This workshop concluded on 22 November 2015.

The Max Planck Society (MPG) and Freie Universität Berlin India offices, in partnership with IndiaBioscience, organised a two-day DWIH Proposal Writing and Grant Management workshop in Bangalore (21^st – 22^nd November, 2015). This was funded by the German House for Research and Innovation (DWIH) , New Delhi and IndiaBioscience.

The concept of the workshop was to illustrate the methods and technical know-how required to prepare successful international research proposals. On Day 1, the workshop was in a ‘taught format’, and covered topics from identifying the adequate funding programmes, content development & grant writing to budget planning. Day 2 offered a proposal simulation game to allow for a hands-on preparation of a typical proposal outline, including a guided group work, evaluation/discussion, and feedback from the speakers. This model of specialized training workshops have proven successful in the German research landscape and the idea was to hold similar events in India, with focus on proposal writing and project management skill development that would enable young scientists in India, particularly those from partner institutions of the applying organizations to successfully apply for existing Indo-German joint programs and other international research funding opportunities. The workshop aimed to help sharpen the skills of the participants to apply for individual and collaborative third party funding programs.

Target Audience
PhD students, Post Docs, Young Faculty from the Life Sciences.

Grants covered

European Union (all areas, collaborative and individual grants/fellowships)Marie Curie Fellowships
European Research Council (ERC)
German Research Council (“DFG”, all areas, grants/fellowships)
German research foundations (e.g. Volkswagen, Alexander-von-Humboldt, Fritz-Thyssen etc., grants/fellowships)
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD research fellowships)
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BmBF, Indian cooperation related)

Speakers

Brigitta Schütt
Vice-President for Research, Freie Universität Berlin
Patrice Wegener
Head of the Max Planck EU Regional Office Baden-Württemberg

Schedule

21 NOVEMBER 2015
10:00
Welcome
10:15-11:00
Group work: how would you assess your present career situation and perspective?
11:00 - 11:45
Introducing active career development and profile building through European Unionand German funding programmes, Part I (Patrice)
Understanding the ‘funding landscape’ and its programme families & policies; Overcoming ‘technical’ challenges (self-assessment and ‘grantsmanship’, relationship with the host institution, research ethics, collaborative research)
11:45-12:00
Break
12:00-13:00
Introducing active career development and profile building through European Union and German funding programmes, Part II (Patrice)
A closer look into individual project and career funding opportunities in Europe
13:00 - 13:30
Lunch
13:30 - 15:15
Proposal writing for international research, Part I (Brigitta)
How to develop an idea and turn it into structure/programme; Essentials of scientific writing (incl. good & bad examples); ‘Dos and Don’ts’
15:15-15:45
Break
15:45 - 17:15
Proposal writing for international research, Part II (Brigitta)
Generating the project’s abstract and title; Budgeting the research; The scientific evaluator’s look at a submitted project
22 NOVEMBER 2015
10:00 - 13:00
Project proposal simulation game: a Marie-Curie European Fellowship application
Group work, evaluation and discussion, feedback (Patrice & Brigitta)
13:00-14:00
Lunch
14:00
Individual meetings and advice with researchers (optional, with Brigitta and Patrice)