Your first-line grant advisor is the key source of information. They will tell you about briefings, training sessions and events organized for individual grants. Please contact your first-line advisor as soon as you start thinking about writing a proposal. They will be happy to discuss your outline at an early stage, guide you quickly through the writing process and administrative requirements. Some first and second-line advisors are available as a sounding board and for critical review. The second-line advisors work with an online agenda that is announced via the Events section of the Knowledge Base. At the faculty level, there may be additional internal checks for eligibility and review procedures, where you will get advice on how  to strengthen your proposal. Sometimes, you can also make use of professional writers and editors. Please ask your local grant advisor about the options for professional editing services provided by the university. Keep in mind that the costs need to be covered by your institute.

Direct access to:

• Getting started on applying for funding- with tips on cv building, writing a one-page proposal, selecting the right grant, basics of grant writing, booklet how to write an excellent proposal
• NWO Talent scheme (Rubicon, Veni, Vidi, Vici)
• European Research Council (ERC StG, CoG, AdG, SyG, PoC)
• Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Fellowships
• Course: writing an excellent proposal

Usually a collaboration starts long before funding comes into the picture. You build up a network of people with similar interests, for example at conferences and other events. We have tips and tools for building a network for collaboration and research agenda setting, based on the collective experiences of Leiden researchers. If you want to discuss your research collaboration ideas further, book a consultation hour with an collaborative funding expert in the second line and/or business developer at Luris.

Once you identify a call that requires collaboration, contact your first-line grant advisor first. They can tell you about briefings, trainings and development and writing support organized for this call. For all NWO NWA and KIC calls and Horizon Europe, it is especially important to learn all about the process and expectations of the funder. Please contact your first line advisor as soon as you start thinking about writing a proposal. The timeline for writing a proposal may require substantial effort and it works best when you plan this together with the support.

Direct access to:

• Collaborative grants – orientation and consortium building – with tips on networking, building public private partnerships, etc.
• Organise a scientific workshop - opportunities at the Lorentz center
• Consultation hours for preparing for collaborative workshops and sandpits, announced in Events
• Tips for building successful public-private partnerships

Organising the writing process for a collaborative grant is a project in itself. The key to information on the support is your first-line grant advisor. If you want to coordinate, they will team up with the second-line grant advisors. First there will be an idea phase to assess the fit with the call and viability of the project, and to further brainstorm on the core consortium. They will help you set up a writing team and to organise the orientation and writing phase. You cannot start too soon. It requires a lot of coordination, but using our good practices and tools makes it easier.

Direct access to:

• Collaborative grants - writing tools and tips  – directory folder for the preparation process, preparing non-scientific chapters, etc.
• Step-by-step guide to preparing a collaborative proposal.pdf