Personalised ERC Synergy Grant interview preparation/ training

We care about the researchers that we support - each one of them different - and for each, we offer a personal and individually tailored journey of ERC Synery grant interview preparation.

Preparing for an ERC Synergy grant interview is a challenging and time consuming process - on top of the everyday challenges of an extremely busy academic life. Our focus is on making this process as enjoyable and as stress free as possible - for all teams that we work with.

We are highly experienced working with all domains and all areas of research.

Whilst we adjust our support to each individual team, the support is directed towards researchers who:

• Want to prepare for interview in a way that is as stress free as possible, and yet comprehensive to fully prepare for interview.

• Want to receive personalised one-on-one and in-depth support, guiding you throughout the preparation process.

• Want to be able to deliver a clear and powerful presentation.

• Want to be prepared for any type of question (including unexpected and potentially irritating questions).

• Want to be able to answer all questions in a clear, direct and informative manner.

• Want to enhance and strengthen the synergistic aspects of the team dynamics

When to start working with with us

• We generally start working with teams as soon as possible once they are invited to interview, so that they can optimise their preparation, and allow the preparation process to be as enjoyable as possible, without undue pressure. 

• However, we can also begin work with researchers closer the interview date.
  

For those on a more restricted budget, we can also provide truncated Synergy interview support. The structuring and content is more high-level to the full support outline below, consisting of either 3 sessions (1 x PPT and 2 x Q&A) or 2 sessions (Q&A only).

Format of the support:

• Our support is provided in 5 online one-on-one private training/coaching/presentation/mentoring sessions. 

• Where possible, to help optimise teamwork, we prefer that one session (needs to be a Q&A session) has all PIs are physically in the same room.

• We provide the team with specific ‘homework’ research/tasks to help them with their interview preparation (e.g. including, but not limited to: missing elements/details within the proposal, critically assess the weaker areas of the proposal and how to prepare for questions on these at interview).

• Outside of the training sessions, we interact with the team as needed via email for questions, queries, and review queries etc.

For EU based clients, all online trainings sessions with us are generally held between 7.00am and 11.45am CET or CEST, where we schedule sessions at times to suit the individual. For researchers located elsewhere, we work with them to arrange the most suitable training session times for their schedule. 

Researchers will be working with either Fire Sanders or Willem Bouma, both highly qualified and highly experienced senior trainers. with experience working across all panels and areas of research.

As part of our support, applicants that we support will also receive:

• Strategic advice and assistance in the development of presentation content, and in-depth preparation for the question and answer component of the interview.

• Critical review and feedback on the presentation delivery (identification of potential weaknesses/advice on how to remedy them). We critically read all proposals and give thorough feedback on weaknesses and issues that we find.

• Feedback on potential areas of concerns (criticism) from reviewers in order to better prepare for the Q&A session.

• 'Homework' tasks to better prepare for all potential Questions that may be faced at the ERC interview, minimising the chance that the team receives an unexpected question at interview that they are not prepared for.