How to coordinate a global research fellowship
Enjoying Dom PĂ©rignon Champagne Truffles, handcrafted in Switzerland and delivered fresh to Beverly Hills â the best post-meeting activity!
TL;DR
In 2023, I undertook a Churchill Fellowship. I travelled to Canada, the USA, England and the Netherlands for eight weeks, researching the topic âveterans living with persistent painâ. Coordinating overseas travel takes a lot of time and effort. Planning and being organised allows time to immerse yourself in new places. Enjoy the fun moments along the way: eating chocolates delivered fresh from Switzerland in Beverly Hills, driving one of the worldâs most famous road trips (Big Sur, LAâSan Francisco) and stopping to explore Hearst Castle, taking a long walk in the afternoon to explore Toronto and meeting âDimitiriâ, your neighbour (a tortoise). Reach out to who youâd like to meet; no-one is off limits, even scientists featured on Netflix!
đ°ïž Read time: approx 11 minutes
Hot tips for players
Plan for a maximum of one meeting per day and donât book any meetings on travel days
If you are overseas for more than four weeks, consider scheduling a break
The Churchill Fellowship offers flexibility around flights back to Australia. Taking some time out to enjoy yourself at the end may be a good option â I spent a week in France
Use platforms like Calendly, Otter, Notion and Canva as your Tech Stack (full list in the article)
Write a Hit List of people youâd like to meet â be bold! You may be surprised who says yes
Introduction
If you have been awarded a Churchill Fellowship or another research Fellowship, this article is for you. Iâll outline tips for coordinating meetings, activities and travel. Iâll also share how to get the most out of your time overseas, which includes time for fun!
If you are undertaking work activities in foreign countries, some of these tips will be helpful for you too.
Fellowship journey preparation tips
Coordination of meetings and visits: Time zones, schedule changes, travel plans and peopleâs busy schedules can be challenging. Ensure you have enough time before travelling to plan everything and be as organised as possible. I remember that before I had left Australia, I had to plan ahead and book a meeting whilst I would be overseas. For the planned dates in Pittsburgh, USA, I would have a Zoom meeting with a professor in LA
Why meet? You must write a compelling 'why' as to the purpose of your meeting and the value for both of you. I customised each outreach proposal, highlighting relevant parts of their work and the importance of meeting with them for the Fellowship project. This level of customisation is very time-consuming but gets results!
Meeting per day: Ideally, a maximum of one meeting per day only. One of my meetings was planned for 30 minutes, which turned into six hours on the day (I wish Iâd eaten beforehand). Iâm so glad I didnât have another meeting booked that day, as I would have had to rush or cut that very valuable meeting short
Meetings advice: I used Notion to store everything. I set up a dedicated area called âResearch Directoryâ. I created a template to capture each person/organisation's information:
đ You can access the Template here:
https://tinyurl.com/Research-Directory-Template
No meeting days: I didnât have any meetings on travel days. Flying is such a time-consuming process, even domestically. People donât want to meet on weekends, so these days are a good chance to either travel or take a rest day
Time-consuming: a one hour meeting isnât only one hour. Itâs also the preparation beforehand: tailored questions, personal grooming and outfit, plenty of time to arrive and find the location (this can be confusing on big university or hospital campuses); the actual meeting (they often go for longer than planned); and the post-meeting work: follow-ups, transcribing and analysis of information
Flexibility: Be flexible â no matter how many times a meeting or visit is confirmed it may change or be cancelled. A couple of my meetings switched to Zoom. My very first meeting was cancelled the day before, which was disappointing â I went to an art gallery instead
Time in locations: I spent two to three days in each location. I would not recommend this due to the high pace. I wanted to meet with a diverse range of people and organisations. For example, I flew from Houston to LA, hired a car, and drove south to stay for the night. The following day I had a meeting. You should always avoid a one-night stop because it takes so much effort to check-in (especially with 65 kilos of luggage). The next morning, I checked out, went to the meeting, then drove back to LA. It was hectic. However, that meeting was one of the highlights of the fellowship. I recommend a minimum of four days in each location. If you're doing a Churchill Fellowship, you can even spend one to two weeks in the one location as you design your own itinerary. I spent three full days observing a rehabilitation clinic in Louisiana, USA with world-leading technologies and this was incredible
The Churchill Fellowship: the fellowship is an internationally recognised award; however, some people and organisations are not aware of it. This meant that I had to sell the value of the fellowship and why meetings with the person or organisation was so critical. I attached my national newspaper article as leverage. I was a random person asking for their time (including access to a Federal building for one meeting). I put a significant amount of effort into outreach, with a 99% yes rate (Iâll share more details in another article soon)
Outreach. I didnât do any outreach until I was awarded the fellowship. I decided to wait as to not waste other peopleâs time and coordinate a visit only to then possibly cancel. Some people said yes via email and we booked a date. Others wanted multiple meetings to discuss and plan beforehand. You will need to dedicate a significant amount of time to outreach and coordination
Recordings: I recorded meetings (with permission) using the Voice Memos app
Tech Stack: Otter â transcribing; Notion for overall capturing of everything in the one place; G drive â sharing the report; Slack â communicating with editor & designer; Calendly â booking meetings, this allows people to choose a time & date that suits them in a set window; Voice Memos â recording meetings; Timebie â time differences, Canva â report templates and designs
Be bold: I watched a Netflix film and decided to reach out to one of the scientists featured. This turned into one of the most valuable meetings of the fellowship. Donât hesitate; if you would like to meet with someone, reach out and ask!
Tracking people down: You can reach anyone in the world. Email, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, universities websites, Google and ChatGPT. Get researching and be creative. In journal articles, the research contributors' contact details are usually listed. University departments also list email addresses and you can often find a person's CV online, which includes their email address. It is time-consuming to do these searches, but it enables you to reach anyone
âHit listâ: Write a list of people and organisations you would like to meet with. I was surprised by my high 'yes' rate. I expected more people to say no, but I did manage to fit everybody in. Itâs hard to know who will say yes and how their schedules will align with your travel plans. The best approach is to attempt to meet with as many people/organisations as possible and adjust your travel plans once confirmed. If you overbook, you can switch to Zoom and even have the meeting after the official end of your Fellowship (one-two weeks afterwards ideally)
Pen and paper: I attempted to map out my itinerary digitally but gave up and used the old-fashioned way of pen and paper (using butchers paper). This helped me visualise all of the details. Add the people/organisations who you would like to meet with and are confirmed, and then plan how many days you'll spend in each location
Do the âvibeâ check: Essentially, make a note the same day meeting a person/organisation on their âvibesâ. Did you enjoy your time meeting with this person/organisation? Was there something that didn't seem quite right? Would you like to work with them again? What are the next steps? (Iâll share more about this soon in another article)
Costs: In some locations, the Fellowship allowance didnât cover my basic costs, so I supplemented with personal savings. The majority of my meetings were in major cities (LA, San Francisco, Washington D.C., London), so costs were high. In other locations, the allowance was more than sufficient, which did offset some of the higher costs. Overall, the allowance didnât cover all of my costs. Additionally, as I travelled between major cities, a lot of my costs were due to transport to and from the airport, which can be very expensive
Health: Suggestions in the Fellowship Facebook group included cooking for yourself and catching public transport. There was even a suggestion to eat muesli bars instead of meals. These options didnât suit me. My health is a priority. I decided that spending time doing pre and post-meeting preparation, reflecting, organising activities and resting was the priority over cooking or catching local transport, which does save money but is time-consuming. This was my personal choice and a factor in the overall costs
Jet lag: I flew from Sydney to Montreal, a 35-hour door-to-door journey. The Fellowship allowance is for days spent undertaking research activities. However, I personally could not arrive and attend meetings the next day, so I self-funded three days upon arrival to ensure that I felt rested to start the Fellowship journey
Safety: Being safe is critical. This required booking accommodation in central locations, which was more expensive than other options available
Break: I requested a break mid-way through the Fellowship. I spent one week in Miami enjoying the beach, sunshine and friendly culture. Eight weeks of travel across four countries was a big undertaking. What made it extra challenging was living with multiple chronic health conditions, 65 kilos of luggage, travelling in places that were unsafe and driving (always on the opposite side of the road). I am very appreciative of the flexibility offered by the Trust as this break made a big difference to my overall experience
đŽ MIAMI
I spent one week in Miami, enjoying amazing food, friendly people, fantastic art and beautiful beaches.
Bookings: The Churchill Trust will book your flights. Everything else is up to you to book and either be reimbursed (e.g. hire cars) or use your Fellowship allowance. This requires you to book accommodation, transportation (Ubers, taxis, hire cars, trains, etc.) to and from cities, airports and meetings and organise food/meals
How to book: I used Booking.com for accommodation and hire cars; Rome2Rio for transport plans; Uber for travelling around cities; and TimeOut and CultureTrip for activity recommendations
Tips for booking: Always check hotel websites directly, as they may be cheaper than booking sites. When in an Uber, you can âshareâ your trip for extra safety measures. When picking up hire cars, you will need your home driverâs license, and a credit card (a debit or travel card is usually not accepted). Always check the deposit, when searching for hire cards, the deposit has ranged form $500 (USA) to $5000 (Costa Rica). In some countries, you'll also need an International Driverâs License (IDP). Always check if a cafĂ©, restaurant or attraction is open. Some websites list them as open, but they have closed down and the details aren't up-to-date
Internet/phone: You can use your home country plan and add a âtravel packâ option or you could try HolaFly, which I find works really well, the internet was strong for me. The only disadvantage is that you canât make phone calls, so I use Viber to make phone calls
Insurance: This is included with your Fellowship for a 12 monthperiod, which meant I was covered when I took time out in Europe at the end of the Fellowship. Unfortunately, I did have to make a claim which proved difficult â I visited a hospital for assessment and the insurance didnât pay the bill for six months, which affected my Visa and travel plans the following year. This issue was raised with the Trust, but I am unsure of the outcome. My advice is to consider booking your own travel insurance if you deem it appropriate. Some credit cards include travel insurance so itâs worth exploring if this is available
All work and no play!: Take some time out at the end. In addition to my short break in the middle, I then spent a few weeks in France as downtime at the end of the Fellowship. The Trust was flexible with flights to return to Australia, which I greatly appreciated.
Photos: Take photos all the time. The time goes by so fast! I took photos of places I visited, people I met with, food, interesting things that I saw, lots of âChurchillâ businesses, signs, etc. â everything. It was such an action-packed time that I forget so many details â photos are a great reminder and amazing memories to look back on and share with others
Socials: I had intended on positing about my experiences along the way via social media platforms. However, I didnât have time. If you can, itâs great to post about your experience, it can wait until you return or another time. The priority for me was the travel, meetings and managing my health
Itinerary: I created a shareable, live itinerary in Notion with an overview of the countries, places and dates. I shared this with family and friends so at anytime they could check the itinerary to see where I was
Tripod + remote: Some of my meetings were with only one other person and selfies arenât the best. I bought a tripod and camera remote to take good-quality photos. I recommend this one (not sponsored) mini tripod + remote
Reflection: Reflecting is a critical element of research and travel. I factored this into each day and my many plane trips. This allows time for processing information, the formation of further exploration for upcoming meetings and pattern recognition of key research insights.
Some of the highlights of this experience include: enjoying the views drive the âBig Surâ California, USA, the beautiful sunset in Carmel-By-The-Sea, USA, reflecting at the âreflection poolâ in Washington DC. USA.
đ«đ· ĂTRETAT
To conclude the Fellowship journey, I spent one week in the small seaside town, Ătretat in Normandy, France; as personal time to relax and explore. Famous for its dramatic white chalk cliffs and charming town. Claude Monte pained more than 50 pieces of Ătretat between 1883 and 1886.
Overall, this was a surreal experience. When I departed Australia I had a moment as the plane took off from Sydney where I realised the adventure I was embark on! Other memorable moments included driving across Texas and spontaneously booking an additional meeting after spotting a billboard; expecting a brief 30-minute conversation with a renowned scientist that turned into six hours of deep discussion; and being hosted by an extraordinary group of hospital practitioners who shared their experiences, including powerful stories from veterans whose lives have been transformed through chronic pain interventions. The opportunity to conduct research in other countries was an incredible experience and I am very appreciative for this life-changing Fellowship.
Iâll be sharing more insights about the Fellowship experience soon here on LinkedIn and Substack.
If You have further specific questions about the Fellowship application process, you can reach out via LinkedIn or email: nerita.lewis1@gmail.com. Please include âChurchill Fellowshipâ in the subject line.
Thanks for joining The Danger Zoneâwhere life begins at the edge of comfort.
Nerita đ
