Urban Futures & Social Change Symposia

Writing for a wider audience – Workshop

12:00 - 1:30pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus

Communicating your research is about more than just writing journal papers. To create impact, academics are increasingly looking to share their research in other forums like The Conversation, industry newsletters, LinkedIn and more. Writing for these other forums is a different type of writing. This session will go through the tips and tricks of how to write based upon different audiences and where you are publishing. You will also work on a draft pitch for an article for the general public.

Dr Jing Qi is experienced in communicating research outcomes in non-academic outlets such as The Conversation, University World News, and contributed policy submissions.

Dr Trivess Moore has extensive experience in presenting research outcomes for different audiences including The Conversation, The Fifth Estate and policy submissions.

Research grant writing 101 – Workshop

12:00 - 1:30pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus

Finding funding for research is critical to being a successful academic. So, where do you start and how do you put together a grant proposal to give yourself the best chance of success? Hear from the Research Proposals team about what grant applications tend to ask about and how to respond. Learn some tips and tricks and about some common mistakes. Following this, there will be a panel of three researchers who will discuss their experiences in putting together post-doctoral and research grant applications. Find out what worked, and what they wish they knew earlier.

This workshop is facilitated by Emma Hegarty, a Grant Developer in the R&I Research Proposals team. She will be joined in a panel discussion by Dr Louise Dorignon, ARC DECRA Fellow, Dr Brian Considine, Lecturer in Civil and Infrastructure Engineering with Research Fellow experience at Trinity College Dublin and Cambridge University, and Dr Tamara Borovica, Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT University’s Social Equity Research Centre.

Polycule situationship of the minds

5:15 - 7:15pm, Green Brain, Building 16, Level 7, RMIT City Campus

Part transdisciplinary research salon, part talk show, part dating game, Polycule Situationship of the Minds brings together a panel of HDR candidates - all researching in the LGBTIQA+ space and all at the pointy ends of their PhDs; but there the similarities end. From different schools in the college of DSC and with no disciplinary alignment, they have agreed to let Dr Stayci Taylor (in the dual roles of MC and Marriage Celebrant) put them into conversation. With the help of some low-key audience input and playful activities, we assess their ‘compatibility’ while learning about their methodological approaches, challenges and breakthroughs, and how they hope their research could change the world. Together we dream up hypothetical collaborations for our panellists, before networking over drinks and nibbles to foster some transdisciplinary relationships of our own.

Dr Stayci Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication, an award-winning screenwriter and researcher, and Program Co-manager of undergrad Creative Writing.