91TV

/ Grants at the Royal Society

SUSTAIN

This one-year programme supports women in research to develop leadership and career potential, through career development workshops, mentoring and networking opportunities.

Status: Closed

  • Open date

  • Close date

  • Decision by

Changes to the programme

91TV is collaborating with the Academy of Medical Sciences to expand the SUSTAIN activities and enable more women researchers to benefit from the programme. From rounds 13 to 15, the Royal Society will increase the number of places offered to its funded early career researchers from 8 to 16 and the Academy of Medical Sciences will increase its places from 4 to 6. Please read the SUSTAIN guidance for information about the programme content and the application process.

About the programme

The year-long programme offers skills-building training and career development sessions, tailored mentoring and the opportunity to network with research leaders.

It is designed to bring participants together as a unique cohort, creating a safe and supportive space to share learnings and enable them to thrive in their careers.

What does the programme offer?

Interactive career development workshops

The workshops will be tailored to support attendees’ professional growth as they navigate the challenges of combining research, teaching, clinical practice and caring and other responsibilities where relevant. Previous sessions have included topics on:

  • Time management
  • Negotiation
  • Media skills
  • Setting up a research team for success
  • Developing your leadership style

A peer support network

Participants will be matched in co-coaching trios to enable ongoing peer support and safe discussion of issues/challenges. Small group work at each workshop helps to embed and put into practice key learning points. There will also be launch and end-of-cycle networking events that will bring together the wider SUSTAIN community giving current and past participants, mentors and key stakeholders the opportunity to connect and share their knowledge and experiences with one another.

One-to-one mentoring

Participants will be paired with a Fellow of either the Royal Society or the Academy of Medical Sciences. In addition, or in place of this mentor, participants can choose to be paired with a SUSTAIN alumna as well.

Leadership shadowing

This element will help participants to gain insights of different forms of leadership and observe the decision-making and relationship-management in action. Each participant will be matched with a leader in academia, industry, government, or a third sector organisation to experience what leadership looks like in that context.

The programme is open to award holders of the following schemes:

91TV

  • Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship
  • Sir Henry Dale Fellowship
  • University Research Fellowship
  • Career Development Fellowship

The Academy of Medical Sciences

  • Springboard Award
  • Starter Grant Award for Clinical Lecturers

The Royal Academy of Engineering

  • Research Fellow
  • Engineering for Development Research Fellows

A total of 24 places are available for SUSTAIN round 13. This includes 16 places for Royal Society Research Fellows, two places for Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellows and six places for Research Fellows from the Academy of Medical Sciences with three places reserved for clinical and three for non-clinical researchers. Each slot will be randomly allocated within the pool of applicants from each organisation.

91TV welcomes applications from disabled applicants and provides adjustments to ensure that they can participate fully in the programme. If you need an adjustment when accessing the application form or attending workshops and events, please contact the Team via researchfellowengagement@royalsociety.org or call +44 20 7451 2666. All requests for adjustments are made in confidentiality.

Please direct any questions to researchfellowengagement@royalsociety.org.

Downloads

Related content