Author Profile vii Foreword ix Preface xi 1 Becoming a Strategic Researcher: Increasing your Chances of Long-Term Success 1 Introduction 1 Mentors and Role Models 2 Positive Peer Relationships 5 Hot Research Topics 6 Active Professional Engagement 7 Rapid Career Progress 8 Summary 9 2 Critical Self-Analysis and Personal Improvement: Do I Currently Have the Skills and Knowledge to Become an Expert Health Researcher? 11 Introduction 11 Critically Evaluating your Strengths and Weaknesses 13 Summary 20 3 Benchmarking your Capabilities and Performance: Improving your Chances of Success within a Competitive Environment 23 Introduction 23 Benchmarking your Career Progress 24 Identifying your Career Targets 26 Profiling your Competitors/Peers 27 Understanding the Background to Research: Australia's National Priorities in Funding Health Research 28 Purpose of Personal Support: The NHMRC Post-Doctoral Training Fellowships 30 Scoring Individual Applications 31 Picking the Winners 37 Summary 38 4 Choosing the 'Cutting-Edge' of Health Research 39 Introduction 39 Identifying a 'Hot' Research Topic 39 New Research Horizons: The Heart of Soweto Study 42 Increasing Admissions for Heart Attack in Soweto: A Historical Comparison 46 Taking it One Step Further: Identifying a Unique Topic 52 Summary 54 5 From Potential to Reality: The Importance of Achieving Timely Milestones to Bring your Research to Fruition 57 Introduction 57 Completing a Timely and Successful PhD 59 Key Qualities of a PhD-Qualified Researcher 64 Consolidating a Foundation for Success: Post-Doctoral Fellowship 68 Summary 70 6 Becoming a Prolific Publisher 73 Introduction 73 Publishing: What Should You Be Aiming for? 74 Key Attributes of a Prolific Publisher 77 Summary 80 7 Successfully Applying for Competitive Research Funds to Support your Career Path and Research Programme 81 Introduction 81 Improving your Chances of Funding Success 82 Putting It All Together as Part of a Persuasive Research Application 85 Developing a Compelling Curriculum Vitae 121 Completing a Successful Interview 130 Summary 131 8 Putting It All Together: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Career Success in Health Research 133 Introduction 133 Putting It All Together 133 Personal Reflections on an Emerging Research Career 135 Summary 165 References 167 Index 169.