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Workshops and Seminars
Programming to build the applied research ecosystem at W&M.
The Engage tier of the GRI model—open to all faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers and students—aims to provide structured skill-building opportunities that develop capacity for applied research initiatives across campus.
Engage programming:
- Offers entry points into GRI for researchers across campus at any stage of the research lifecycle
- Expands the pipeline for research at W&M
- Maps the current research landscape and provide the tools needed by researchers to navigate that landscape to scale their research
Research in Progress Seminar
The GRI Research in Progress (RIP) Seminar is a monthly gathering to share early-stage research ideas, get actionable feedback from colleagues, and engage in informal networking and community building. As we welcome faculty from across W&M into GRI’s three new tiers this academic year, we are expanding opportunities for participation and incentivizing sharing ideas that are truly “in progress.” The structure for each seminar consists of three 30-minute sessions, allowing three participants, including one student, to share their research ideas.
If you are interested in sharing an early stage research idea as a presenter, email Kyle McQuillan (ksmcquillan@wm.edu). Upcoming seminars will be advertised below and are open to all faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and students.
Designing Research for Impact
This 3-part series will help faculty and students at all experience levels develop impactful research skills in an environment that encourages experimentation, failing fast, and iteration.
We recognize that measures of “impactful,” “applied,” and “sustainable” research are different across disciplines—these sessions are designed to be relevant in whatever context your work lives. We’ll help you build a roadmap to navigate W&M research infrastructure, offer protected working, thinking, and writing time, share discipline-agnostic tools and templates for research development and idea exploration, and support community-building across disciplines.
Over the course of the fall series, participants will
- Identify relevant problems of practice that they could explore through applied and/or sustainable research initiatives;
- Draft project narratives and selected components of common grant proposals;
- Develop a personalized strategy for applied/funded research in line with professional development goals and external deadlines, including tenure and promotion.
The sessions will build on one another, guiding participants through a structured process to develop and refine materials for a range of research proposals. Participants are welcome to attend an individual session as a one-off, but the most value will come from attending all sessions, which will culminate in targeted office hours for feedback on proposals and other writing or funding strategies.
Module Overview
Positioning My Scholarship: Approaches to Applied Research | September 17th, 3:30-5:00 pm | MacKenzie Theatre, Swem Library
- Description: This is the kickoff session for the series "Designing Research for Impact” and is open to faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students interested in exploring the role of research in solving complex societal challenges. In this session, participants will identify concrete ways to position their scholarship for impact. Exploring individual assumptions about research strategy and processes, participants will complete a gap analysis and ultimately draft a positioning statement that will serve as the basis for subsequent sessions in the series.
- Deliverable: Positioning statement
Identifying and Prioritizing Applied Research Ideas | October 6th 2:00-3:30 pm | MacKenzie Theatre, Swem Library
- Description: This session is open to faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students and is the second session in the fall series, “Designing Research for Impact.” In this session, participants will identify a meaningful problem of practice that could serve as the basis for a funded/applied research project, prioritize parts of that problem to explore, and draft an early theory of change. They will also articulate where and how this idea might fit into their own career progression and surface questions with a plan for how to answer them.
- Deliverable: Theory of change and personal research/scholarship timeline
Developing a Strategy for Impactful Research | November 18th, 12:00-1:30 pm | The Hive Event Space, Swem Library
- Description: This session is open to faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students and is the final structured session in the fall series, “Designing Research for Impact.” In this session, participants will identify institutional and external supports for expanding the reach and visibility of their work beyond traditional academic publishing. Participants will identify relevant federal and foundation funders and develop a strategy for sustainable research support. They will identify at least one open call, practice describing how their research agenda aligns with funder priorities, and begin outlining proposal sections that combine elements of deliverables from sessions 1 and 2.
- Deliverable: Open call prioritization and proposal outline
GRI Writing/Office Hours | December 7, 3:00-5:00 pm, and by appointment | The Hive, Swem Library
- Description: This open session is meant to offer support to series participants as they draft sections of a selected grant proposal. GRI team members, including VPR Faculty Fellows (Profs. Sarah Stafford and Dan Cristol), will be available to give immediate feedback and answer questions about both research support and Â鶹Æƽâ°æ research processes. Deliverables workshopped during these sessions will be the basis for sessions in the Spring 2027 series (details to be announced).
