Fundraising and proposal writing

Academia Raetica

General information and fee

• Dates and times: June 24 and 27, 09.00-17.00, ONLINE

• Lecturer: Dr. Andrea Degen

• Language: PhD students, other scientists preparing a concrete proposal

• Target audience: all scientists

• Course fee for participants from Academia Raetica member or partner institutions: CHF 150 early bird rate until May 13, 2022. From May 14, 2022: CHF 180

• External participants: CHF 250

• Max. number participants: 16 (min. number participants 8)

• Our terms and conditions

• Course Coordinator: Daniela Heinen, daniela.heinen@academiaraetica.ch, phone 081 410 60 84

• Credit points: The workload in­clu­ding pre­pa­ra­ti­on and ho­me­work will be ap­pro­xi­mate­ly 20 hours. (Preliminary work: between 30 minutes and 1 hour. Workshop: 2 x 8 hours. Homework: between 1 - 3 hours.) Plea­se check with your su­per­vi­sor at your uni­ver­si­ty, if the cour­se counts towards ECTS.

• Course certificate: You will receive a certificate of attendance, if you attend the entire course.

Training content

Research needs funding from third parties, mainly public funding providers. And doctoral candidates are supposed to write research proposals to acquire funding for their research ideas and their team. But to successfully obtain these third-party funds it is essential to have an all-around convincing project proposal, which exposes the own research idea in a keen manner.

In this training, participants will get a brief overview on the most important national and European, funding programmes. They will get to know the different funding opportunities as well as specific requirements. In a second step, the participants will learn to understand and start to write specific parts of a research proposal: the research plan, the impact chapter, the implementation, the career plan, the budget, the ethics, the gender aspects and other parts requested by the funding agencies the participants intend to address.

They will furthermore discuss communication issues and how our messages are transported effectively to evaluation committees. To distinguish proposal writing from scientific (paper) writing is of key importance and therefore, elements in common and differences will be elaborated. Finally, participants get introduced in research contracts and the basics about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) related to fundraising and research collaborations.

Course objectives

• Where to find appropriate fellowship funding (preparatory homework with list of funding )

• How to apply: A-Z of the proposal submission process

• How to attract an evaluators’ attention for my proposal? Success factors for proposals

• Practice writing of a fellowship proposal

• Gain experience in reviewing fellowship proposals

Method

• Theoretical introduction and practical exercises in groups

• Homework: Students are expected to choose a funding programme of their interest and deliver a draft proposal for a submission to a research funding organisation (RFO) of their choice

• Database research on the internet

• Short films

• Practical exercises

About the trainer

Dr. med. Andrea Degen, Senior Research Manager

• Grant Writing, Fund Acquisition, Research Management

• MD / physician

• 2000-2005 1st Swiss NCP (National Contact Point) for Switzerland to the European Commission DG Research (www.euresearch.ch)

• 18 years fundraising & management experience in life sciences, food, energy and environment

• 2006 founder of EUrelations AG, Research Management Agency

• 2017 CAS in European Law, 2017 CAS International Policy & Advocacy at ETH Zurich

• 2020 and 2021 winner of Seal of Excellence of the EIC (European Innovation Council for EU-H2020-Accelerator proposal “HYGGii”, a digital mental health therapist