Training and capacity development

Last changed: 24 February 2023

At the Grants Office, we have a mission to build the capacity of SLU staff to write more competitive and successful funding proposals, prepare application budgets, and deliver project reporting. We offer seminars and workshops, announced in our calendar and available upon request, as well as seed money to attend external training courses. You can find more information about the seminars and workshops that we can offer below, and we are always happy to discuss ideas for expanding our training portfolio or collaborating with other units at SLU. We can even custom-make training events that suit you and your colleagues! Get in touch with us for a chat - see our contact details below.

Proposal writing

To be a researcher means that you need to continuously secure funding for your research, your team and often your own salary. If you take the time to learn how to navigate the complex funding landscape and practise your writing skills, you will not only increase your chances of winning grants but also secure your career in research.

Writing a competitive proposal is a skill and can be improved with training. Not everyone knows how to write a strong application intuitively, on their first try. To deliver your message and convince an evaluation panel, you must build an attractive proposal with a clear structure and storyline. You must also have a good understanding of how evaluation panels are organised and how they will evaluate your proposal. In order to help you develop your skills in writing competitive proposals and understand the evaluation criteria of different funders, we organise seminars and workshops on the following subjects:

  • Early career support - in dialogue with the faculties
    • Funding for PhD students
    • Career funding for early-stage researchers
  • Proposal writing
    • Writing competitive proposals for external funding - general, or EU-specific
    • Cross-cutting issues - gender in research, innovation management, ethics issues, data management
  • Application discussion groups - a facilitated review and feedback session with small groups for annual calls, such as Formas
  • Funder- or call-specific seminars - often with an invited speaker from the funding agency
  • Interview training - for grants such as ERC and SSF Future Research Leaders
Contact us

Please see our calendar of events or reach out to us to talk about scheduling a training event for your department, unit or group:

Proposal writing - large collaborative grants

Fiona Reid & Ulf Westerlund

Proposal writing - individual grants, early career support and interview training

Caroline Grabbe

Application budgets and project financial reporting

To be successful, a proposal must be well written, but it also requires a reasonable and well-balanced budget. This will not only help to convince the evaluators that you can deliver the project you have described in your application, but it will also help you manage, monitor, and report on the progress of your project throughout its life. Understanding the financial rules of different funding agencies and how they apply to your proposal or project can be complicated and time-consuming. At the Grants Office, we offer opportunities for both researchers and administrative staff to develop their skills in application economy and project financial reporting. Our training and capacity building offering includes:

Contact us

Please see our calendar of events or reach out to us to talk about scheduling a training event for your department, unit or group:

Application Economy for Project Financial Administrators

Frank Sterner

EU Financial Administrator’s Network

Hallvard Wie & Christer Borglin

 
External training providers

In addition to our internal training events, many companies also provide courses in different aspects of applying for and managing research grants. When SLU is coordinating a large proposal or project, you may be eligible for seed money from us towards the fees for such a course.

Occasionally, the Grants Office will invite an external provider or speaker to deliver a training course or workshop at SLU. If your department or faculty would be interested in doing something similar, please contact us for advice and support - we will be happy to collaborate with you!

We can help you to find external training providers focusing on EU funding, please just get in touch with us at grantsoffice@slu.se.

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