Fiona Reid

I aim to help SLU’s researchers to write better grant proposals, and to increase the overall knowledge, skill and awareness of external funding at the university. I focus on proposals where SLU is the coordinator, and multiple partners are involved, particularly funding from the EU and strategic Swedish national funders. However, I can offer advice on many different types of applications, from various funding agencies.

When you are coordinating a proposal, I will work with you to:

• understand the background/scope of the topic and how to incorporate this into your concept and text
• consider which types of organisations you should partner with to show an effective multi-actor approach
• review and suggest edits to your drafts to highlight any weaknesses or inconsistencies, and improve the tone, structure, and narrative
• act as a sounding board for any questions you have

In addition to supporting researchers with their proposals, I work proactively with my Grants Office colleagues to provide training and capacity building in proposal writing. I also spend part of my time on communication and outreach activities to increase awareness of and access to external funding resources at SLU.

I have a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh, and a PGDip in Library and Information Management from Manchester Metropolitan University. After starting my career as an Academic Librarian in my home city of Edinburgh, Scotland, I spent five years working as Grants Manager for an start-up company that developed wave energy technology. The company relied heavily on external funding, and I prepared both national and international (including EU) applications for research, demonstration, infrastructure, and organisational development grant funding. I also managed the financial and project administration of successfully funded projects.

In 2016, I began working as a self-employed Grant Funding Consultant offering my clients quality reviews of their funding proposals and writing several proposals for companies who did not have the in-house expertise. I worked with various companies in the marine renewable energy and Scottish whisky sectors.

I moved to Sweden in late 2017 to take up the newly created position of Research Coordinator, here at SLU. During my time here, I have worked with many researchers, across all four faculties, on proposals from a range of funders.

A selection of successful proposals I've worked with at SLU:

• NextGenCarbon: Next Generation Modelling of Terrestrial Carbon Cycle by assimilation of in-situ campaigns and Earth Observations - Horizon Europe, 2025-2029
• Beyond the current: Improving European flowing waters in an era of global change - MSCA Doctoral Network, 2025-2028
• GREENHANCE: Growing Resilience by Exploring Methods to Enhance Urban Agriculture for Human Well-being, Community and Biodiversity Enrichment - Biodiversa+, 2025-2027
• inSALSA: Increasing Sustainability of Agribiologicals by Living Labs in sub-Saharan Africa - Biodiversa+, 2025-2027
• WildCrop: Optimal rewilding of crop-bodyguard interactions facilitating the green transformation of agriculture, Biodiversa+, 2025-2027
• Wilding Grasslands: Wilding as nature-based opportunity for grassy ecosystems under diverse land tenure systems - Biodiversa+, 2025-2027
• DETECTIVE: Detection of new genomic technique products to promote innovation in the EU - Horizon Europe, 2024-2027
• Restore4More: Scaling rangeland restoration in drylands through synergies in the biodiversity-water-climate nexus - Formas, 2023-2027
• How to protect what we do not know we have: Identifying, understanding and managing aquatic biodiversity in intensively managed forests and under an increasingly extreme climate - Formas, 2023-2027
• BioGlue-Centre: Competence centre for bio-based adhesives - Vinnova, 2023-2028
• FORWARDS: The ForestWard Observatory to secure resilience of European forests - Horizon Europe, 2022-2027
• SIDWater: Sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions - Formas, 2022-2026
• BroilerNet: Practice and science broiler production innovation network- Horizon Europe, 2022-2026
• EcoReFibre: Ecological solutions for the recovery of secondary raw materials from post-consumer fibreboards- Horizon Europe, 2022-2026
• GeneBEcon: Capturing the potential of Gene editing for a sustainable BioEconomy - Horizon Europe, 2022-2025
• BEPREP: Identification of best practices for biodiversity recovery and public health interventions to prevent future epidemics and pandemics - Horizon Europe, 2022-2027
• Trees For Me: Competence centre for sustainable forestry, materials, and energy- Energimyndigheten
• Landscape Breeding: A new paradigm in forest tree management- SSF, 2022-2026
• Rapid-Cycle Breeding - SSF, 2022-2026
• PATHWAYS: Pathways for transitions to sustainability in livestock husbandry and food systems - Horizon 2020, 2021-2026
• PlantCline: Adapting Plant genetic diversity to Climate change along a continental latitudinal gradient- Biodiversa, 2021-2024
• MAD-tech-AMR: Management of animal diseases and antimicrobial use by information and communication technology to control AMR in East Africa- JPIAMR, 2020-2024
• Waterdrive: Water driven rural development in the Baltic Sea Region - Interreg Baltic Sea Region, 2019-2021