Transferable Skills Course: Proposal Writing

Through examples and relevant exercises as well as class discussions, each participant learns how to develop their funding idea by matching it to the goals of a targeted funding program. As a starting point, the workshop uses participants’ written outlines of their own funding ideas in the format of a short “mini-proposal” (2 pages). Group exercises help participants not only to structure proposals that comply with funding agency requirements but also to write proposals that reflect the reading behaviour of reviewers. The interactive nature of the workshop is designed to pool the experience, ideas and opinions of the instructors with those of the students in order to enhance the learning experience for all participants.

During the workshop, participants will learn how to:

• View proposal writing as a competition in a marketplace of research ideas and as an instrument for career advancement.
• Develop and sell a research idea by matching it to the goals of the targeted funding body.
• Convince reviewers of the relevance and importance of the research idea.
• Develop a work plan with milestones, deliverables and contingency plans.
• Understand reviewers’ reading behaviour.
• Engage the reviewer to advocate on their behalf to the review panel.
• Comply with formalities and manage timelines and deadlines.

Schedule

tba

Trainers

Dr. Brian Cusack, brian.cusack@science-craft.com
Dr. Babette Regierer, regierer@sb-sciencemanagement.com

Registration

Please email gindrat@molgen.mpg.de to register for this course.

Before signing up for this workshop, please make sure that you can attend all the dates and write them in your calendar. If you do not show up or cancel at very short notice, other interested students will not be able to participate.