Grant Writing Course by Research Support: How to efficiently plan and write successful grants

This course is organized and imparted by Research Support, and aims to equip AUMC researchers with key skills to create clear, concise, and persuasive proposals. The morning covers high-level topics like open science, data management, and valorisation, while later sessions focus on practical tools such as multi-year funding plans, narrative CVs, and effective writing techniques. The day ends with a peer-review workshop to refine abstracts, offering hands-on practice.

The course is tailored for both beginners and experienced writers.

Content

This grant-writing course is designed to equip you with the essential skills to craft well-structured, clear, concise, and persuasive grant proposals. Across the day, we will guide you through the different sections of a grant application, providing practical tips and actionable strategies to improve your proposals.

The early morning sessions will focus on high-level topics essential to grant writing, such as open science, data management, and valorisation. These sessions will introduce key concepts and provide an overview of what researchers need to know when addressing these areas in their grant proposals. While all participants are encouraged to join, researchers with prior knowledge in these topics may choose to start their day with the later sessions, beginning at 10:30.

In the midday and afternoon sessions, the focus will shift to practical tools and hands-on activities, such as creating a multi-year funding plan, developing a narrative CV, and applying effective writing techniques. Participants will also learn to use writing templates to improve structure, clarity, and cohesion, and will receive tips for writing compelling abstracts and grant sections.

The course concludes with an interactive workshop where participants will pair up to review and refine each other’s abstracts, putting the day’s lessons into practice.

Amsterdam UMC postdocs and final-year PhD students are invited to join this course, which is designed to benefit both beginners and experienced grant writers. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the grant-writing process, practical tools to enhance their proposals, and constructive feedback on their abstracts.

Preparation: Participants need to bring a printed version of the abstract of their grant application.

Detailed Agenda

09:00-09:05. Welcome and Introduction of the course.

09:05-9:30. Open Science. We will go through the different open science practices that researchers can incorporate in their proposal.

9:30-9:55.Data Management. We will discuss the different types of data a research project can generate, and how to use the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

9:55-10:15. Valorisation and commercialisation. We will go over the most important points to consider when writing the exploitation section of grant proposals.

10:15-10:30. Break. Coffee and snacks will be served.

10:30-11:00. Grant Planning. We will go over how grant planning can help you to reach your research and career goals, and how you can design your multi-year funding plan.

11:00-12:00.Narrative CV. We will expose important concepts when developing your narrative CV (a CV in a format that provides a structured written description of a person's contributions and achievements reflecting a broad range of relevant skills and experiences).

12:00-12:30. Vegetarian Lunch will be served.

12:30-13:30. Grant Writing: Writing for Reviewers. We will define how to produce a grant narrative that convinces and enthuses a grant committee of reviewers.

13:30-14:15. Grant Writing: Two writing templates. We will review two writing templates to help you improve your story line to enhance the clarity, structure, cohesion and simplicity of any text.

14:15-14:30. Break.

14:30-15:30. Grant Structure: Grant Template & Abstract. We will discuss how we can incorporate a specific grant writing template to help you write the different sections of the grant. We will also review and provide actionable tips to write grant abstracts. Finally, we will go over the structure of a grant proposal and provide tips and tricks on what to consider when writing each of the different sections of a grant proposal.

15:30-15:45. Break. Coffee and snacks will be served.

15:45-16:45. Workshop Abstract Writing. In this interactive workshop, participants will pair up to review and provide constructive feedback on each other's abstracts. Each participant must bring a printed copy of their abstract. After receiving feedback, participants will revise their abstracts, applying tips and techniques from earlier sessions.

16:45-17:00. Wrap up. Reflection on the main takeaways and space for final questions.

Registration is limited. If interested register here, and within days you will receive an email letting you know whether you are invited to the workshop. Lunch is included in the registration.

For more information about this workshop please contact the organizers: Raiza Hasrat (RPO, researchsupport@amsterdamumc.nl) or Silvia Calpe (RGS, s.calpe@amsterdamumc.nl).