the big grant application marathon this spring for the first time.

I would like to see myself as a potential aspiring changemaker. And is that not all we want to be as scientists? Should that not have priority, over redoing things that have already been done, just in a slightly different way, to play safe and secure that grant money? Boring. I guess time will tell if one can survive as a researcher on passion projects. Fingers crossed for the changemakers.

“That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” – John Keating in The Dead Poets Society

Here some subjective tips on how to exist and persist in the gap: 

• Dare to do things differently than usual/everyone else. Even if it seems hard or requires more work to ‘go against the stream’ – or rather to ‘create your own stream’.
• Don’t give up, persist, repeat. Most important is that you are convinced of your idea and this alone will slowly, hopefully, lead you all the way to success.
• Find your research partner(s) in crime. Even if people are not 100% with you on the same topic, there are so many people around you that are passionate about similar things (fellow changemakers) and that are happy to give you feedback or help you out where they can. I would like to highlight the importance and value of networking, good supervision and mentorship here. 
• Real enthusiasm, motivation and interest will show. And eventually convince people, and get the ball rolling, even if slowly.
• Do regular reality checks on ideas. To not get carried away into dead-ends… 
• Be involved in multiple projects. So that while your passion project matures – you can expand your network, learn, gain experience and credibility.
• Show your face and get involved! Participate in workshops, events, conferences, committees – talk with people about your ideas, interests and your research and connect with the like-minded. Get into teaching and talk with students. LinkedIn is also a fantastic place to show up, spread the word and stay in the loop with relevant events (however do all of this while remaining authentic).