Click here for our new Coaching offering
Our free coaching can help you identify an impactful research question and connect you with further resources
New applications for coaching are paused. In the meantime, fill out our form to be notified when coaching is available again, contact us directly, or chat with our AI Thesis Mentor (requires ChatGPT Plus).
We are currently pausing new applications for coaching. In the meantime, we invite you to fill out our form to be notified when coaching is available again. By subscribing, you can also receive our newsletter which includes updates on our services, access to our Research Question (RQ) database, and other relevant topics that can assist you in your research journey.
You can also view our online guides for undergraduate and masters students and prospective PhD students to help you choose a thesis topic.
You can also sign up for one of our newsletters. The Future Researchers' Journey is a 6-week email-based summary of our advice on how to choose a thesis topic and shape your research career for greater impact. The Topic Discovery Digest helps you to find thesis topics, tools and resources that can help you significantly improve the world. The Early Career Research Opportunities Newsletter is a bi-weekly digest of hand-pick opportunities such as jobs, internships, prizes and scholarships that are particularly relevant to students from undergraduate to PhD level interested in our recommended research directions.
Learn more about our coaching service
Are you writing a thesis or considering your PhD topic? Our coaching service is designed to help students like you maximize the impact of your research. While we are not currently accepting new coaching applications, our guides for undergraduate and master's students, as well as prospective PhD students, provide valuable insights for choosing a thesis topic.
Coaching can help wherever you are in your PhD journey.
Writing an undergrad or master's thesis?
Coaching can help you discover how to have more impact with your research and connect you with further resources to help you get the most our of writing your thesis.
Frequently asked questions
How could coaching help me have a bigger positive impact?
Our coaches can help in a number of ways. They can help you think through open questions you have about your studies and future career, suggest tools and resources that would be a good fit for you, connect you with researchers to support your further, and offer you advice on things like finding a PhD supervisor and applying for funding.
After you’ve written your thesis or dissertation, we can also help you get your research noticed, including by publishing it on our site.
We generally work with students who will be writing a thesis or dissertation (at undergraduate, masters or PhD level) or submitting PhD applications in the next six months, however if you don’t quite fit this criteria we still encourage you to reach out.
When will I hear back if I apply?
We are accepting applications on a rolling basis. We typically reach out to accepted applicants within 1 to 2 weeks of their applications. If you have a deadline that means you need to hear back sooner, please make a note of this in your application.
If you want your research to do as much good as possible – either directly by contributing to solving a pressing problem or by building skills so you can have a bigger impact later – we encourage you to apply for coaching.
We primarily coach students who are considering research careers, but if you plan to pursue a different career we still encourage you to apply.
We’ll assess your application on the basis of your interest in having a positive impact and our belief that we can offer you support. If for any reason we can’t offer you coaching, we will still offer you helpful resources.
What is a typical coaching session like?
A coaching session lasts 30 minutes. Your coach will start by understanding your goals and any open questions you have. They may then help you consider how you could increase the likely impact of your research, offer you further resources, connect you with other researchers or organisations, or advise you on topics such as applying for funding, finding a supervisor or choosing a research question that is a good fit for you.
How many coaching sessions will I have?
After the first coaching session you’re likely to have lots of ideas and ways to get further support. However, many students appreciate meeting their coach for more sessions. Our coaches also stay in touch to provide ongoing guidance via email.
Should I apply if I’m interested in a research direction that isn’t featured on your site?
Yes – we still encourage you to apply. We recognise that your skills, qualifications and interests may mean that a different direction is a better fit for you, and the list of directions we feature on our site is not intended to be exhaustive.
However, we might not be able to help you as much as we could if you chose a research direction we recommend, as for these directions we have already found mentors, potential supervisors, research agendas and other useful resources to get you started.
We’re a nonprofit aiming to help students begin research careers that address pressing global problems. This means we particularly appreciate feedback about how we have helped you, to help inform our future applications for funding.
What other services do you offer?
You can see all the services we offer on the homepage. As well as individual coaching, we provide help with finding supervisors and PhD funding, recommendations of research directions that are particularly likely to have a big positive impact, a newsletter of curated opportunities for early career researchers, and advice for beginning a successful research career.
Students we've advised
I found picking a thesis topic to be a daunting experience. Having the team at Effective Thesis link me with experts who had thought a lot about the areas I was interested in really helped me to narrow my focus and identify the research questions at the leading edge of the field I was interested in.Tomundergraduate studentEffective thesis did a fantastic job in broadening my perspective on topics I could be researching and then making the relevant connections to deepen my understanding of the field I felt most excited about.JonaPhD studentI spoke with an Effective Thesis coach about funding options for my PhD. He gave me tons of advice on how to ask for funding from different organisations. It definitely worked, as I won a scholarship and I am now fully funded.DiegoPhD student