DEAKIN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Research Development Workshop Series Workshop 3 2015

“Keep your Eyes on the Prize - How to target and apply for research prizes and awards to develop your track record”

Wednesday 24 June via video conference

Notes and documents following the workshop

Chair: David Cahill. Associate Dean (Research)

Invited speakers for this workshop

• Dr Georgina Kelly, Research Development Manager, Deakin Research – Research and Research training

• Dr Anne Brocklebank Proud, Faculty Research Grants and Analysis Manager.

• Dr Beata Ujvari, Senior Research Fellow, School of Life and Environmental Sciences.

Secretary: Teresa Treffry

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● ● ●Contents ● ● ●

Introduction: Chair David Cahill Associate Dean (Research) .…………………………………………………..…… 3

Presentation 1 overview and notes ……………………..………………………………………………………….…….….… 4

• PowerPoint presentation from Dr Georgina Kelly ……………….…………………………….…….…… 5

Presentation 2 overview and notes ……………………..……………………………………………………………………… 17

• PowerPoint presentation from Dr Anne Brocklebank Proud.… ……………………..………..….. 18

Presentation 3 overview and notes ……………………..……………………………………………………………………… 33

• PowerPoint presentation from Dr Beata Ujvari .……………………….…………………….………..… 34

This is the third in in a series of workshops planned for 2015

The notes and slide presentations from all workshops are available via the following links

SEBE staff intranet - https://wiki.deakin.edu.au/display/SEBE/Research+Administration

SEBE Information for HDR students - http://www.deakin.edu.au/sebe/research/student-information

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Introduction ……………………………………………….………………………………… Chair David Cahill

This is the third in a series of Faculty research workshops planned for 2015. Previous workshops looked in depth at the issues that need to be considered when entering into an industry partnership and Deakin staff members who have all had considerable success with industry collaboration provided their insights into the process. Today’s presentations look at the many opportunities to improve our C.V’s and track records by applying for prizes and awards. The guest speakers will be known to many of you. I would also like to thank Associate Professor Dinh Phung, who is not able to be here today but has provided information on the awards and prizes that have been won by PRADA members. Guest speakers for this session are:

• Dr Georgina Kelly, Research Development Manager, Research and Research training, giving an overview of the why and how of applying together with writing tips for preparing your application.

• Dr Anne Brocklebank Proud SEBE Research Grants and Analysis Manager, together with input from Associate Professor Dinh Phung, relating this information more specifically to SEBE and prizes that have been awarded in the Faculty

• Dr Beata Ujvari, speaking from personal experience and noting how a relatively small award can prove to be the foundation of greater things.

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Overview and notes from workshop…………………………………..….. Secretary: Teresa Treffry

Presentation 1

Dr Georgina Kelly, notes that prizes and awards are often overlooked but are important for a number of reasons, not least because they look good on your C.V. When looking at elements of a track record these are seen as very prestigious and one thing that will set you apart.

The PowerPoint presentation considers the following.

1. Why apply for awards and prizes?

2. Where to find the applications? • There are a great many awards and prizes available with the ‘peak season’ being

from February to April. A list of places to start looking is given on the slide but the track record of your peers may also be helpful, what they have won is probably also appropriate for you to apply for.

3. What are the elements of a good writing style?

• Be clear, address the goals and avoid adding extra or irrelevant information. Remember that the application is likely to be assessed by a panel of intelligent lay people. Get someone outside your field to review your application.

• Be correct, check eligibility and stick to the format approximately a quarter to a third of all applicants do not do this and are ruled out immediately.

• Be compelling, use facts and figures to back up your information, avoid generalisations such as ‘many’, ‘several’ ‘a lot’ etc.

• Make your application easy to read, use short sentences and paragraphs. Refer back to a summary of the award and the scoring criteria to get some idea of the language to use. Relevant diagrams may be included but not on the first page. [It was noted that diagrams are not advisable when applying for grants e.g. A.R.C.]

4. Other strategies for success.

• Past winners/ finalists are often listed on websites and can give you some idea as to the track record of those who win.

• Application forms can be very similar, consider submitting the same application for other awards but do rework as appropriate and avoid a cut and paste approach. It’s fine to use the same referees if you can.

• Be aware that if an award includes research funding or requires endorsement, it may need to come through Deakin Research.

• Help is available as Georgie Kelly can also work with you to polish a draft or work out the right angle

The full slide presentation from Dr Georgina Kelly with additional information follows.

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Prizes and Awards

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Awards and Prizes - Why?

• Peer recognition of work• Indicator of quality• Some include cash, grants or fellowships to further

research• Can gain publicity and attention for you and your

work• Applications are often brief, don’t take a lot of time

• Leveraging research you’ve already done, small time investment.

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Elements of a track record

• Publications (quality, number, citations)• Funding• Awards/Prizes• Evidence of impact – citations, patents, takeup by

users (industry/government/community), invitations to speak etc.

• General activity and leadership in field – professional organisations, conference organisation etc.

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Where to find prizes and awards

• Professional organisations• Learned academies (AAH, ASSA, ATSE, AAS)• Publishers• Conferences• Government• Universities (+ Faculties) (Deakin has a Vice-

Chancellor’s Award for ECRs)• Look at CVs of peers (benchmarking) and see

what they have won/been shortlisted for

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Writing

• Clear• Correct• Compelling

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Clear• Know your message• What are the goals of the funding body?

– Write for these• Address selection criteria

– Use the same words, bold font etc. to draw attention to key points

• Who will assess the application? How technical can the language be?– Safest to assume intelligent layperson. Find someone

outside your field to critique writing

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Correct

• Check eligibility• Use required format• Stick to word/page limits• Check spelling, grammar

– Get someone else to proofread

• Supply all required information– Don’t include irrelevant detail

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Compelling

• What makes you/your discovery stand out?• What is now/will be possible because of

you/your work?• Importance/impact (may be potential)• Facts, figures, statistics, evidence• Sell success

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Make it easy for the judges

• Use short sentences and paragraphs• White space on page• Diagrams if appropriate• Headings, key words, scoring criteria

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Things to consider

• Past winners/finalists are often listed on websites. Have a look to see if your nomination is appropriate. – Have you got the track record?– Is the field appropriate?– Can also indicate style of language to use.

• Referees/nominators can be critical– Ideally someone who knows you/your work and also has

standing in the field– Gives credibility

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Come up with a strategy

• Many application forms are very similar• Once you’ve done one, it can be easy to

modify/extend for other awards/prizes– ***but do rework, judges dislike seeing direct “cut and

paste” applications that haven’t been tailored

• Hunt for local, national and international awards that you may be eligible for (most rules allow for you to enter the same discovery for multiple prizes)

• See if you can reuse referees– They can also adapt previous reports, saves work

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Applications

• May need to come through Deakin Research – if the award includes research funding or requires endorsement.

• Help is available• Georgie Kelly can work with you to polish a draft or

work out the right angle

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Presentation 2

Dr Anne Brocklebank Proud is the Research Grants and Analysis Manager for the Faculty, with a background dealing almost exclusively with grant issues, awards and prizes are a relatively new area. However it is one of increasing interest to the Vice Chancellor and as noted in the presentation there are many differences between a research grant and an award

The PowerPoint presentation looks at these differences, clarifies the terminology and gives an overview of the SEBE process. It also details some of the many grants and awards available and shows awards and prizes won by PRADA [with thanks to Associate Professor Dinh Phung for this information].

In addition the following tips are given

• General guidelines. When completing any application, don’t send in a draft without reading it through first. Don’t be too conversational and do use positive language. [Anne spoke from personal experience here, as she had recently applied for a travel grant and felt that these things, including the fact that an implication had been made that the Faculty would cover the cost of travel if the award was not available, had negatively impacted on the application. However after the workshop it was discovered that the application had been successful after all]

• SEBE prizes and awards are announced approximately 2 months before the deadline for application. Depending on type they are announced either on the SEBE awards page. https://wiki.deakin.edu.au/display/SEBE/Awards+and+opportunities+for+recognition+for+faculty+staff+and+students Or the SEBE Grants/Fellowships/Travel grants page https://wiki.deakin.edu.au/display/SEBE/Research+Grants%2C+Fellowships+and+Travel+grants+for+Faculty+staff . Check these and add relevant dates to your calendars.

• There are a number of popular awards for ECR’s (see slide 6 for list) However there are variations as to how ECR is interpreted. This can be by age <35 or <40 or relate to the number of years post PhD. We don’t always have this information for researchers (and it can be embarrassing to ask) so please feel free to contact for more information if you feel you qualify.

• There are many awards for MCR’S and a sample of these are given (slide7). Together with a list of senior /career awards which are extremely prestigious. (slide 8)

The full slide presentation from Dr Anne Brocklebank Proud follows

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CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B

SEBE WORKSHOPPRIZES AND AWARDSJUNE 2015

DR ANNE BROCKLEBANK PROUD –MANAGER, RESEARCH GRANTS & ANALYSIS, SEBE

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TERMINOLOGY – IT’S CONFUSING!• Terms used include;

– Prize– Award– Medal– Fellowship– Grant– Scholarship

• Most used interchangeably, although a “grant” is usually a grant-in-aid, ie covers part of cost of future research

• Merit-based prizes and awards are mainly for past performance; however• Certain Travel grants or fellowships (for future work) are also prestigious• Always check the Guidelines

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SEBE PROCESS FOR PRIZES/AWARDS• Prize/Award opens for nomination/application – approx. 2 months before deadline• Advertised via Associate HoS (R) to SEBE Schools• Added to Faculty internal web pages – Awards; or Grants/Fellowships/Travel

grants• Faculty review prize/award guidelines and may nominate person(s) with a

competitive track record• Applicants who approach Faculty may also apply after reviewing guidelines• Applicants can receive a grantsmanship check/advice on the application, either

from Georgie Kelly, or Anne BP.• Successful applicants noted on the Awards web page

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SEBE PRIZES/AWARDS WEB PAGE• Managed by Stuart Palmer

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SEBE GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS/TRAVEL GRANTS WEB PAGE• Managed by Anne BP

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POPULAR SCIENCE PRIZES/AWARDS FOR ECRs

• AIPS Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Awards (<35 yo)• Top 5 under 40• L'Oréal Australia & New Zealand For Women in Science Fellowships (<5

years post-PhD)• ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Award (<5 years post-PhD)• Scopus Young Researcher Awards (<40 yo)• Australian Academy of Science Awards – various (<10 years post-PhD)• Australian Museum Eureka Prize – ECR (<35 yo or <5 years post-PhD)• Victoria Fellowships (no age limit but ECRs preferred)• Smart Geelong Awards (ECR <5 years qualified)

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SCIENCE PRIZES/AWARDS FOR MCRs•Australian Academy of Science Awards –various (<15 years post-PhD)

•VESKI - Inspiring women fellowships (career break)

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SCIENCE PRIZES/AWARDS FOR SENIOR/CAREER AWARDS

•Australian Academy of Science Awards –various

•Membership of various Academies including AAS, ATSE

•Victoria Prize•Prime Minister’s Prize for Science•Royal Society Medal

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EXAMPLES OF RECENT SEBE AWARDEES• A/Prof Giovanni Turchini –Nutrition Society Medal• Dr Jacqui Adcock - Peter W. Alexander Medal for

Early Career Excellence in Analytical Chemistry (RACI)

• PhD student Justin Eastwood – Smart Geelong -Innovation in infectious diseases award

• A/Prof Paul Francis – VC’s award for Ideas• PRaDA awards• Dr Beata Ujvari 26

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AWARDS WON BY PRADAMEMBERS

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2015• PAKDD’15 Best Paper Award, given to Dr Sunil Gupta, Dr Santu Rana, A/Prof. Dinh

Phung, Prof. Svetha Venkatesh – authors of the paper: “A Multi-Relational Approach toMulti-Task Learning” Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD’15),303-316, 2015. PAKDD is rank A conference.

• PAKDD'15 Best Student Runner-up Paper Award, given to Shivapratap Gopakumar(PhD student) , Tu Dinh Nguyen (PhD student) , Dr Truyen Tran, A/Prof. Dinh Phung,and Prof. Svetha Venkatesh : “Stabilizing Sparse Cox Model using Statistic andSemantic Structures in Electronic Medical Records”, Advances in Knowledge Discoveryand Data Mining (PAKDD’15), HCM City, Vietnam, May 2015. PAKDD is rank Aconference.

• The Third Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLFF) selected Tien-Vu Nguyen (PhD) forparticipation (where top 100 young researchers in the field of Computer Science willbe selected worldwide to meet and interact with Field and Turing Award Laureates)

• ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award, given to Dr Truyen Tran, as co-author ofthe paper “Characterization and prediction of issue-related risks in software projects”,with Morakot Choetikertikul, Hoa Khanh Dam, and Aditya Ghose, The 12th WorkingConference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR’15), May 16–17. Florence, Italy.

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2014• CRESP Best Paper Award, Early Career Researcher, given to Dr Truyen Tran for the paper: “Risk stratification

using data from electronic medical records better predict suicide risks than clinician assessments”, Truyen Tran, Wei Luo, Dinh Phung, Richard Harvey, Michael Berk, Richard Lee Kennedy, Svetha Venkatesh, BMC Psychiatry, 14:76, 2014, doi:10.1186/1471-244X-14-76. The CRESP Award is for the best paper of the year in Australia in the area of suicide prevention. CRESP is NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention.

• Distinguished Plenary Speaker Award, given to Dr Gang Li at IEEE Conference on Enterprise Systems by IEEE CIS EA/EIS TC.

• PAKDD Best Student Award, given to Dr Gang Li, co-author of the paper: “Deferentially private taggingrecommendation based on topic model”, with Tianqing Zhu, Wanlei Zhou, Ping Xiong, and Cao Yuan, the18th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD), 2014.

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2014 (CONT.)• Best Presentation Award, given to Thuong Nguyen (PhD student) at School of IT HDR Annual Conference 2014.• Winner of the IEEE Deakin University Student Branch Postgraduate Poster Competition, given to Thanh Binh

Nguyen (PhD student). The poster was based on the paper “Unsupervised Inference of Significant Locations from WiFi Data for Understanding Human Dynamics”, by Thanh-Binh Nguyen, Thuong Nguyen, Wei Luo, Svetha Venkatesh, Dinh Phung,, Pages 232MUM '14 Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia-235.

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2013

• Victorian International Education Award 2013 (research engagement category), Victorian StateGovernment, Australia, given to Deakin University for TOBY Playpad version in Indian (work by PRaDA,TOBY’s team).

• Geelong Chamber of Commerce Smart Technology Award, given to the PRaDA team lead by Prof.Svetha Venkatesh for the work in suicide prevention.

• Barwon Health Researcher of the Year, awarded to Prof. Svetha Venkatesh for the work in suicideprevention.

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2012• IEEE/ACM ASONAM 2012 Best Paper Award, given to Dr Gang Li, co-author of the paper: “Learning

rating patterns for top-N recommendations”, with Yongli Ren, Gang Li, and Wanlei Zhou, the 2012IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM),pages 472–479, Istanbul Turkey, 2012.

• Smart Geelong Network Researcher of the Year, awarded to Prof. Svetha Venkatesh for the TOBYPlaypad, a smart tool for help children with autism and their family.

• Geelong Chamber of Commerce Smart Technology Award, won by PRaDA "for the development of aniPad app providing educational therapy aimed at social, language, sensory and cognitive skills forchildren with autism spectrum disorder".

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Presentation 3

Dr Beata Ujvari, is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. As a researcher who did not fit into the usual categories for funding and awards, it was necessary to be more creative.

The PowerPoint presentation details how a little help can eventually lead to an international reputation. In this case an initial grant of $2,000 proved to be a starting point that led to new collaborations, a joint grant application and the publishing of journal papers. The editing of a book for Elsevier and the establishment of a laboratory followed.

After unsuccessful applications for ARC and Australian funding. The group self-funded and publication attracted additional funds and media interviews, which were also helpful in the publicity they provided.

Advice to others (and answers to questions from the floor) as follows

• Don’t give up, seize every opportunity and continue to network. Remember to acknowledge and thank any person or organisation that provides support.

• ‘Will you submit another ARC application?’ – Yes, will apply again this year, though somewhat disheartened by the experience so far. The team is also considering overseas grants.

• ‘Should you list a ‘near miss’ on your CV’? – Yes, if you are a finalist for a prestigious award note on your CV that you were shortlisted.

• ‘What support is available’? You are able to contact Anne Brocklebank-Proud who is able to help with guidelines, making sure you are able to address criteria, budgets and general ‘grantsmanship’;

• ‘What about online awards’? Do let Anne or Georgina Kelly know if you apply for an award, especially if you are successful. This is not essential but if you do win senior staff may wish to attend.

The full PowerPoint presentation from Dr Beata Ujvari, detailing how success was achieved from small beginnings follows.

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A little help can take you far2010-2014: USyd, Postdoc – Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease

2012: Deans Discretion Funds (Fac.Vet. Sci. USyd) to attend the National Cancer Institute Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention, NCI USA

$2,000AUD

2012: Nominated to establish and chair the Comparative Oncology Special Interest Group and the USyd Cancer Research Network

2013-2014: Member of organizing/program committee of 2 national + 2 international conference

2013-2015: Invited speaker at several national / international conferences

2014-2015: Joint grant applications with collaborators (ARC+ EU), 12 publications, setting up an “EU International Laboratory”

2015: Commissioned to edit a book for Elsevier

2015: Building national and international collaboration award, SLE, Deakin University

Met collaborators

Kept contact with

collaborators

Maintain collaboration,

edit book, build IntLab

International reputation

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A little help can take you far

2013. Ujvari, B., Mun, H-C, Osterkamp, J., Conigrave, A., Madsen, T. 2013. Isolation breeds naivety: island living robs Australian varanid lizards of toad-toxin immunity via four-base-pair mutation. Evolution 67: 289-294.

2004: National Geographic Grant: Monitoring the effect of the invasive cane toads on native predators in the NT

$10,000AUD

2005, 2006, 2007, 2008: Applied for ARC and Australian funding $0AUD

2013: Whitehead Bequest, Fac. Vet. Sci. USyd $5,000AUD

2013: Ian Potter Foundation Science Grant $15,000AUD

2014: Ian Potter Foundation Travel Award $2,400AUD

2014: Deakin CRG Grants $12,00AUD

2015: Invited member of the IUCN Monitor Lizard Specialist Group, collaborations with ULiverpool + UQ

Media release

Media interviews

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