Interview and cases

Chief Consultant Ulrik Bak Kirk is a coordinator on the H2020 FEMaLe project, and he pulled out all the stops on communication right from the start when the grant for the FEMaLe project was secured. Getting the project off the ground required much more than just the usual website and publication of research articles.

Professor Lars Dyrskjøt Andersen from the Department of Clinical Medicine and his European partners have secured a Horizon Europe Cancer Mission grant of EUR 9 million. This was his second attempt at applying for a Mission grant. He believes the experience from the first application process and the attention to every detail in the call resulted in an application that received the highest score…

Senior researcher Iza Romanowska has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant of DKK 11.2 million. She has been part of interdisciplinary research environments throughout her research career, so she knows that dialogue is paramount.

Senior researcher Ulas Im from the Department of Environmental Science at AU acted quickly when he received the first draft work programme for Horizon Europe cluster 5. It was an obvious call for him to apply for, because as it was precisely within his field of climate change. He decided that he would have an application ready when the final call was issued just under a year later. He got down to…

Associate Professor Bjørn Panyella Pedersen has been a panellist in trial interviews held by the Research Support Office many times for ERC, Villum Young Investigator and Sapere Aude applicants. Around 52 applicants have benefitted from his feedback on applications and oral presentations. "It's rewarding and inspiring work that generates knowledge about the university, and builds networks at the…

When Corina-Gabriela Ciobotaru, a fellow at the AIAS, applied for a Villum Young Investigator Grant for the second time, she was invited for an interview. As part of her preparation, she participated in the Research Support Office’s practice interview, with a panel consisting of two previous recipients of a Villum Young Investigator Grant and two advisers from the Research Support Office. She…

Associate Professor Rikke Toft Nørgård from DPU was invited to join a newly started consortium, and she was asked whether she would take on the role of coordinator for a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action (RIA) under cluster 2: "Culture, creativity and inclusive society". She had her doubts – was she far enough ahead in her career? Was she the right person? Did she have time?

Clearly stated objectives, many meetings in the research group, qualified sparring and plenty of time. According to Professor Merete Bilde from the Department of Chemistry, these are some of the reasons why she received a grant from the Danish National Research Foundation (DG) and will soon head the upcoming Center for Chemistry of Clouds.

Solutions to be found at the interface between disciplines

Professor David Budtz Pedersen from Aalborg University believes that interdisciplinary collaboration in research will be crucial in the future. The challenges and issues we are facing today cannot be solved by individual disciplines. He shares this opinion with both local and international external grant givers.

External national and EU grant givers are increasingly looking for and requiring interdisciplinarity in project applications. Large, complex issues require complex research that draws on a number of academic disciplines. Professor Jesper Givskov Sørensen from the Department of Biology conducts research on using flies in animal feed and food production, and he applied for Independent Research Fund…

The Faculty of Natural Sciences attracts a lot of external funding – especially from private foundations. In principle, this is very positive, but it also has some unfortunate consequences. The rule on co-funding means that it eats into basic research funding. And this presents a number of challenges, says Vice-dean David Lundbek Egholm.

Johanne Korsdal Sørensen transferred a topical social problem into an application to Innovation Fund Denmark. Over the next five to eight years, Denmark will be short of about 40,000 health and social workers. What can we do about the problem? Johanne Korsdal and her colleagues have a qualified proposal, and Innovation Fund Denmark is backing them up with DKK 6.1 million. However, it was a…

"Our ambition is to strengthen research environments, and we would like to supplement this with external top researchers. We also want diversity in our research groups and we have broad recruitment strategies. Therefore, international top researchers with an NNF Laureate Grant are of great interest," says Thomas G. Jensen.

When the final call texts are on the EU portal, most of the strong consortia have already been established. If you want to be part of a Horizon Europe coordinator application, you have to read the draft work programmes and start forming a consortium as early as possible. As Professor Jacob Carstensen from Bioscience says: 'The mating dance starts with the first draft programme'.

Applying for external funding may be easier if you have a funding strategy. If you just apply ad hoc, there is a certain probability that:

• you will start late

• you will apply slightly randomly and in several different directions within your field of research.

The problem with this approach is that you rarely manage to establish a clear profile, a strong CV and sufficient publications within…

Strong collaboration over many years, a thoroughly thought out project, and not least 110 percent preparation for the interview resulted in a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for Professor Alexandre Anesio from Aarhus University, Professor Martin Tranter from the University of Bristol and Professor Liane Benning from GFZ Potsdam.

Vice-dean Per Baltzer Overgaard believes that politicians will not be giving more money to research in the future. So the route to retaining, and hopefully improving, the level of research at the School of Business and Social Sciences (BSS) is more external funding. For this reason, BSS has hired two associated deans and introduced review processes for applications.

Since 2011, ARTS has increased its external funding significantly. “Among other things, this has been through new organisation of research, and by appointing research consultants. In addition to more funding for the faculty, this has also resulted in more openness and better processes at the departments as well as many more young research talents,” explains Anne Marie Pahuus, vicedean at the…

A new research committee at Health will enhance external funding, interdisciplinary research collaboration and recruitment of the best researchers. This calls for dialogue and action, and a forum that brings together all the departments, the Dean's Office and the Research Support Office, according to Ole Steen Nielsen, vice-dean for research at Health.

Determination and faith in her idea were the drivers for associate professor Lisbeth Frostholm when she re-applied to Innovation Fund Denmark after two refusals - and the effort was not wasted. In 2018, she and Marianne Rosendal (a specialist in general medicine from the University of Southern Denmark) received a grant of DKK 9.4 million from Innovation Fund Denmark, plus DKK 1.1 million from…

Pernille Klarskov applied for and was offered a place in a COST network, and that was how she found new colleagues in the EU.

After three years of postdoc studies in the USA, Pernille Klarskov Pedersen did not have a European network when she started as an assistant professor at Aarhus University. Now she is on the board of a COST network and has made many new contacts and met potential partners…

Professor Jacob Sherson has received a donation from an American private trust: to begin with USD 500,000 to fund the application of his research method to teaching materials. Public impact is absolutely central for private donors, who are also willing to take risks and support research which challenges the accepted paradigms.

Over the years, Professor Charlotte Ulrikka Rask has written a lot of grant applications, and she’s been awarded funding a number of times. But an advisory process with the Research Support Office in connection with a major application has helped her rethink her approach to grant applications, including how to communicate her research idea clearly and convincingly. What’s more, her research unit…

AU constantly works to assert our influence in the EU. For one thing, we have a regional EU office in Brussels where Lina Christensen and her colleague Rikke Edsjö establish contacts, monitor political agendas, track down early warnings and intelligence for AU, arrange meetings and take part in networks that are relevant to AU.

In this way, the office works as a bridge builder between the EU and…

Professor Liv Hornekær had a well-defined research idea and a strong desire to build her own research group within experimental physics. Therefore, she applied for an ERC Starting Grant while she was an associate professor. And she got it. “It takes an excellent idea and a lot of work to prepare a proposal. But then again, you also get the opportunity to develop your research, so whether you…

A new internal review panel at the Danish School of Education (DPU) paves the way for better proposals and more knowledge sharing among the researchers at the department. Our initial experience is very positive, and in the long term, the review process may also have a positive impact on the organizational culture," says professor Venka Simovska, head of the review panel.

Competition is fierce, if you are to succeed with your Horizon 2020 proposal. The standard is high, and tiny flaws may mean that your proposal is eliminated. So says associate professor Marianne Zandersen who has been an evaluator in the second phase of eight Horizon 2020 proposals

Hans Sanderson, senior researcher at the Department of Environmental Science, has been the coordinator of an FP7 cooperation project "BASE", which was finalized in 2016. He passes on advice that will benefit any applicant for Horizon 2020 funds.

Denmark has a strong influence on Horizon 2020. And we have powerful allied partners in the programme committees, says dean Johnny Laursen. Johnny Laursen sits as a national expert in the EU’s programme committee for 'Europe in a Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative and Reflective Societies’, which is one of the themes of Horizon 2020’s Societal Challenges.

Professor Søren Riis Paludan is the coordinator of the Horizon 2020 project “Training network providing cutting-EDGE knowlEDGE on Herpes Virology and Immunology" (EDGE). EDGE is an Innovation Training Network (ITN) in the Marie Curie programme in the Excellent Science section. The project has received almost € 4 million to train the next generation of researchers to find solutions to the…

Professor Hans Erik Bøtker and three of his international colleagues wanted a stronger European network within their field of research - Cardiology. Therefore, they applied for a COST network, and today they have a network in which 20 countries are represented. He sees the COST network as an excellent funding possibility for researchers, and he believes that they have managed to organise an…

What will be the 'impact' of your research? Your proposal should answer that question both precisely and with sufficient details, says deputy director of AU Research and External Relations, John Westensee. John Westensee has recently attended a conference in New Zealand where impact was the dominant theme.