Blog

Preparing for your personal grant interview

Hooray, you are selected for an interview on your research proposal! This is a huge step, as it means that the evaluating committee likes your ideas and you’re still in the running to obtain funding. At the same time, you’re not quite there yet, and a lot will depend on how you perform during the interview. We understand this is very – very – stressful.

[FUNDED] HealthIntelAct: Transforming Health and Care Systems for People, Planet, and Prosperity

A multidisciplinary and multisectoral consortium led by Dr. Dionne Kringos (Amsterdam UMC) acquired funding to train the next generation of experts in Actionable Performance Intelligence. Together, they will equip decision-makers with the tools and knowledge to build sustainable, inclusive, and impactful health and care systems across Europe and beyond. Fundament supported the consortium of leading academics, healthcare organizations, and industry partners in drafting a strong, coherent and convincing Industrial Doctorate proposal, assessed with a whopping 98 out of 100 score!

[FUNDED] WHAT-IF: The information environment and its effects on democracy

An international consortium led by Prof. Wouter van Atteveldt from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam received Horizon Europe funding to develop and assess a simulation of the digital political information environment. This digital twin, or ‘what-if machine’, can be used to test the effects of policy and regulatory interventions in the realm of (social) media quality and regulation on democratic citizenship. Besides the likely societal impact, the project will also contribute to novel computational social science methodology. Fundament supported the consortium in translating their innovative ideas into a competitive proposal.

Writing your grant proposal for multiple audiences at once

Know your audience! This is a key rule in any writing, and grant writing is no exception. Writing your grant proposal tailored to your audience becomes especially challenging when there are different types of readers that will evaluate your work. How to make sure all types of readers understand and, more importantly, value your plans?

[FUNDED] AI4AI: Artificial Intelligence for Accessible Medical Imaging

A national interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral consortium led by Prof. dr. Ivana Išgum from Amsterdam UMC acquired funding to develop AI technologies for inexpensive imaging devices to be used outside the hospital much closer to the normal living environment. AI4AI includes 12 use cases stretching the entire spectrum of medical imaging modalities including the analysis of MRI, CT, US, X-ray, retinal, histopathology and LSCI modalities, for neuro, cardiovascular, breast, prostate, oncology, retinal, fetal and urgent care. Through solidifying existing networks between academic and industrial research and clinical expertise within the Dutch AI field, AI4AI contributes to strengthening the Dutch position on the Dutch and international AI market and subsequently to training and retaining AI talent in the Netherlands.

[FUNDED] KeepCaring: Improving the wellbeing of healthcare professionals in EU hospitals

Led by Prof. dr. Marlies Schijven from Amsterdam UMC, an international consortium acquired funding to develop innovative solutions to prevent burnout and improve wellbeing and resilience among (aspirant) healthcare professionals delivering surgical care in European hospitals. Solutions will be developed and tested at the individual, team, and organizational levels, and include digital and non-digital interventions. Fundament supported the consortium in translating their research and innovation ideas into an attractive and convincing proposal.

How to benefit from proposal evaluations (even if they are unfair…)

Receiving evaluation reports for proposals that didn’t make the cut to get funded can be quite frustrating. Like with reviewer comments, evaluations from the grant committee can come across as unfair, uninformed, or just (too) harsh. Still, there often are important clues in these reports to be able to improve your next grant proposal.

Help, I’m preparing a Horizon Europe Lump Sum proposal – Part 2: The proposal

Although the first pilots already stem from 2018, Lump Sum funding is introduced in mainstream European grants starting in the 2024 calls. In Research and Innovation Action proposals, this new type of funding replaces the funding based on actual costs. The Lump Sum funding scheme is designed to simplify reporting during project execution. While this new scheme will significantly decrease financial management workload during the project, it does mean that in the proposal development stage the project budget needs to be much more elaborate than before.

[FUNDED] DESTRESS: Focus on stress for the benefit of individuals and organisations

A multidisciplinary and multisectoral consortium led by Prof. Christiaan Vinkers (Amsterdam UMC) acquired funding to develop an innovative approach to tackle stress and increase resilience within organisations. The research project DESTRESS was funded by the Dutch NWA-ORC programme. Fundament supported the consortium in all steps of the process, from drafting a convincing pre-proposal and full proposal to writing the rebuttal to reviewers’ comments and preparing for the interview.