Workshop Writing Succesful Grant Proposals

A One-Day Practical Workshop including a pre-workshop assignment (which is obligatory!).

If you are interested in this course, you can register here. We will inform you once we organize this course again.

Organization

The Postgraduate School Molecular Medicine organizes together with ZonMW this one-day Workshop.

Introduction
Writing a research proposal to apply for a grant requires skill. You are bidding for what is a limited amount of public funding, and you need to convince the funding agency that it is precisely your project, which should be awarded a grant. You need to show that your project will be successful and, more importantly, you need to demonstrate that your project will be finished on time. You also need to persuade the agency involved that you – you, and not the hundreds of competitors and rivals - are the one for the job.

Aim of the workshop
This workshop aims to give you the background and tools you need to write a successful grant proposal. Experts/speakers from various backgrounds will give you information and tips on how to structure your proposal. We will also look at some of the following questions:

• What does a reviewer look for in your proposal?
• How do you "sell” your project to him or her?
• Why is it so important that your abstract is well-written, well thought out and interesting?
• What happens if you are rejected first time around?
• How do you re-write your proposal?

The focus of this training day is on practice rather than theory (though we’ll touch on some theoretical matters). You will be divided into two groups, and will receive feedback on the abstract of your own proposal, from two experts and your peers. We have chosen to focus on the abstract relating to your proposal, because once you have written your  abstract you are half-way writing your proposal: writing a clear and interesting abstract forces you to think your project through carefully, and to structure your thoughts and the text. Reviewers start by reading the abstract relating to a proposal. 

Practical Exercises (feedback on participants’ abstracts)
The two practical exercises in the program will be done in groups of 8 participants. Two teachers, Prof. Dr. Frank Grosveld and Dr. Joy Burrough, will coach both groups. Prof. Dr. Frank Grosveld will look at the content of your abstract; Dr. Joy Burrough at the way your abstract is written (the English). The program consists of the following four parts:

1. Reading the abstracts (with the help of a projector)
2. A short presentation of each summary by its own author, followed by a discussion of the summary. The teacher and all of the participants give the author suggestions for improvement.
3. The author takes notes as he/she receives feedback. The same person must then incorporate at least three of the points raised in a revised version of the abstract.
4. Writing down the conclusions of sheets to present in the whole group.

The aim of this exercise is not only to give participants practice in constructing abstracts relating proposals and justifying them, but also to provide them with the skill to accept constructive criticism professionally.

Participants
This workshop is open to PhD students and postdocs of the MolMed Postgraduate School and other schools and universities who are writing or about to start writing a grant proposal for a grant program, such as "Veni” (NWO) or any other funding body. Because of the practical nature of the workshop, a maximum amount of 16 participants can take part.

Obligatory!
To participate in the workshop, it is necessary that you complete the pre-workshop assignment in order to participate.