researchivity
Academic Smartcuts and Peak Writing Ltd. are joining forces to provide the same great services under one new name. Thank you for your patience while we develop the new website!
Please contact us at hello@researchivity.com if you have any questions about our offerings.
Research Proposals
- Idea Forge: Defining and Refining Research Projects: A four-session course to help participants put their ideas to the test before they turn them into a proposal.
- Couch to £500k: Turning an Idea into a Proposal: This ten-session programme takes a step-by-step approach to teach participants how to write a competitive grant proposal. Proposals can be larger or smaller than £500k!
- Writing Effective Narrative CVs: This is a short course designed to guide participants through creating a positive track record using UKRI’s Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format.
- ARGH! Applicant Responses that Get Heard: This self-guided course helps participants respond effectively to UKRI reviewers.
- Proposal Audits: These are designed to help improve final drafts of grant proposals before submission. We check the language, structure, and alignment to the funder’s guidance and assessment criteria to ensure the proposal is as competitive as possible. Available individually or as discounted bundles (multiple audits that can be used within a 12-month period).
Navigating Academia
- The Proactive Researcher: This short course helps early career researchers and academics establish positive habits to help their research flourish.
- Rekindling Your Research: Designed specifically for mid-career researchers, this course helps them reconnect with their career vision and develop the skills to help achieve it.
Writing Training
- Writing for Academia: This helps PhD students and post-docs write research papers that others want to read.
- Writing Retreats: Structured half- and full-day writing sessions designed to help participants make progress on their work. These contain trainer-led content and 1:1s.
Events
We offer short sessions that can be incorporated into workshops or summer/winter schools. Examples of sessions we’ve run in the past include:
- Beyond Papers: Developing a Non-Academic Profile
- Considering Audience and Purpose
- Developing Impact Activities
- Developing Public Engagement Activities
- Fellowship Interview Preparation
- Future Planning and Long-term Goals
- Habit Forming: Systems for Success
- How to Network (Without Feeling Weird)
- How Not to Write a Thesis: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- The Importance of Summaries
- Introduction to Grant Writing
- Tackling Procrastination and Time Management
Proposal Audits
These are designed to help improve final drafts of grant proposals before submission. We check the language, structure, and alignment to the funder’s guidance and assessment criteria to ensure the proposal is as competitive as possible.
Available individually or as discounted bundles (multiple audits that can be used within a 12-month period).
About Us
Hear from our clients and course participants:
How about Couch to £1.95M!? Thank you so much to both of you for your course and reading the grant as well. It was an incredible course and it helped me so much when I was writing my FLF. And it all worked!
Couch to £500k has been full of lightbulb moments for me. I went in thinking grant applications were something you could dash off in a spare hour, and came out understanding not only the level of thought and planning they require, but also that they’re completely achievable with the right guidance.
Elaine and Dan were calm, clear and consistently supportive, and that made all the difference. We tackled the application process step by step, using materials that I know I’ll keep referring back to.
Working on a real proposal throughout the course meant everything clicked into place, and the feedback on each section has been invaluable. I’m now shaping that proposal into a submission due next month. I genuinely wouldn’t be at this point without Couch to £500k.
The rigorous and comprehensive audit provided by Elaine and Dan strengthened our proposal considerably. They had exactly the right combination of skills and experience to provide advice on our EPSRC bid. Many thanks from the entire management team for helping us to achieve a successful outcome despite very strong competition.
I am usually sceptical about training courses, but I have to say this is the most useful training course I have ever undertaken. It has transformed my approach to grant writing and given me a useful method for approaching it that will hopefully pay off in the near future. Elaine and Dan were extremely helpful, not only in the live sessions and Q&As, but also in giving detailed feedback on each task that helped me develop my proposal in a structured way.
The Couch to £500K programme was extremely useful. Elaine and Dan are extremely knowledgeable and excellent resources. I am currently using many of their reminders, tips, and exercises for helping keep proposal writing on track. I would highly recommend this programme for any new academic and also for those looking for a jump start to getting back into proposal writing.
I cannot recommend this course highly enough! Dan and Elaine are incredibly knowledgeable about the process and inner workings of research proposals. It was very helpful to see how the 'other side' works. The layout of the course follows the requirements of a research proposal, and the feedback on each stage of the draft proposal was very useful.
Dan and Elaine are wonderfully generous with their time and feedback. They will answer questions by emails between sessions, give truly high-quality stellar feedback on homework and it is always simply a pleasure to communicate with them! The homework assignments and feedback from the course gave me the confidence to submit my first grant during the course.
The Couch to £500K programme was absolutely fantastic, giving a good insight into the grant writing/submission process. Plenty of practical elements mean that by the end of the programme you've got a good way along preparing a first-draft of a full grant submission. Dan and Elaine provide extremely detailed feedback on every bit of homework you submit and so you see where you can improve your writing. Can't recommend highly enough!
Rekindling Your Research has offered a friendly, inspiring and hugely constructive opportunity for me to think through the kind of relationship I've developed with my research up to reaching mid-career and how I could strengthen this in meaningful and realistic ways moving forwards.
Dan and Elaine have been consistently approachable and supportive throughout the programme, providing a safe, structured space for reflection and discussion. It's also been great to share experiences with colleagues across my institution I otherwise wouldn't have met. I’d recommend this course without hesitation - it's been by far the most worthwhile professional development programme I've ever done.
Elaine and Dan provided excellent feedback and advice during the proposal audit process. They offered clear insights into the strengths of our submission and detailed, constructive comments on how to address key areas of concern, particularly in articulating our overall vision. Their suggestions were practical and solution-focused, providing us with clear strategies to strengthen the proposal.
I've gained so much from the program, both personally and professionally. I feel far more confident as a writer and editor to review my own and others' work. I've learned strategies to manage my time, priorities, and sanity throughout the writing process – things that I will take with me many years into the future. This has been one of the best investments towards my skills development as a PhD student. I strongly urge anybody with an opportunity to sign up for this course to leverage Elaine and Dan's insights!
I would tell a colleague that the Couch to £500K programme fundamentally shifts how you approach grant writing. Rather than reacting to calls at speed, it encourages a more strategic, proactive approach to developing proposals, grounded in clear thinking and careful preparation.
The programme is intensive, but that intensity is precisely what makes it effective. If someone is serious about improving the quality and competitiveness of their proposals, this course is well worth the investment.
The Couch to £500k programme changed the course of my research career. I was always putting off getting even a little bit of writing done, but they provided an open space where I could freely write and get in-depth feedback on a regular basis. Elaine and Dan are both knowledgeable, friendly, and facilitate group discussions in a seamless manner.
Being given regular tasks to complete before the next session is a challenge, but it's that challenge and deadline that drove me to get more writing done towards my New Investigator Award than I had ever done.
Thank you so much for the journey. I can't recommend the course enough to other researchers starting towards their independence or even more experienced grant writers wishing to have a refresh.
The support and advice on our proposal audit was invaluable. The team were able to help us communicate our proposal far more clearly and importantly address the assessment criteria. They provided clear feedback, with helpful, practical suggestions of examples on how to better present the information in the proposal. Their attention to detail and ability to provide an external view on the proposal as a whole improved it beyond measure. I would highly recommend them.
An extremely useful and eye-opening program that helped me understand more about research idea generation. I strongly recommend any researchers, especially those who are at an early research career stage, to take this course. Dan and Elaine are both amazing!
I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. Although it focuses on ideas generation, the approaches taught and the tools provided by this course have benefited all aspects of my research. Elaine and Dan have been incredibly engaging and supportive throughout.
Elaine and Dan have designed a very helpful course on how to start preparing a research proposal and how to generate ideas for proposals. The course has the right balance between taught content and more active and interactive learning. They are warm, encouraging and positive and are able to create a supportive environment for the participants. With their experience and expertise, they are the perfect people to offer such a course.
The Couch to £500K programme provides practical guidance and tools, not just for use during the course, but to apply again and again to support bid development. Dan and Elaine encourage and embed good practice and positive ways of working and thinking. The course provides both structure and space to develop ideas and thinking. I highly recommend it.
Having won a few small grants, I wondered whether the Couch to £500K programme would be useful to me. The answer is a definite yes! I have found useful information, tips, and advice at every session. I would definitely recommend this course.
Dan and Elaine are wonderfully generous with their time and feedback. They will answer questions by emails between sessions, give truly high-quality stellar feedback on homework and it is always simply a pleasure to communicate with them! The homework assignments and feedback from the course gave me the confidence to submit my first grant during the course.
Elaine and Dan have created a really great programme - the course has helped me improve my writing techniques, but also more broadly helped to demystify the grant writing and submission process.
The detailed feedback on homework pushed me to develop my ideas further, and put into practice the writing tips and tricks that we discussed as a group in the live sessions.
I feel much more prepared for writing the strongest proposal possible, and I loved that the pace of the sessions meant I could carve out focus time for writing and actually stick to it. I have come away feeling much more confident in my writing and my ability to convey my ideas and my proposal's need and vision. Thank you, Elaine and Dan!
We've worked with staff & students at:
researchivity
noun (/ rɪˌsɜːtʃɪˈvɪtɪ /)
- The state or quality of being actively engaged in research, especially in a way that is purposeful, creative, and productive.
- A mindset or mode of working characterised by curiosity, critical thinking, and the development of ideas into meaningful projects.