For Principal Investigators and grant holders, coaching offers space to navigate leadership challenges, strengthen decision-making, and manage the demands of complex projects. For the wider research team (whether postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates, or professional services staff) coaching provides a safe, neutral space to explore challenges, plan next steps, and sustain motivation.
Coaching helps ensure every team member can contribute at their best, while developing skills and confidence for future roles.
Take a look at the impact of costing coaching in to your grant proposal can have:
In 2024, a team of us (researchers, and people with lived experience) decided to apply for an NIHR Team Science Award to support us to develop a team to address the challenge of health risks and multiple long term conditions in people with ADHD. These awards provide support and funding for team development, as well as for laying the ground for a future programme of research.
We were aware that we hadn’t all worked together as a team before, and wanted to give ourselves the best chance of working successfully together. Often grants bring together a collection of people who may have quite different expectations of how they will work together, and little time is allowed for building the team.
We also recognised that team members might also benefit from additional individual coaching suited to their personal development needs and career stage. We therefore wanted to explore whether we could include time and funding for both team and individual coaching in our application for the award. I looked at several different coaching companies online, but liked the approach described on Katy’s website, and booked in for a meeting to discuss what we were looking for, what Katy could support with, and how much it would cost. We had a great first meeting, and Katy was quick to grasp what it was that we were looking for, discussing some options for how we could work together. We decided to build the team coaching sessions into our two Team Science retreats which would bring together team members in person, and then to allow 2 individual coaching sessions for each team member, which could be taken as and when best suited their needs. When writing the proposal, we were careful to ensure that the coaching was integrated into the broader team development and delivery plan, and that we clearly linked the direct connection between coaching and the objectives of the Team Science Award. I’m delighted to say that the application was successful, and we had very positive feedback on our proposal. We are now half-way through the award, and have recently had our first team coaching session, which has been hugely helpful and insightful for our newly-established team.
Dr Tamsin Newlove-Delgado MBChB (Hons) MRCPsych FFPH PhD
