Research Contingency Planning

Abstract

When early-career scientists first experience “things going wrong” during independent research, whether as undergraduate or graduate students, their confidence, resilience, and sense of competency as researchers can become undermined. These research roadblocks may delay progress and unnecessarily limit the scope of a project, or discourage students from continuing in research. This activity is designed to normalize the reality that “things going wrong” is an inherent part of the research process while helping students proactively prepare for the eventuality of research roadblocks. Participants will identify potential research roadblocks, develop strategies to prevent common challenges, and create contingency plans for responding effectively and safely when problems do arise. Although this activity places a particular emphasis on ecological field research, the framework is broadly applicable to lab- and computer-based biological research. Students will preemptively complete a research contingency plan for their own project outside of class and implement their plan throughout their first season of field research. Once the student completes the first 1-2 months of their independent research, they will revisit and update their research contingency plan. Once updated, students will prepare one slide in a shared presentation deck that addresses the following reflection prompts: Reflect on something that went wrong last field season. In what ways could you have been more prepared to prevent that research roadblock from happening in the first place? How did you handle it when it happened and what would you do differently if the same thing happened again in the future? Share your most clever contingency plan with the group. Each student will then give a brief 3–5 minute presentation based on their reflection of creating a research contingency plan. Sharing these reflections with peers is an important component of the activity, as it allows students to learn from one another's experiences, build collective wisdom, and recognize that overcoming challenges is an expected and valuable part of the research process.