A Hands-On Series for PRI Researchers
Selected Wednesdays, 3–4:30 p.m.
PRI’s Office of Research Development is offering workshops focused on various topics, including grantsmanship, as part of our Professional Development series. These in-person (with a virtual option) workshops are open to all PRI scientists, and they’re hands-on — bring your laptop and be ready to work!
The location will change, so make sure to check the listing for the session you’re attending. These will be added to each workshop as we have them. We encourage in-person attendance, but we also offer Zoom.
Workshop 6 – Complexities of Working in Multidisciplinary Proposals
10/8/25, NRB 101
More and more funding agencies are focusing on tightly coupled multidisciplinary research that breaks down the typical silos between disciplines and even within research groups. These tightly coupled teams can tackle grand challenges that are far more impactful than the participants could accomplish on their own. But with these new many-domain research contexts come challenges in terms, metrics, significance, worldview, and many other assumptions we all use on any given day. This workshop will use the emerging concept of convergence research to explore what multidisciplinary research means, what sponsor agencies are looking for, and how to structure appropriate scopes of work and outcomes to lead to a believable and compelling proposal. [add to calendar]
[For researchers moving into larger multidisciplinary contexts, but useful to all]
Workshop 7 – Understanding Safety in Multi-Disciplinary Research Environments
11/12/25, Forbes 1005
All researchers are required to go through campus safety training related to the research in their labs, but what happens when you start collaborating across disciplines, and now you are in, or have folks from, significantly different disciplines working in your space? We especially see these challenges when traversing the Chemical/Engineering arena with the biological/pathogen space. This workshop will explore the requirements in these different disciplines, including how to obtain the necessary training, compliance approvals, and identify and prevent potential issues. Ultimately, this understanding will support and enable the expansion of your research into new and emerging contexts while keeping you and your staff safe. [add to calendar]
[For all researchers]
Workshop 8 – Achieving Award Success via Management Best Practices
12/10/25, NRB 439
This workshop will cover topics such as best practices in project management, knowing when and how to take action if your research project develops troubles or needs to change direction, engaging collaborators to complete all deliverables, maximizing your findings to increase the visibility of you and your work, and finding ways to use emerging results to pursue other sources of funding. [add to calendar]
[For mid-size multidisciplinary and multi-institutional efforts]
Workshop 9 – What Comes Next? Growing Project Success into Long-Term Research Initiatives
[TBA in 2026]
Each grant you are awarded is a stepping stone to the next proposal. This workshop will help you turn one-off proposals into long-term research initiatives. We will cover how to develop strategic teams and research trajectories that focus on long-term initiatives instead of one-off proposals. Building collaborative teams that sustain long-term research success can be very difficult if the team is not set up for success from the start. One key to successful collaborations is identifying collaborative warning signs and developing a culture where everyone has ownership in the process and is willing to contribute to outcomes that may not always benefit their interests. Whether you are just beginning your career and trying to build early successes or later in your career and want to develop a national initiative, these strategies will help you in your collaborations.
[For all researchers]
Special Topic 10 – Leading Large Multi-Institutional Research Initiatives
[TBA in 2026]
Leading a multi-investigator or multidisciplinary research project is a completely different experience from leading a large research center or other multi-institutional effort, which is why so few centers survive after initial funding. This workshop will explore a range of topics, including timelines, team dynamics, identifying strengths/gaps, national positioning, strategic advisory boards, organizational structure (agency preference), strategies for finding/adding partners, oversight needs, beyond-research programs, political implications, existing/proximal global efforts, effort demands, and many other areas.
[For researchers ready to lead national/international large efforts.]