One-on-one personalised ERC Advanced grant writing support

We care about the individuals that we support - each one of them different - and for each, we offer a personal, individually tailored and educationally focussed journey of ERC grant writing.

We offer services through all stages of the ERC Advanced proposal development and writing process (each is a stand alone service to cater to the needs of each applicant).

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

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

All of our work is also educationally focussed. We teach researchers how to better review their own work and further enhance their grant writing skills – all of which can be taken and used into the future with other granting bodies and schemes.

A hallmark of the way in which we work with applicants is the numerous interactions throughout the support process - allowing for a fully personalised trajectory for each applicant that we support.

SERVICE OPTIONS INCLUDE:

• Full proposal Writing (Support, Mentoring and Coaching in Writing B2 and B1 documents) (See also below).

• Truncated support: Critical review and coaching support for an advanced (i.e. 3/4 complete) draft or a complete draft (See also below)

• ERC Resubmission Support

• ERC Interview Preparation Support

PROPOSAL WRITING (SUPPORT, MENTORING AND COACHING IN WRITING B1 AND B2):
This is our most popular form of support
Here, we mostly start working with applicants from the beginning of the writing process (4-12 months before a call deadline), providing advice and support so as to facilitate a strong foundation for the candidate to then start writing and provide in-depth support throughout the writing process.

Stage 1:  Strengthening the proposal framework. In this phase, we work with applicants to first help define their concept in a more consistent and convincing way, and setting the foundational structure for the scientific proposal, before they begin the writing phase. This stage includes defining in clear and consistent terms:  what is the challenge, why is it a problem, why do we need to overcome it, what are the bottlenecks, why have they not yet been addressed, why can they now be addressed, what recent underpinning by the applicant supports this new avenue of research (also supports the validity of any hypothesis), proposal aim, objectives, workplan overview, team, collaboration, novelty of the research, impact and risk mitigation etc.

Stage 2: CV/TR. Alongside Stage 1, we coach the applicant on creating a very strong ERC 4-page CV/TR and will review and provide feedback on this over 2-3 iterations.

Stage 3: Proposal Writing Phase. Once Stage 1 and Stage 2 are complete, we then coach and mentor the applicant on the full proposal draft, working on the draft in smaller manageable stages, prior to achieving a full and complete draft. This includes Part I, Part II, the resources and time commitment section, and the Appendix on current and submitted grants.

Our coaching includes proposal content, structure, clarity, flow, consistency and presenting clear and balanced storytelling.

We do this through quite a lot of contact and iterations/feedback rounds.

Our in-depth feedback on drafts is highly personalised, and should we identify weaknesses in a proposal, we will always work at providing the applicant with suggestions and/or options as to how the weakness can be remedied.

TRUNCATED WRITING SUPPORT: CRITICAL REVIEW OF ADVANCED OR FULLY WRITTEN DRAFTS
Our draft review work is in-depth, and we provide quite substantial and in-depth feedback. Due this this, applicants can be quite overwhelmed by this form of feedback within a single round of review. As such, we do not offer ERC proposal review support in a single round of review. Instead, we work with applicants in quick successive rounds of review in stages, breaking up the proposal into manageable sections over a very short time period (e.g. 10-28 days).

This form of support is fully tailored to each individual situation, according to the stage that the draft is in when applicants come to us for review, the timeline needing to be worked to etc.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR SUPPORT

• When any of our clients interact with us, they will find us to be down to earth and approachable professionals, who have a real passion for what we do, and we understand and appreciate how busy the life of an academic can be.

• All of our work is based on a strong process-driven foundation.

• We believe in honesty and transparency, and in building strong and healthy relationships with our clients.

METHOD OF DELIVERY
Our method of delivery is via (1) personal ‘one-on-one’ online coaching and feedback sessions; and (2) online via email. The breakdown of this is individually tailored to each individual (some applicants may find online meetings more helpful, whilst others may have more of a preference for working more though email.

WHO WILL APPLICANTS BE WORKING WITH
You will work directly with with either Fire Sanders or Willem Bouma, both qualified and highly experienced senior trainers. Both Willem and Fire have experience working with all panels and areas of research, and have worked with numerous applicants and institutions throughout around Europe and beyond. 

We have over 15 years (specifically) working on European, Dutch and other national research grant proposals - and over 25 years experience with scientific promotion cases, research grant applications, interview training, review and editing of high impact research journal articles and writing nominations for prestigious prizes and awards. We specialise in what we do and offer – and ERC grant writing is no exception.