ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced  Grant writing course for groups

'We offer a personal, individually tailored and educationally focussed journey of excellence.'

At Whitehorne, as part of our ERC services, we share our many years of experience and expertise by coaching and mentoring potential ERC applicants on enhancing their grant writing skills and developing up a proposal concept in readiness for writing a future ERC grant.

This course has been designed for ERC Starting, ERC Consolidator, and also more senior ERC Advanced grant applicants. It is specifically for universities who have a number of applicants that they want to be able to support, but are not in a position to offer individual support to each applicant.

The course is run in small groups (preferably suitably aligned - and is a personalised course - suited to each individual.

The course has been designed to commence 8-14 months prior to a call submission.

The course includes:

• Explaining the ERC process

• Refinement of a strong concept for an ERC proposal, and the steps involved for this, including: What is the scientific challenge; Why is this research now needed; Why is it now relevant; Why can the research now be done; How can this concept overcome the bottle neck in the current State of the Art; What are the underpinning recent results that support the feasibility; What is the aim; What are the objectives; What is the skeleton for the workplan; What elements of the workplan need collaborators, etc.

• What is needed to be presented in the ERC CV (and how to present this in a strong, coherent and effective way), and detailed mentoring and coaching on this.

• Coaching on the writing style needed for an ERC proposal, including clarity and consistency in messages

• Mentoring and advice on what to avoid, and common mistakes made when writing an ERC proposal

• Detailed mentoring and coaching on the scientific content and presentation needed in the B2 of the proposal.

• Detailed mentoring and coaching on how to create B1 from B2, including writing an abstract.

We also offer ERC grant writing individual support and ERC interview support.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR SUPPORT

• 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.

• 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.
  

WHO WILL APPLICANTS BE WORKING WITH
Your course facilitators are Fire Sanders or Willem Bouma, both qualified and 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 international research grant proposals - and over 25 years experience with scientific promotion cases, research grants, 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.