We believe - and our experience bears this out - that raising your profile and getting coverage of your research in the media does have an impact on research funding success.
There's several ways this can happen.
Firstly, any press release we send out for research also goes to the research council or other funder (industry, charity etc) and they love seeing the work they fund is being valued and promoted. They use the press releases on their own website and in their own publications - so you're getting your research and what you're achieveing with the money you've been given directly in front of people involved in funding it.
If the press release is lucky enough to get coverage in a national newspaper, international publication or be featured in broadcast media - this again will please your funders. It also means your work gets noticed by other funders, people from industry or other sectors who might support your work. Or by other collaborators - from industry, medicine, whatever sector is relevant - who might suggest a new project to be funded or contribute an important element to increase the breadth of an existing area of work and so increase its likelihood of gaining further funding.
Last but certainly not least, research press releases are usually covered in more depth in specialist, trade and technical media, which is likely to be read by exactly the people within the sectors relevant to your work who might be future funders or collaborators, increasing the possiblity of new projects or new angles for existing work.
We don't claim PR can perform a miracle - but we've seen researchers reap benefits, either from putting smile on the face of their funders or through getting a call from someone who wants to work with them.
And - it doesn't take a huge amount of time to do, can be fun and personally rewarding. So what are you waiting for?
