Develop your ideas

If you're at the early stages of your research journey, here are some things to consider to help develop your ideas.

Talk to your Department

Your Department are a great place to start. They can help you with formulating your ideas, and finding contacts.

Network and find collaborators

Discussing your ideas with other researchers can be hugely beneficial, and may lead to collaboration.

Find out where to network and find collaborators at the university and beyond.

Consider the impact you want your project to make

It's important to think about the impact you'd like your project to have on society and the economy, and how you might achieve this. This could include:

• public engagement
• policy engagement
• business engagement
• commercialisation

Read more about creating a plan for impact.

Consider making your research open

Open research is creating, conducting and sharing your research as openly as possible. It's more than just sharing final papers. It’s about sharing the full journey - your data, methods and tools - so others can understand and build on your work.

Read more about why open research is important and read more about complying with your funder's open access policy.

Make a plan for managing your data

Effectively managing your data is an important part of any project. Read more about complying with the University's data management requirements.

Your funder will also have their own policies about data management. Read more about complying with your funder's data policies.

Support for early career researchers

If you are an early career researcher and not sure where to start in terms of funding and fellowships, the Careers Service has resources available on their Fellowships & Funding website, including a video to help you determine if a fellowship is right for you.