Episode 29: Funding Challenges in Academia and Mental Health — An Interview with Dr Tina Joshi
By: Monday Science, Weekly Podcast
Tags: Imposter Syndrome, Research, Mental Health, Investment, Funding

Episode 29: Funding Challenges in Academia and Mental Health — An Interview with Dr Tina Joshi

In this episode, listen to Dr Bahijja discuss funding challenges in Academia, and the impacts those challenges have on research outputs and academic mental health, with Dr Tina Joshi, a lecturer in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Plymouth.

In the previous episode (28), while discussing research into AMR (antimicrobial resistance) and COVID-19, Dr Tina Joshi and Dr Bahijja touched on the challeneges within funding research into AMR. Within this episode, Dr Tina Joshi and Dr Bahijja elaborate more into the specific issues that funding poses, imposter syndrome, and mental health. To learn more about antimicrobial resistance, check out Episode 28 here.

Photo of dollar signs by Chronis Yan.

Dr Bahijja: Prior to COVID-19, we saw small investments in AMR and antimicrobials, but never quite enough. There were other topics, often seen as more important, despite how urgent the issue of antimicrobial resistance is.

Dr Bahijja: Grants in particular, pose a real issue. What many people who haven’t written grants don’t understand, is that you are essentially writing a business plan, ie. I will do this, if you fund my research. Getting a grant application rejected doesn’t necessarily indicate that an idea is bad, but sometimes its just that simply isn’t enough money to fund all of the ideas. It’s really just an issue of allocation of investment and how ideas are prioritised.

Dr Tina: Honestly, I’ve had so many grants rejected [in the past]. So, I just sort of went off and started my own lab. I am three years [into this project] now and I’ve had no research funding from anyone. It’s really a shame. The people who are getting the funding do deserve it, thats not the issue. The issue is that it really makes you question your self worth — you think your ideas aren’t worth it. Oftentimes you get no feedback upon rejection, as well.

Within academia, you really are just trying to get your idea out there, and its quite difficult. I’ve mostly been getting my funding from industry investment, because of that, and some small grants here and there.

I’m not really sure what can be done about it, as it creates a vicious cycle. If a researcher has a lab or project, and they can’t get funding, then they can’t publish research. If they then have no research, they will be less successful applying for funding in the future. People really get stuck in a rut.

Dr Bahijja: It’s really challenging and its why many people leave academia. Similarly, I’ve often gotten my funding from industry — buts its frustrating, as it’s not always viewed as equally valuable to grant funding, or funding from the government.

Dr Tina: It’s a really old-school sort of thinking. At my university, I’m actually part of the ECR committee, or the early career research committee — we’ve gone to senior staff to discuss the challenges people face, and people are actually listening, which is really nice.

Dr Bahijja: Industry funding can also be very rewarding, as you feel like your product is closer to market.

Dr Bahijja: Sometimes, when a person is starting up their own lab, there are many challenges on many levels. Whether that be getting equipment, or transitioning from being a PhD, to a post-doc position, to a research position, etc. The journey is filled with so many ups and downs, really. […] There are so many challenges with research, such as imposter syndrome.

Dr Tina: Imposter syndrome is definitely an issue, I experience it all the time. When I was a post-doc, I thought all of my problems with funding and imposter syndrome would go away once I became a lecturer, but it just wasn’t the case. Many of the problems got even larger. I thought I was all sorted, but it was really just the beginning.

Dr Bahijja: Definitely, grant writing is not an easy thing to do. One of my mentors during my post-doc really stressed that idea of grant writing being akin to a business proposal, with milestones and timeline planning. It takes months, oftentimes, and when you get a rejection there is almost no feedback — maybe 1 or 2 lines.

Dr Bahijja: I think it’s really important to share ways to cope with grant rejection, as well.

Dr Tina: For my own coping mechanism strategies, I’ve been reading this book recently that stresses this “fire to keep going”. At the time of rejection, you are upset, but its important to keep just being resilient and keeping going. Thats really just how I keep going. Sometimes you can take grant rejections personally, but I just put that aside and keep moving forward with more applications and research. It’s just about saying “I’m Enough” and then keep going forwards.

Dr Bahijja: It’s interesting, sharing thought about rejection, just because it can often feel like something only we are affected by, [but it happens to everyone].

Dr Tina: Sometimes, these rejections definitely can feel like that. Even with the wording in the rejections, I’ve seen things like “this is an unusual candidate”, or “the candidate is clearly unprepared”, and [it can be quite confusing]. You’ve got to have a really thick skin, but at the end of the day, it does get to you.

Photo of person holding money by Christian Dubovan.

Have you experienced any challenges with funding?