• Question: How do you stay motivated when your research doesn’t go as planned?

    Asked by Milana.R on 26 Mar 2025. This question was also asked by Bethy Y.
    • Photo: Hannah Blyth

      Hannah Blyth answered on 26 Mar 2025:

      I get a lot of satisfaction trying to work out where something went wrong, talking to other researchers for their ideas (as well as complaining 😉 ) and doing my utmost to support and ensure students working in the same area don’t repeat my mistakes!

      Also sometimes, cake.

    • Photo: Caroline Roche

      Caroline Roche answered on 24 Apr 2025:

      Lots of patience – I get to investigate as to why it went wrong and make notes to ensure that we can watch out for if it happens again.

    • Photo: Luke Fountain

      Luke Fountain answered on 21 Jul 2025:

      This is a really great question, because many people think that nothing ever goes wrong in science, certainly when all the science you hear about in the news and on social media is usually about all the things that went right!

      But doing science is all about learning, and failure is one of the best teachers. Sometimes it is an easy fix, and other times it requires a whole different approach to be taken. Scientists have to be very patient when things don’t go as planned, but often, solving the problem is nearly as fun as the science itself.

      It is important to remember that the science you are doing is important – I try to remind myself when things go wrong that things that are worth doing are rarely easy, and that failure is not the end, but a necessary part of the process.

Comments

  • Photo: sandrarobertson

    sandrarobertson commented on :

    Sometimes it can be difficult, really disappointing and really frustrating if something you have been working on for a long time doesn’t produce the results you were expecting. But sometimes these ‘failures’ actually help to guide you to the right answer, and after you get over the initial disappointment you can start to see some positives from your work. You can start to work on why it didn’t go as expected, and why you got the results you did, and sometimes this takes you in a new direction with your research that takes you an even more interesting and exciting path to discovering something new.

  • Photo: Edward

    Edward commented on :

    A very good question. Academia and research is littered with failures. Have a research paper rejected from a journal, having a grant proposal rejected from a funder or that you tried an experiment and it didn’t work, or it didn’t work the way you expected.

    When you first hear, it is very reasonable to be upset, angry, frustrated etc. Take the time, do what brings you joy, maybe go for a walk, eat some cake, have a fancy hot chocolate or something. Then go back to it with a calmer head. It might be a simple error that is easily fixed, or it might be that you think about the problem in a new way.

    It is difficult but have faith in your training, your experiences and knowledge.

  • Photo: averhemben

    averhemben commented on :

    Staying motivated can be tricky however if you have a plan of work try to stick to it