Paid to research: Preparing successful funding applications

The Berlin University Alliance (BUA) is an alliance of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Together, they are pursuing the goal of creating and shaping an integrated research space in Berlin. This alliance aims to establish Berlin as a leading international science location. All workshops and events offered by the Graduate Studies Support Program are funded by the BUA and therefore free of charge.

Participation

Doctoral researchers (all disciplines) and postdocs of the Berlin University Alliance.

Before booking a workshop, please make sure that you can attend for the entire duration. Please check our terms and conditions.

Objectives

This worksop supports participants in learning how to adequately prepare their own successful applications for scholarships, travel grants and research funding (both in Germany and beyond).

Content

On the first day of the workshop, participants are helped to identify suitable funding sources, to understand what evaluators are looking for when assessing an application, to think strategically about the formal and informal contacts that the applicant might entertain with the funding body in question and, finally, to prepare the structure underpinning the actual writing of their application. On the second day of the workshop, participants meet the trainer through a series of one-to-one meetings. Within this context, they have the opportunity to discuss their specific situation, eventual challenges they are facing and possible ways forward to prepare successful applications through a dedicated tailor-made approach.

• Identifying the most suitable funding bodies.

• Understanding what evaluators are looking for in an application.

•  Keeping in touch with the funding body (do’s and don’ts).

• Exploring how to enhance one’s own image to “stick out from the rest”.

• Structuring the writing of the funding application itself.