She believes that this experience, her investigation of the assessment committee's profile, and a keen eye for asking complex research questions were instrumental in the success of her ERC application.

Complexity is at the heart of Iza Romanowska's research – especially in social systems. Her ERC project 'The Model City' examines the rise and fall of cities, and why some cities flourish while others struggle. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to her work in the true sense of the word. "I’ve always worked across sciences, and my research spans a broad spectrum of research areas, including social sciences, evolutionary theory and quantitative methods such as spatial (GIS), numerical (statistics), relational (NT) and text data," she says.
For the past three years, Iza Romonowska has been a fellow at AIAS (Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies). “The international and interdisciplinary environment hones your research and your ability to explain it,” says Iza Romonowska.

“By constantly explaining and discussing your research with researchers from other scientific traditions, you get better at your own research, and what’s more you broaden your understanding of other research fields and approaches. This has been very helpful in the many applications I’ve written over the years. Your research project has to be clear to a foreign reader from the very first page, and my interdisciplinary discussions have really improved my applications," she says. 

Reusing applications
Most researchers will have experienced having applications rejected. There may be several reasons, but one could be a poor match between the assessment panel and the research idea in the application. Iza Romonowska had initially applied for a Sapere Aude grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark , but she was rejected. She used basically the same application for the ERC Starting Grant application, and this time she got her grant.
"The panel must think that the research question is interesting and, in my case, that my interdisciplinary research is meaningful. They didn’t think so at the Independent Research Fund Denmark, which I also think of as more monodisciplinary. On the other hand, the ERC is very interested in the groundbreaking and interdisciplinary research. So we were a better match,” says Iza Ramonowska. Therefore, it may be a good idea to check the panellists' field of research before deciding which ERC panel to send an application to.

Feedback on an application
Over the course of three months, Iza Romanowska spent about three weeks writing her application. Along the way, she received feedback on her application twice from a research adviser in the Research Support Office. She also asked a researcher from another university to read the application.
"It's always good to have other people look at what you write. The details count, and I clarified the wording and adjusted the structure based on the feedback,” she says. But her best advice when writing an ERC Starting Grant application is to try and explain your research to researchers from other scientific traditions.
“This improves your ability to write a clear application,” says Iza Romanowska.

If you would like more information ERC Starting Grant - read here. You are also welcome to contact the Research Support Office.