ERC Training Workshop: Achieving a Highly Competitive ERC Grant Proposal

We go far beyond the ERC guide to applicants

ERC is extremely competitive and requires significant time and resources to successfully craft a winning proposal.

A deep understanding of the funding programme’s specifics and policies is a required first step…

But – we strongly believe that what sets apart less competitive ERC grant proposals from the highly competitive ones is a firm grasp of the programme’s elusive and unwritten conceptual rules.

Therefore, a huge emphasis during our training is focused exactly on everything that is beyond the ERC work program and guide for applicants, based on our ongoing work with countless ERC proposals.

The objective and added value of our ERC training:

The overall objective of our ERC training workshop is to convey to the participants that which cannot be found in the ERC official documentation. Though we do make sure to start by clarifying the basic knowledge and requirements, we quickly accelerate to the more elusive and conceptual parts of the ERC grant proposal.

If you read the work program carefully you will surely notice the sole criterion is excellence.

This is exactly where we come in. We decipher “excellence” for you, which is considered by many as ‘counter-intuitive’, based on our hands on experience working with hundreds of projects in the last decade.

Such aspects are not officially written anywhere, but ongoing experience has allowed us to develop an unwritten structure for success, which includes the very elements we uncover.

The ERC training workshop is divided into two segments:

1. A main presentation, including interactive Q&A and discussion (duration: up to 5-6 hours, including breaks); followed by –
2. Individual meetings with potential applicants to discuss their project ideas and CVs.

The workshop content – How to write a competitive ERC proposal?

This training presents the ERC to top researchers that are interested in applying to ERC funding. This workshop has two flavours: one is targeting the StG/CoG researchers, and the other one is targeting the AdG researchers.

It can also be customized to accommodate the needs of research managers and funding advisers.

The topics of the workshop include:

• ERC basics and terminology
• Technical rules & regulations
• Screening ERC candidates – What constitutes the “ERC Material” and when to say “No”.
• What constitutes the required Scientific Excellence?
• The unique nature of ERC: High risk, high gain, non-incremental work
• Hypothesis for ERC – how to do it right
• How to write a convincing methodology chapter
• Review Panel selection
• The open-ended nature of ERC
• Fragmented projects in ERC
• Understanding when collaborations in ERC are acceptable
• The panel-application reciprocal effect
• Application and submission process
• The evaluation process
• Feeding the reviewer in ERC
• Ethical issues
• And more…

The aspect which leads the ERC Training Workshop in its entirety, which is also the most important aspect of grant writing, is the point of view of the reviewers. We know how they work, how they think, and what they are looking for. Because of this, we know exactly what you should avoid and, better yet – what you should focus on. During the workshop we uncover all of these incredibly important points with you.

The who, where, and when of our ERC Training:

Who participates in our ERC Training?

Potential ERC candidates (Starting, Consolidators and Advanced) and Research managers & Funding Advisers who wish to deepen their understanding about the unique nature of the highly competitive ERC grant.  Additionally, applicants that have submitted an ERC grant proposal in the past and are considering to re-apply are also encouraged to participate.

Where does our ERC Training take place?

Our training sessions are on-site booked by our institutional clients. We bring our experts all the way to you.

When should you schedule the training?

We recommend to give considerable time (typically 3-6 months before the relevant ERC deadline) for training before researchers start to draft their proposals.

Would you like to receive more information about our training workshop? Write to us below and we’ll take it from there.

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See what past participants have said about our training:

Elisabeth Tauber Yes very satisfied. Beyond, in defining the “risk” concept and in introducing the “structural logic” of an ERC application. It helped a lot in thinking how to structure the research idea. That as good as a proposal can be, there are the risk factors of human reviewers liking or not… Read more “Elisabeth Tauber” “The presentation was very good in helping me to see how I should structure my application to fit in ERC.” University of Bergen (UiB) Martin Miles “Great seminar. Very satisfied. Definitely insightful. Beyond – and different from – the information that is already out there. Well-organized, comprehensive, and well-paced presentation. Useful and insightful information. Both representatives are are very knowledgeable, excellent communicators and interact well when questioned. It was also very good to receive a copy… Read more “Martin Miles” University of Bergen (UiB) Francesco It went beyond the already available information that is out there by modeling the scientific method that should be followed by a successful research project proposal. Madan K Suwal “It was a very detailed training.” University of Bergen (UiB) Erwin Rauch Very clear and structured presentation, competence of consultant. Experience with proposals that cannot be found in the internet. Raffaella Di Cagno In general I am quite satisfied with the event. Certainly for those who have no knowledge of this type of call the meeting goal has been centered, vice versa for those who are already familiar with or for those who have already applied (with failure), the expectation is higher. The… Read more “Raffaella Di Cagno” I very much appreciated the suggestions we received on how to write the grants (ie in which order), and how to conceptualize it (replace certain words by others to grasp what was the real point of the paragraph to write). I also liked how it was subdivided in the “what”… Read more “” Yes, definitely satisfied. Difficult issues were explained in an easy yet comprehensive way.

***It is understood and agreed that provided information must be kept confidential. Enspire Science does not disclose the confidential information obtained.