Hi Alison,

I’m sure you will get a mix of responses to this with people doing all of the things you mentioned or perhaps a mix of them. I have most experience of Research Professional but have also used Research Connect. Both are very useful tools and although I do get funding alerts myself and will forward them to people if I think they may be of interest I tend to spend more time working one to one with researchers to help them think through where they might secure funding from. There are a few reasons for this:

1) It helps researchers to ‘own’ their research and potential opportunities and I think ulitimately makes them more proactive. If they can set up their own funding alerts and searches I think they tend to have better results as a) they know their research area best and b) they can use terms that are relevant and specific to them.

2) I think if they own their research opportunity searches it helps them to think more broadly about where their research might fit and how it could be adapted/shaped etc to enable presentation to different funders. When I send opportunities to people it tends to be in their narrow field as I am not so immersed in their research areas – these opportunities may be relevant but it may not given them the full picture of potential opportunities.

3) I think it is important to get researchers to search for their own opportunities otherwise there is a risk they become overly dependent on the research office sending things out. This results (in my experience) of potential opportunities being missed as well as researchers not getting enough time to respond. If they get individual alerts they will get the maximum time to respond.

Although doing all the above is time intensive I think it does pay off. It is always a breakthrough moment when researchers start coming to me with opportunities instead of me sending them across to them! I think by helping them to invest in their own searches and owning their research the rewards are greater in the long term. Having said all that I think funding bulletins, emails, etc can compliment any research support service and I will still forward things on as and when approrpiate!

I hope that helps – that’s generally how I approach it when working with researchers,

Lachlan