Speaker 1: Hi, today I want to talk about how to write a research statement for use in an application for a faculty position or a similar position. A research statement is a typical part of an application package for a faculty position or similar position in academia along with your teaching statement, your cover letter, your CV and your publication list. So what's important to know about writing that research statement? Here are six points and those points are based on an experience of being on search committees for several decades and also having applied for academic positions several times. The first point is people in the search committee will look at a lot of these applications and therefore a lot of research statements. So it's very important to be concise and not to overwhelm people with a lot of information. So I would look at making that research statement basically about one to three pages, three pages max I would say. And I would start with a very general statement about who you are. For example, you could write I am an ecologist with a passion for soil and my major research topics are global change biology and soil biodiversity with a focus on fungi. And then you could also list maybe some two or three or so major research questions that you have been working on and will continue to work on. Now of course it's also important that your research statement is aligned with the job description. Now you cannot completely reinvent who you are of course for every position but you can slightly tune it. For example, in this particular example of me you could say I am a fungal ecologist who works in the context of soil and with questions dealing with global change biology and soil biodiversity in general. Or if you were to apply for more of an ecosystem job you could basically emphasize the ecosystem component of that work. So without of course reinventing yourself very many times you're going to have sort of a similar foci in your research and it's important that in that beginning statement basically of your research statement you make clear how you also fit that position. Now for the same reason people having to look at a lot of these applications make sure that your research statement is very accessible and easy to read. So for example use subheaders for example for the different research lines or research questions and if you can also support those statements with short graphical abstracts and also if you're good at making graphical designs maybe this would also be an opportunity to showcase basically your entire research as an overview and a sort of a conceptual figure that you then go through in the various parts of your research statement. That of course will help people read it. The third point is make it accessible also in terms of content. You've got to realize that people on the search committee are not going to be all specialists in your particular topic so usually this is depending on the university fairly broad. So make sure that when you write your different sections for example of the research statement the different research questions or research topics that you always start with a more general statement. Why this is important and like a very broad overview lead-in sentence before you actually get into the technical detail of your work so you don't lose people that are not specialists in a particular topic. The fourth point is by all means make the effort to connect with the department or research unit that you are applying for and make that explicit. So as you go through your various research lines or research questions or topics in within your research statement make sure you align them to the extent possible of course with the expertise that's already there at that university and make clear how you could be working with this different faculty. So for example on my research line on soil biodiversity I could very well interface with professor XYZ's research because they do such and such or in terms of my research focus on ecosystems I could use the expertise or could interface well with the research group of professor B because I could use their facility or their field experiment or something like that. So of course that will not be possible for each and every one of your points depending on the department which you apply but where it makes sense by all means also mention the names. Now you are applying typically to a department and this is very important for you to fit into this department but universities have usually several departments or schools and so it's also an opportunity to look a little bit broader at that university or at that school and other departments to make sure that you don't miss some obvious opportunities for collaboration also outside of that particular department. For example you work on microplastic and therefore you could also maybe interact with somebody in chemistry who does something with polymers even though that's not within the department which you're being recruited that can also help making your application more attractive. Of course don't force any of these things this is sort of a fine line make sure that when you name somebody in the research statement there is a real connection. I think this point is very important because it also shows that you have really taken the time and have taken an interest in getting to know this place to which you're applying not only when you are there basically. So basically in advance you have taken an interest in the particular school department or university and you have actually shown how you can align with the expertise and the facilities or core facilities whatever there is how you can basically fit in there. The fifth point of course you will tell people what you did sort of in brief summaries maybe you also want to cite some key papers in there but also don't forget that this is a research statement that should also outline where you are going to take your research if you were to move there. So very often this can take the form of if I were to join your department this would enable me to do this and this together with such and such a person in that facility which would enable me to achieve this or I could add this expertise which you apparently are currently lacking in this department and so as a department overall we could achieve such and such a goal. So this is very important to make clear that you have a vision for where your research is going and it's also a good point to think about when you apply where am I actually going to go. A good question to ask yourself and also to make explicit at least for some of the themes in your research statement is where do I see myself in five years. Now where do you see yourself in five years also might imply that you have thought about what funding sources you could tap into depending on where you apply what country or whatever. It is very good if you have already thought about where you could get funding for this kind of work for example you might get for certain types of funding for more basic research but maybe there's also going to be some other funding sources for more applied aspects of your work, foundations or more regional funding that may be available there and so if you have that knowledge it is very good to put that in your research statement. For example I see myself in five years having reached major insights into how fungi aggregate soils for example and the more basic aspects of this work I see myself getting funded by National Science Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft or whatever and then for the more applied aspects of this work in such and such a context let's say agriculture I can see myself receiving funding from certain programs from the US Department of Agriculture or from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture or whatever the country is that you are applying for so I think that is very important because it shows that you have not only a vision for your research but you also have thought through how you might be able to finance that vision. And then finally the sixth point really carefully read that job ad. That job ad you have to understand is the result of a process at the university that's trying to hire and usually a bunch of different interests come together or are in conflict with each other so sometimes there is more or less a wish list of possible research topics that are listed in the job ad and this is the result of this compromise and so as you look at this list you will probably see that you fit some of them very well and maybe others not so well but this is important to have reflected in your research statement that you check as many boxes as possible. Don't overdo it like if they want somebody who works with data science or statistics or machine learning or something for example and this is not what you do then of course don't write in there that you will do that since you have no demonstrated ability to do so but if you can connect with that then by all means list it so you can check as many boxes of the topics that are listed in the job ad in the first place. So that's it. These are my six points. I think the bottom line is tailor tailor tailor to the particular job ad. You will have sort of a basic stock that you will have written that is more general but if you're really serious about a particular job then it is well worth the time to really tailor your research statement for that particular university or department. And with that good luck with your application. I hope you're successful. Thanks for watching. See you in the next one. Bye.