Communications can present the greatest risks to a project, as such, most funding organisations will require you to create a communications plan with your project.

There is the need to write in any project you do. What needs to be written, and how much of your time it takes will be different for everyone, but most scientists will underestimate how much of their time will be spent writing.

‘Collaboration’ is powerful when there is diversity of opinion involved, as opposed to working together on someone else’s idea which would be ‘cooperation’.

Being a scientist is one of the most rewarding careers. You will work on solutions to problems with real world application and impact.

There are more elements to a presentation than just what goes on PowerPoint slides and what you say.

There is truth behind the saying, “a picture tells a thousand words”, because humans interpret images better than written words.

Scientific experiments need to be replicable, otherwise the credibility of any results you get may become questionable if no one else can demonstrate what you did.

The old adage, ‘you’ve got to be in it to win it’ applies to awards in science just as much as it does in any other context.