£4477+VAT If paying by corporate credit card [to pay by Purchase Order or personal credit card please contact us to pay at the discounted rate of £4389+VAT] Please note 1) we will NOT accept payment by personal credit card where the payee expects to claim the costs back from their university and is therefore simply looking to pass the additional costs of card processing onto our small business... thank you for your understanding, and 2) surcharges will apply to cover the additional costs on in-person mock interviews.

Pre-interview coaching

6 x Zoom (WebEx for ERC mock interviews) discussions (approx. 45mins each) with you as an individual proposer/your team covering:

  • Session 1: Introduction/general discussion/tips/strengths & weaknesses/Key message/question catalogue/optimising responses (please book this as soon as possible).
  • Session 2: progress update, presentation (if required), key responses, etc.
  • Session 3: (booked offline) directly after mock 1, analysis of performance, prioritisation of areas for development/those to maintain as already working well & action planning.
  • Session 4: progress update, presentation (if required), key responses, etc.
  • Session 5: (booked offline) directly after mock 2, analysis of performance, prioritisation of areas for development/those to maintain as already working well & action planning. 
  • Session 6: last minute tips, visualisation techniques for maximising your confidence & calmness, physical tips for handling nerves & ensuring peak performance on the day, plus any other tips not already covered!

     

Chairing/facilitation of 2 mock interviews (2 works sooooo much better than 1!):

  • The times/dates MUST be arranged by someone within your institution and coordinated with us.
  • We need ~3 mock interviewers drawn from senior staff with experience connected to the scheme and/or who technically mirror the make up of your real interview panel.  For long and/or complex/strategic funding  interviews we may request additional mock interviewers.
  • Your RiF coach will supply a briefing document to the panel ~7 days prior to the mock to ease their preparation.
  • Your RiF coach will chair the mock interviews including:
    • closed panel briefing,
    • simulated interview following the exact procedures used by the funding organisation,
    • additional time for extra questions,
    • feedback on both presentation (if relevant), question responses, etc.
  • Mock 1:approx 2 weeks before the real interview. View this as a semi experimental mock i.e. do your best (& get all the gremlins out) but be prepared to receive a lot of feedback..
  • Coaching session 3 follows directly on from mock 1.
  • Mock 2: approx 1 week before the real interview. This is the performance "honing" mock. Feedback will hopefully be in the form of "tweaks" rather than major overhauls to allow you to offer peak performance in the real interview!
  • Coaching session 5 follows directly on from mock 2.
  • We will (assuming no participants object) record both mocks, and strongly encourage you to watch them back to see how you come across. These are 100% private recordings so are for your eyes only (and your coach, if you request that we re-watch an element in order to better advise you).
  • Please note that the price offered here assumes that the mocks take place online i.e. using Zoom/TEAMs/WebEx. We have Pro subscriptions to both Zoom and WebEx as these are the systems utilised by UKRI and the ERC respectively.  If your real interview is taking place in-person our recommendation is that (unless all your colleagues are back to work in-person 100% of the time) mock 1 take place online as it is focused mainly on content and that mock 2 take place in-person.  In the case of in-person mocks we will need to levy an additional charge to cover our T&S expenses, unless these are negligible. We will also require your support in securing an appropriate meeting room for mock 2 and coaching session 5.

 

Our services are underpinned by a philosophy of partnership. We will bring the best of our grant craft expertise, you bring direct subject area expertise, and together we will work to increase the likelihood of your proposal being funded!

 

If you want to hear about any of our other services/receive links to our occasional blog posts, please ensure you tick the "subscribe to our email list" box above, otherwise you'll ONLY hear from us about this service. Of course, we'd never, ever share your details and you can unsubscribe at any time - we care about privacy!

 

Please request a formal quotation to enable your university to pay via Purchase Order (we will supply you with an access code to book your sessions as soon as we have received your Purchase Order) or for INSTANT access please use your university's purchasing card for immediate access. Sadly, the processing fees on corporate credit cards are a significant cost to a small business. Please contact us for a discount if you plan to cover our fee via  a Purchase Order or if you are having to pay for yourself using your own personal credit card (please do NOT use this route to then claim the costs back as an expense. We still have to pay a significant fee to process your payment but it is illegal for us to pass this onto you. We'd much rather your organisation paid for you via a Purchase Order). Thanks for supporting our small business!

 

Disclaimers, Ts&Cs, etc:

Please ensure you have read our Ts&Cs, Disclaimer & Code of Conduct on our main homepage: www.researchinfocus.com and our online courses/coaching homepage https://research-in-focus.mykajabi.com/ before signing up.

We will provide you with advice to the best of our ability and based upon our continuously evolving professional competence/experience. What you do with that advice is up to you.

Sadly we cannot wave a magic wand and force a successful outcome for your proposal. We cannot control the actions of the funding body/peer reviewers/panel members/other proposers or anyone else associated with your proposal, nor whether your proposal is within a "hot" topic. Accessing any of our services means that you ACCEPT that we CANNOT guarantee funding success, even if you decide to act upon every piece of advice we offer!

 

Please note that due to the administrative overhead of selling to overseas customers is untenable to us as a small business.  Therefore, we are only able to offer our services to UK BASED individuals and/or organisations; thanks for your understanding!  By signing up to our services, you are confirming that you/the organisation covering our fee on your behalf is based in the UK for tax purposes.

 

Purchase Orders/discount requests to: [email protected] please.