We are a team
of three highly experienced and professional trainers. You can read short
profiles below:
Dr Luke
Blaxill is the founder of the Alternative Guide to Postgraduate Funding. He had
no funding at all for his PhD in Political History, but managed to raise all
the money he needed entirely through charities and trusts, winning more than 40
separate awards. He delivered our first workshop in 2009 at King's College
London, and the technique he used to fund his PhD sits at the centre of our
workshops. His story has been featured in the Guardian and the Telegraph. You
can read his funding story here.
Dr Shuzhi Zhou is the Co-director of GradFunding, and has a PhD in Neuroscience. Shuzhi met Luke at King's College London and secured numerous grants for final year PhD funding and research conferences. She started delivering workshops herself in 2012, and specialises in funding for research, travel, and conference costs. She often delivers the workshops at specialist institutions in the sciences, and also in arts and music. You can read her funding story here.
Dr Lucy Atkinson is the newest member of our training team, having joined us in 2015. Lucy used the techniques in the Alternative Guide to act as a major contributor to fund her PhD in Psychology at the University of Northampton, and got in touch with us hoping to join our team. Lucy brings a wealth of recent fundraising experience to our team, having managed to find funding from particularly creative places, including the Merchant Navy Educational Trust and the Swallowdale Children's charity. You can read her funding story here.