Helping scientists
reach their goals

Fellowsherpa provides practical courses and workshops that help you reach specific goals based on our years of experience in research, education, publishing, communications, and funding management.
Fellowsherpa also offers manuscript editing services. As expert scientific editors and writers, we will work with you to craft the best possible version of your manuscript.
Proper preparation pays off.
You’ll still have to do the climbing but Fellowsherpa will carry some of the load.

Courses

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Writing successful fellowship applications

This comprehensive course guides early career researchers through the fellowship application process. The course covers all stages of the process: choosing and approaching a potential supervisor; identifying the appropriate fellowship(s); deciphering eligibility criteria; writing the application and post-decision step.
+ See more

Writing successful fellowship applications

This comprehensive course guides early career researchers through the fellowship application process. The course covers all stages of the process: choosing and approaching a potential supervisor; identifying the appropriate fellowship(s); deciphering eligibility criteria; writing the application and post-decision step.
+ See more

Telling your Story: Writing a Narrative CV

Research funding agencies and recruiters are adopting new CV formats that incorporate narrative elements. These narrative CVs offer scientists the possibility to explain a broader range of research achievements, including non-traditional outputs and work in areas such as mentorship, management or administration. This course teaches students how to build a narrative around their traditional “bullet point” CV.
+ See more

Telling your Story: Writing a Narrative CV

Research funding agencies and recruiters are adopting new CV formats that incorporate narrative elements. These narrative CVs offer scientists the possibility to explain a broader range of research achievements, including non-traditional outputs and work in areas such as mentorship, management or administration. This course teaches students how to build a narrative around their traditional “bullet point” CV.
+ See more

Introduction to Modern Scientific Publication

The course introduces students to modern scientific publication & data environment, peer review, and open science in the biomedical sciences. Students learn about the full “life cycle” of a manuscript at a journal. The course also discusses newer publication formats such as preprints, and Open Science concepts. The course also includes a discussion on concepts such as authorship, research integrity and reproducibility from the point of view of authors, readers, reviewers, and funders.
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Crossing the Valley of Death: Scientific Basis of Medical Advances

This workshop’s goal is to introduce participants to the pipeline from fundamental research to the development of new therapeutics. Using a problem-based learning approach with real world examples – including both successful cases and promising research leads that did not make it out of the valley of death – students explore drug development from the earliest stages to clinical trials and regulatory approval. The workshop will introduce the scientific, clinical, and regulatory steps between a promising set of research findings and a viable treatment option.
+ See more

Crossing the Valley of Death: Scientific Basis of Medical Advances

This workshop’s goal is to introduce participants to the pipeline from fundamental research to the development of new therapeutics. Using a problem-based learning approach with real world examples – including both successful cases and promising research leads that did not make it out of the valley of death – students explore drug development from the earliest stages to clinical trials and regulatory approval. The workshop will introduce the scientific, clinical, and regulatory steps between a promising set of research findings and a viable treatment option.
+ See more

Everything that is not Research: Customizing your Grant Applications

This course guides early career researchers through the maze of information required by most funders other than the scientific and technical aspects of their projects. Most competitive funding calls require applicants to wander into fields that are unfamiliar to them, including impact statements, career development plans, communication plans, and other plans to engage with stakeholders both within and outside of academia. Properly addressing these points can make or break an application.
+ See more

Everything that is not Research: Customizing your Grant Applications

This course guides early career researchers through the maze of information required by most funders other than the scientific and technical aspects of their projects. Most competitive funding calls require applicants to wander into fields that are unfamiliar to them, including impact statements, career development plans, communication plans, and other plans to engage with stakeholders both within and outside of academia. Properly addressing these points can make or break an application.
+ See more

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To learn more about our courses and manuscript services, please contact us at:

david@fellowsherpa.com
thiago@fellowsherpa.com

We will discuss your needs and priorities to adapt our educational content and provide a customized syllabus.

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Crossing the Valley of Death: Scientific Basis of Medical Advances

This workshop goal is to introduce participants to the pipeline from fundamental research to the development of new therapeutics. Using a problem-based learning approach with real world examples – including both successful cases and promising research leads that did not make it out of the valley of death – students explore drug development from the earliest stages. The workshop will introduce the scientific, clinical, and regulatory steps between a promising set of research findings and a viable treatment option.

Course details

The workshop provides an overview of translational research. The content includes research integrity & reproducibility; statistical significance & effect size; in vitro models & in vivo models; physiology & disease; laboratory vs. clinical reagents; from first-in-human to regulatory approval; standards of evidence at FDA & EMA.

The instructors present a summary of promising findings collected from a set of real world basic and preclinical research projects. Course participants analyse the experimental design and data, predicting outcomes of the clinical developments presented, and the instructors will introduce the real-world outcomes. Participants then discuss with the instructors and their peers the failures and successes, to extract lessons on strategies to adopt and pitfalls to avoid when developing their own clinical research projects.

Duration: 1 day (8 classroom hours)*.

Number of participants: The course can accommodate up to 24 participants.

Target audience: Clinicians, biomedical researchers, PhD/MD-PhD students and Postdoctoral fellows.

*The duration of the course can be adapted depending on the depth of analysis of the cases presented.
Please contact us for further information. Prices and scheduling available on consultation.

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Everything that is not Research: Customizing your Grant Applications

This course guides early career researchers through the maze of information required by most funders other than the scientific and technical aspects of their projects. Most competitive funding calls require applicants to wander into fields that are unfamiliar to them, including statements of impact, career development plans, communications programs, and other plans to engage with stakeholders both within and outside of academia. Properly addressing these points can make or break an application.

Course details

The course is divided in three sessions:

(1) Eligibility criteria: Participants work in groups to identify and decipher eligibility criteria in real-world fellowship calls.

(2) Impact statements, science and society, and open science mandates: Impact statements; identifying funder goals; targeting distinct stakeholders; communications plans; non-traditional research outcomes; data sharing mandates and open science requirements.

(3) Soft skills, resumes, and narrative CVs: introduction to standard narrative CV templates, with a focus on the widely used UKRI template; narrative CV categories and their application to cover letters, interviews, and resumés.

Participants provide their standard CV and a cover letter before the course. After the course, students are asked to provide a full version of an impact statement to receive individual feedback.

Duration: 1 day (8 classroom hours) + 8 hours homework.

Number of participants: The course can accommodate up to 24 participants.

Target audience: Early career researchers, including junior PIs.

Please contact us for more information. Prices and scheduling available on consultation.

CLOSE

Introduction to Modern Scientific Publication

The course introduces students to modern scientific publication & data environment, peer review, and open science in the biomedical sciences. Students learn about the full “life cycle” of a manuscript at a journal but also about newer publication formats such as preprints and Open Science concepts. The course also includes a discussion on concepts such as authorship, research integrity and reproducibility from the point of view of authors, readers, reviewers, and funders.

Course details

The course comes in two different modules depending on the target audience:

MODULE I: The reader

This course teaches students, in a practical and interactive way, about the reliability of the different sources of scientific information, the identification of potential red flags, and the quality control mechanisms commonly used by different outlets, from scientific journals to social networks. The module covers the traditional scientific publication, editorial assessment, peer review, preprints, and an introduction to Open Science. The course also includes several practical exercises on the evaluation of scientific information and a general discussion on scientific integrity and good practices in research.

MODULE II: The author

A workshop-based introduction to submitting, revising, and publishing peer-reviewed scientific papers. We discuss how editors evaluate new submissions based on the scope and guidelines of the journal. Students examine peer review files of scientific papers and prepare responses to editors and reviewers, from the initial submission stage through to appeals or resubmissions.

Duration: 1 day (8 classroom hours).

Number of participants: The course can accommodate up to 24 participants.

Target audience: Module I is intended for early PhD students while Module II is directed to researchers with some experience with the scientific literature and the editorial process.

Please contact us for more information. Prices and scheduling available on consultation.

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Telling your Story: Writing a Narrative CV

Research funding agencies and recruiters are adopting new CV formats that incorporate narrative elements to offer scientists the possibility to explain a broader range of research achievements, including non-traditional outputs and work in areas such as mentorship, management or administration. This course teaches students how to build a narrative around their traditional “bullet point”-style CV. The value of identifying and highlighting achievements and skills in a narrative form goes beyond the narrative CV itself, as they prepare candidates to apply for a more diverse set of roles, as well as improve the writing of cover letters and performance in interviews both in and out of academic research.

Course details

The workshop is divided into four sections.

(1) Introduction to the narrative CV: DORA, CoARA, and the problem of research assessment; the rationale behind the adoption of narrative CVs; standard narrative CV formats.

(2) CV and cover letter workshop: in groups, participants identify the narrative elements in their CVs and cover letters; peer to peer storytelling exercises.

(3) Narrative CV formats: introduction to standard narrative CV templates, with a focus on the widely used UKRI template; narrative CV categories and their application to cover letters, interviews, and resumés.

(4) Narrative CV reception: strengths and weaknesses of narrative CVs; funding agency trends;
reviewer comments on narrative CV scoring; candidate comments from previous calls.

Participants provide their standard CV and a cover letter before the course. After the course, students are asked to provide a full version of their narrative CV to receive individual feedback.

Duration: 1 day (8 classroom hours) + 8 hours homework.

Number of participants: The course can accommodate up to 24 participants.

Target audience: PhD students, Postdocs.

Please contact us for further information. Prices and scheduling available on consultation.

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Writing successful fellowship applications

This comprehensive course guides early career researchers through the fellowship application process. The course covers all stages of the process: choosing and approaching a potential supervisor; identifying the appropriate fellowship(s); deciphering eligibility criteria; writing the application and post-decision considerations.

Course details

The course comprises four sessions:

(1) Selecting and contacting a host lab. How to introduce yourself effectively and approach a potential supervisor. Analyzing a supervisor’s track record as a researcher and as a mentor.

(2) Navigating eligibility criteria. Deciphering the scope and eligibility criteria of different fellowship calls. Students are introduced to the evaluation processes of the different funding agencies to emphasize the importance of tailoring their applications to each funder.

(3) How to apply to your fellowship. Participants workshop how to present the scientific goals of their projects and their own achievements and qualifications covering often neglected formal aspects of fellowship calls (instructions, documentation, formatting).

(4) Post-decision steps. How to evaluate competing offers, weighing benefits and restrictions of
different fellowship formats. How (and if) to engage in the appeals process.

Course participants write mock applications and supervisor contact e-mails before the course, and these provide the basis for the course workshop sessions. After the course, students are asked to submit revised versions of these texts to receive individualized feedback on their progress.

Duration: Two days (16 classroom hours) + 8 hours homework.

Number of participants: The course can accommodate up to 24 participants.

Target audience: Late-stage PhD students and Postdoctoral fellows.

Please contact us for more information. Prices and scheduling available on consultation.

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