Where Research Begins: “Meaningless Questions” and Other Secrets to Groundbreaking Research Projects – Jan. 14, 2026

Session Description

Kick off the new year with strategies to design research that matters! Join the Centre for Research & Innovation Support for a webinar with Stanford professor Thomas Mullaney and UBC professor Christopher Rea. This session will focus on building a skill set for overcoming the most fundamental challenges faced by researchers, beginning with writing one’s way to a research project that is rigorous and personally meaningful. Drawing on their new book, Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You, Mullaney and Rea will share immediately applicable techniques for making key decisions about which research projects to choose, how to make a “topic” your own, how to get the most out of consultations with colleagues and mentors, and how to communicate project ideas effectively in a grant proposal. 

This webinar is for faculty members across fields and disciplines who want to start their research projects off in a good way while engaging a diverse audience. Emphasizing accessibility and self-driven research design, this training introduces a series of simple yet powerful writing exercises to find and convey research inspiration. 

This webinar is for you if you ever: 

• Find yourself stuck in “Topicland” when exploring new research interest—unable to transition from topics into research questions  
• Wanted to improve how you describe your research questions to lay audiences 
• Feel like your research topic was imposed by your field or discipline 
• Experience difficulty pivoting to new lines of inquiry 

Attendees will also have a chance to win a copy of Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You!