Original publishing date: Sep 28, 2021

Some suggestions for preparing your pitch for an upcoming CUCo symposium. 

The CUCo symposium is your opportunity to meet a group of early career (and other) researchers that you may wish to collaborate with. If you find others in the symposium that you feel a spark with, you may wish to submit a Spark grant proposal together. 

Purpose of the pitch

A research idea is the end stage of the Spark grant duration, not the starting point.The grant allows a group to get acquainted and to find out whether the foreseen unusual collaboration should indeed be continued. The pitch at the symposium thus serves to inspire and to gain interest and curiosity of participants of other disciplines, leaving ample space for them to contribute. 

• Pitches should highlight how an idea is not strictly the advancement of an individual/existing research project expanded to include others, but rather ideas that could be further developed through collaboration and thinking together. 
• Because the pitch will be short it is a great way to introduce your field of interest, so that others can feel a spark. The pitch should be of an open nature, allowing others to get on board with their ideas and research fields. 
• Ultimately, your pitch should provide a ‘hook’ and make your listener want to talk to you to explore opportunities for collaboration!!

Preparing your pitch

Some suggestions for pitches on research (freely based on UCLALibrary):

• Your pitch can last no longer than 1,5 minutes.
• You are invited to video record your pitch and send it ahead of the symposium. You may use your phone, more professional devices, if you have those available.
• If you are pitching with a group, it is most desirable to involve all members in the recording of the pitch.
• Remember that in a pitch, it is important to keep it simple and to the point. State the problem you think needs to be addressed, your research field (what do you have to offer to others?) and a direction you think a research idea could take (without defining it entirely).
• It’s important to focus on your audience when delivering a pitch. bear in mind you will be pitching your research interests to researchers from other disciplines. It’s a good idea to define or leave out technical or disciplinary terminology. Similarly, be sure to define acronyms and use everyday examples or analogies to help your audience understand key concepts that may be unfamiliar to them.
• It’s a good idea to write out a draft first and read it out loud a few times to make sure it flows and is of appropriate length.
• And most importantly, practice delivering your pitch a lot. This will help calm your nerves so you don’t freeze up. To make your pitch not sound robotic, it’s a good idea to memorize key points of your story rather than a full script.

And lastly, be enthusiastic. Recall what first sparked your interest in your research and be sure to convey that to your audience.

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Aim Spark grants

Spark Grants aim to stimulate unusual collaborations to address societal challenges. The grants do this by offering initial financial support to start building committed project teams so as to explore and develop new ideas. The grants are thus a low-threshold stimulus to start collaboration, to share knowledge and best practices, and to develop something together. Spark Grants can be used to explore the potential of an idea and/or to test whether it can be taken further and developed into a project application, for an Unusual Collaborations Grant or another funding scheme. Ideas do not need to be fully defined at the proposal stage: the Spark grant should provide support to facilitate this process. Applicants are invited to specify how this process is foreseen.

Spark grant procedure

Procedure 

The call for Spark Grants opened in September 2021, offering three submission deadlines: 

1. 1 February 2022
2. 3 May 2022 
3. 1 September 2022

Submissions are preceded by the following steps: 

• Attend a Centre for Unusual Collaborations (CuCo) Networking event (these are held throughout the year) and 
  • EITHER:  Pitch an idea/vision

1. Pitch format: 1,5-minute presentation or video.
2. Start gathering an unusual team (must include at least 3 institutes of the Alliance) 

• OR: Join an unusual team whose pitch speaks to you and your interests 
• Once you have identified some of the team members and have discussed how to proceed with the idea, please submit a proposal using the application form below. Throughout the Spark grant duration, additional members may be added to the team. 
• Please see the call for Spark applications for more information and the application form.