The silent disease of research proposals: How to demonstrate innovation value in national and EU grants?​​​

Schedule

Online tutorial available from February 2025

Workshop takes place on 6 February 2025, 9.00-11.00

Why attend?

Although funding organisations expect innovation value as an essential component in research proposals, researchers often have a hard time demonstrating that their idea, their approach, their solution is novel, it goes beyond what is already available. It would be a waste of time, public or private money, and energy to fund something that already exists.

However, experience shows that it often happens that even though researchers are super knowledgeable in their specific science field, they are often unable to place and position their proposed solutions and their benefits in a larger national, EU, or even global context that would prove the innovation value of what they do.

Without a critical analysis and positioning one’s hypothesis and proposed solution in a larger scientific context, one might miss existing similar solutions, leading to weak claims of originality. Which leads to rejected research proposals, and missed funding opportunities.

Another frequent situation is that researchers have a good, critical understanding of the national and EU research context, still, they do not describe their innovation in a clear, sharp, and relatable way. Instead, evaluators are left to read between the lines and figure things out for themselves. At the end, the consequence is the same. Weak claims of originality. Which works like a silent disease. It kills research proposals, and funding chances quietly.

In our tutorial and connected workshop, we will offer a step-by-step guide to researchers and research managers on how one can prove the innovation value of their research convincingly.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants should be able to 

• Realise that without the critical analysis of the state-of-the-art, one cannot justify and position their innovation value and will not get the funding. No critical analysis of state-of-the-art = no funding. No critical analysis of state-of-the-art = proposal development and submission is a waste of time.

• Understand that the identification of the innovation value is not a nice to have, but a must-have.

• Define what innovation means for national and European research agencies.

• Able to identify where their research stands on the innovation ladders (TRL/SRL scale).

• Able to determine where their research falls in the different scales/variations of innovation, eg. breakthrough, moonshot, repurposing, adaptation, geographical, target group adjusted etc.

• Able to recognise the common pitfalls of demonstrating novelty value in research proposals and is able to self-correct.

• Name what research AI-tools can be helpful in the critical analysis of the current situation.

• Tips and tricks to ensure research innovation: tips for networking and the key characters in bringing about innovation.

• Convincingly justify and write down the innovation value of their research.

Maximum number of participants: 20

Tailored workshops

The workshops of the Grant Navigator Training Programme can be booked stand alone or as a series. The practical assignments within the workshops are interconnected and can be used to develop a full proposal and network. Departments or institutes can request tailored workshops with a minimum of 20 participants. Tailored workshops are dependent on the capacity and availability of our trainers.

The trainers

Eszter Ashlock-Kéthelyi and Leonie Beljaars

Conditions for participation

• Open to researchers and research managers at UMCG and partner organizations (RUG, 4 schools connected to RUG, Hanze, Isala Hospital, Leeuwarden Hospital, Martini Hospital).

• Cost: 100 Euros/workshop.

• First come, first served basis. Priority registration for UMCG employees.

Register

• Registration for October/November 2024 workshops opened in July 2024.

• Limited to 20 participants per workshop

• Participation is secured by transferring the participation fee.

• First come, first served basis.

Skills developed by attending the Grant Navigator Training Programme

• Strategic planning for funding

• Networking and collaboration

• Demonstrating innovation value

• Effective storytelling in proposals

• Writing competitive proposals

• Defining societal impacts of research

• Using AI in grant writing

Evaluation of learning

Each module concludes with a practical assignment to measure competency development.

Accessibility of training materials

Materials will be available on the UMCG learning management system (LMS) for all participants.