Dr Lotta Croft Research Development Manager
Lotta supports academics in their research ambitions through expert funding advice, strategic planning and developing high-quality funding proposals.
Contact details
Dr Lotta Croft cc2967@bath.ac.uk
Role
Lotta is the Research Development Manager for engineering in Research and Innovation Services (RIS) with a special focus on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
As part of the Research Development team, Lotta facilitates workshops and provides skills training for improving grant proposal outcomes.
Career
Lotta has significant experience in research development gained in the research, charity and public sectors in the UK and internationally while working as a research scientist and in research support roles at UKRI and major research organisations. Her strengths are in research funding strategy and planning, bid development, making complex ideas easy to understand and bringing people together to spark ideas and achieve a common goal.
She’s passionate about research that solves real-world challenges and has a particular interest in supporting early career researchers to win their first grant, including supporting applications to the EPSRC New Investigator Award and the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowships schemes.
A typical day might include providing advice on which funding calls to target, assessing the fit of a proposal to a particular funder or call, reviewing and helping to shape funding applications and developing guidance on hot topics in the research funding landscape, such as the use of AI in grant applications.