Bouncing back

Four tips for early career healthcare researchers looking to recover from rejected bids

The first steps of a healthcare research career are often the hardest. Early career researchers (ECRs) may find themselves applying for various grants to demonstrate that their research expertise has the potential for growth. Winning funding is an indication that they are future experts within their specialty and helps them advance along a career path towards leading a large programme of research. Yet the chances of being successful in attracting research funding are slim indeed, and moving on from a funding setback can take weeks, if not months.

The first thing to remember is that even the most celebrated and distinguished senior academics—those who now seem to have to do little more than click their fingers for research funding to fall on them from out of the sky—have all known funding refusals at some point. Maybe even more recently than you think. But beyond reminding yourself of that, what is to be done? There are no quick fixes to turn failure into success, but I can still give you four tips to help move on from funding disappointment.