ERC Interview training and support

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

Preparing for an ERC grant interview 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. I.e. the applicant learns much more than just how to prepare for an interview. We teach researchers how to better review their own work and further enhance their presentation and strategic analysis 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.

The support is directed towards candidates who:

• Want to prepare for interview in a way that is as stress free as possible, and yet comprehensive enough to fully prepare for interview.

• Want to receive personalised one-on-one and in-depth support with numerous interactions, supporting and guiding you throughout your preparation process.

• Want to be able to deliver a clear and powerful presentation

• Want to be prepared for any type of question (including unexpected and potentially irritating questions)

• Want to be able to answer all questions in a crisp, direct and informative manner; and

• Who want to learn new skills that they can take away and use in their everyday working lives within the scientific arena

Format of the support:

• Our support is provided in 5-6 online one-on-one private training/coaching/presentation/mentoring sessions over several weeks. 

• In addition to this, we provide the candidate with specific ‘homework’ research/tasks to help them with their interview preparation.

• We also require candidates to undertake numerous other practice sessions (including online sessions) within/outside his/her Institute/Faculty etc. to optimise their preparation.

• Outside of the training sessions, we interact with the candidate via email for questions, queries, and review queries etc.

The method of delivery is via personal ‘one-on-one’ online training sessions with either Fire Sanders or Willem Bouma, both highly qualified and highly experienced senior trainers. Both Willem and Fire have experience working with all panels and areas of research, and have worked with a host of  applicants and institutions throughout around Europe and beyond. We do not outsource any of our work.

As part of our support, applicants that we support will also receive:

• Strategic advice and assistance in the development of presentation content, and in-depth preparation for the question and answer component of the interview.

• Critical review and feedback on the presentation delivery (identification of potential weaknesses/advice on how to remedy them). We critically read all proposals and give thorough feedback on weaknesses and issues that we find.

• Feedback on potential areas of concerns (criticism) from reviewers in order to better prepare for the Q&A session.

• 'Homework' tasks to better prepare for all potential Questions that may be faced at the ERC interview, minimising the chance that the applicant receives an unexpected question at interview that they are not prepared for.

• Q&A Practice sessions, including a list of critical and in-depth questions based on our assessment of the proposal and it's weaknesses.

• Presentation, communication, interview and life skills coaching.

• Mentoring and personal development coaching.