My winning proposal: Ask around with interdisciplinary bids

Physicist Jonathan Taylor tells Ben Upton that reaching out to collaborators and people outside his contacts list was essential to winning a New Horizons Grant from the British Heart Foundation.

Jonathan’s top tips

• Don’t be afraid to ask your research office, those in other disciplines and even the funder for guidance.
• Keep in close contact with your collaborators, even if that contact is mostly informal.
• Remember that working on live samples can be logistically and legally difficult so make sure you account for it in your bid.

The New Horizons Grant scheme aims to get people from disciplines outside bioscience working on some of cardiology’s toughest problems. The scheme offers up to £300,000 for projects of up to three years. The scheme is open year-round with no deadlines.