Do you want to be a little fish in a big pond or a big fish in a little pond?

This was one of my favourite questions today, posed by presenter Anu Raunio at Funding Friday, an event organised by the University of Turku Research Funding Unit. Anu also went on to advise six practical ways to secure funding:

1. Talk to the experts.

2. Don't be afraid to ask.

3. Plan ahead.

4. Keep several balls in the air.

5. Demonstrate previous success.

6. Network, network, network.

Throughout the day, experts on research funding offered their nuggets of wisdom to guide researchers through the ruthless web of applying for funding. Unfortunately, I missed the morning session where Adam Golberg from Nottingham University (Cash for Questions) pointed out that proposals should not look like the start of a Star Wars movie! However, I heard (from everyone I spoke to) that it was an inspiring talk.

Adam Golberg recommended not beginning a grant proposal like the opening to Star Wars

The afternoon also brought with it Lauri Keskinen's refreshing spin on writing proposals through the art of rhetoric: Pathos, Logos, Ethos and Kairos. He acknowledged that "Researchers are like snowflakes. They are all unique." Through his fascinating examples he stressed the importance of telling your story, keeping it unique, and remembering to focus on persuading as well as informing. Next we saw Johanna Toivonen de Gonzales (Research Funding Specialist, University of Turku). Johanna got us out of our seats as we polled with our bodies to questions related to writing about impact in grant proposals asking: are you focused on the scientific impact; do you do research because you are curious; do you want to help people; do you want to get rich - note --only one researcher stood up here!Johanna gave extremely practical guidelines for filling out the impact section of Horizon 2020 applications and also shared the major reasons for failure, namely:

• added value is unclear;

• impact on EU level questionable;

• proposal is not clear;

• repetition of intentions is overdone;

• references to targetted stakeholder are unspecific.

The icing on the cake was the final presentation from Samira Samaro ( Postdoctoral Researcher, from the Department of Philosophy, Political Science and Contemporary History at UTU) who focused on the time, labour and energy invested in proposals. She recommended promoting kindness because the road is tough and also suggested that researchers share their successful proposals, celebrate, and say 'yay'. Even more so, she also recommended sharing the pain of the unsuccessful proposals before moving on. Unaided by slides, (yep you read it - NO SLIDES), she demonstrated how to captivate an audience via great public speaking. Her talk was a mixture of stories, passion and advice on the ruthless application process. I was carried away listening with hawk-like attention to her humorous and practical comments such as:

• "If I run out of breath when reading a sentence, it's too long. Right?"

• "I want us to acknowledge the sting"

• "The reviewers are like these frazzled people. You don't want to annoy them. Right?"

• "What we really need is passion and resilience"

• "It can be challenging to differentiate between realism and ambition"

So, thank you to the University of Turku Research Funding Unit. This was a valuable, insightful, breath of fresh air.