The Researcher Development and Research Culture (RD&RC) team has an annual fund to support the development and cascading of personal, professional and career management skills by and for postgraduate research students and early career research staff across the University of Exeter. Typically, early career staff will be research-only staff (grades E-G), however we welcome applications from academic, research and technical staff who consider themselves to be early career researchers, including, for example, lecturers, experimental officers, research software engineers.

The Researcher Led-Initiative Awards (RLIs) are intended to enable postgraduate research students and early career research staff to be creative, proactive, and empowered through the process of initiating, designing, managing, and delivering new professional development activities for their peers that will develop the skills and experience needed to progress their careers. They also offer the opportunity to experience applying for and managing a funding bid. 

Up to £2,000 per award is available to support projects, events, and initiatives e.g. speakers/facilitators, relating to specific themes. The awarding panel are looking for highly creative and innovative projects that have a lasting impact. Initiatives can by delivered via hybrid, remote and in-person activities.

Your application needs to align with one or more of the themes listed below: 

1. Developing an engaged research culture.
2. Leadership.
3. Communication.
4. Wellbeing.

Collaborative and inter-disciplinary applications are encouraged!  

As part of your application, you are asked to demonstrate the following: 

• Where applicable, cross-faculty/inter-disciplinary demand for and interest in your project. 
• Lasting impact of your initiative. 

Overview of criteria: 

1. Lead applicants must be Postgraduate Research Students or staff from the University of Exeter in academic, research or technical roles who consider themselves to be early career researchers, including, for example, lecturers, experimental officers, research software engineers.
2. Beneficiaries of the initiatives must include Postgraduate Research Students and/or University of Exeter staff in academic, research or technical roles who consider themselves to be early career researchers. Please note: a. Applications from Postgraduate Research Students must include other Postgraduate Research Students as beneficiaries. b. Applications from Staff in academic, research or technical roles must include other University of Exeter staff in the same roles.  
3. We warmly welcome activities that are collaborative and inter-disciplinary in nature.  
4. The initiatives must be completed and paid for by the 27th June 2025. 
5. Successful applicants must agree to fulfil the responsibilities outlined in the ‌‌Award Holders' Responsibilities‌ which includes taking full responsibility for managing the financial demands of the award. A 'How to ...' Guide will be made available to successful applicants.
6. The proposed activities must directly benefit parties beyond the named applicants, fully reflecting the beneficiaries detailed in the application. 
7. You will be required to provide details on how you propose for the project to have a long-term impact. E.g. producing accompanying resources, guidance etc. 
8. You will be required to evaluate your activity, provide a short written report in the style of a blog and send it to the RD&RC Team: researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk 
9. We cannot fund an activity that is essential for any already-funded project’s success – activities must be additional to that planned for existing funded activity. 
10. Activities should not replicate those which are already offered by the University. 
11. Applicants must not have previously received more than 2 consecutive years of funding (for example if you/your co-authors or the activity have been awarded money from RLIs for the previous 2 years you will not be eligible for this round.  These awards are designed to help start initiatives, not act as continued funding). 
12. Funding for internal room bookings, travel to conferences or individual professional development are outside the scope of these awards. 
13. Award holders cannot pay themselves from the fund to manage, administer or participate e.g. as a facilitator or presenter in their awards.
14. Activities need to be advertised through Eventbrite and the link shared with the RD&RC team: researcherdevelopment@exeter.ac.uk

Application Deadline (forms to be submitted in .doc/.docx format) on Thursday 5 December 2024 at 12 Noon.

Webinar “How to Prepare a Strong Researcher-Led Initiative (RLI) Application” – 18/11/2024 (1-2 pm).

Download the Application Form: RLI 2025 Application Form‌

RLIs 2024 Award Holders

• David Sünderhauf - Penryn Campus Microbiology networking away day
• Elaine Hutchinson - Creative Researching
• Hannah Britton - Access to Artefacts - Creating a Guideline for Collaborations Between Collections and Researchers
• Harriet Hunt - Beyond the goldfish bowl: communicating research creatively
• Isahbella Rai - ArticuLab: Cultivating Creative Dialogues in Research
• James Chelliah - Catalysing Impact: Empowering Health and Life Sciences Early-Career Researchers for Commercialisation Success
• Jessica Bollen - Fostering Cross-Discipline Early and Mid-Career Collaboration within the University of Exeter
• Natasha Hammond - Penryn PGR peer-to-peer support network
• Ruolin Leng - Breaking new ground
• Shokraneh Moghadam - Our stories: A short film about professional development within academia and beyond
• Xuan Zhao - Building a Cross-Faculty Academic Job Hunt Community

Successful award holders