Twelve tips on how to prepare an ERC grant proposal

Twelve tips on how to prepare an ERC grant proposal

• 1.
  TWELVE TIPS ONHOW TO PREPARE AN ERC GRANT PROPOSAL ANDREAS ZELLER, CISPA / SAARLAND UNIVERSITY
• 2.
  THE PROCESS
• 3.
  1UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS TheERC publishes a Guide for Applicants as well as a Guide for Reviewers.  Both should be your bible; at all times, ask yourself how your proposal will stand according to the criteria and the process listed.  Find out what your panel is, who the chair will be, and which past members have been on the panel.  Your proposal will need to win all of them.
• 4.
  2START MANY, MANYMONTHS
 BEFORE THE DEADLINE Unless your story is a winner straight from the inception, you will need lots of time for refining and revising the main idea and the many problems.  In my case, I started writing the proposal 18 months before the deadline; although 6 months would have been okay, too, refining for another 12 months helped the proposal a lot.
• 5.
  3RESERVE SEVERAL WEEKSFOR WRITING You will need lots of time for collecting data, shaping the story, and checking the references.  Consider a 2–3 week retreat for the writing alone, plus appropriate time for polishing.  Let your friends and family know when you'll be back. Do not delegate this.
• 6.
  4GET PLENTY OFFEEDBACK Your proposal will first be reviewed from people in your discipline, but not necessarily from people in your speciality.  It may also be that your proposal will have to stand against proposals from totally different disciplines.  Hence, your story must appeal to readers no matter what discipline and speciality they're from.
• 7.
  5USE LOCAL EXPERTISE ERCprojects are huge, and thus involve substantial budget and resource planning.  If your university has support for EU and/or ERC proposals, rely on their expertise.  (If you have a colleague who is already funded by the ERC, check with her or him as well, of course!)
• 8.
  YOUR
 ACHIEVEMENTS
• 9.
  6SELL YOURSELF 50% ofthe grading is your past achievements, and you will have to work hard on these.  What you need is irrefutable evidence for impact and excellence.  That is, facts (numbers!) on awards, services, papers, talks, students, tools; lasting impact in academia and industry; your quality as networker and advisor; and, last but not least, your ability to shape and create research fields. With you, the project is safe.
• 10.
  7HAVE UNIQUE SELLINGPOINTS "So, you're Brad Pitt? That don't impress me much."
• 11.
  7HAVE UNIQUE SELLINGPOINTS Come up with points that only you can satisfy. Do not just write: "ACM Fellow" (everyone is). Instead, write: "First female ACM Fellow from the region of Rhône-Alpes" and generalize as much as possible. Likewise, replace "Best Paper Award" (everyone has one) by "Most cited Debugging Paper since 2010". Coming up with such selling points is hard work; bibliographic query tools are your best friends.
• 12.
  YOUR
 PROJECT PLAN
• 13.
  8NO RISK, NOFUN The ERC funds high-risk, high-gain projects.  Your plans should identify these challenges (if it were risk-free, why fund it?) but help to mitigate these risks and thus bring high gains.  Focus on novelty (why is this new?) and potential impact (why is this needed?). Avoid standard cliches from your discipline ("If only everybody had used formal methods, the Ariane failure could have been prevented..."); come up with fresh, real stories and insights instead.
• 14.
  9CLEAR TITLE, CLEARABSTRACT Reviewers should get interested in your proposal after a short glimpse of ten seconds.  The message has to be in the title, in the abstract, in the figures, in the diagram, in the examples.  (Yes, please have a diagram that conveys the approach! And please have an example, too! All these are weapons in the hands of your champions.)  If you fear the message could be too complex, try again. If the simple version no longer sounds cool, go back to the drawing board.
• 15.
  10HAVE A CLEARSTRUCTURE AND PLAN Put your organization in writing: tasks, dependences, milestones, evaluations, and measurable success criteria.  The point of this exercise is not for the ERC to ask you to follow the plan by the letter once the project starts; the point of this exercise is for the reviewers to see that you can organize things.
• 16.
  11GET TO THEPOINT The length of an ERC proposals is clearly limited, and that's a good thing.  Get to the point quickly.  Use a clear language: No buzzwords, no yada yada, no lingo.  If your project on "Examining the security interoperability of cloud business process models" cannot be motivated in plain English, don't expect the computer science panel chair to pitch it against "Curing cancer once and for all".
• 17.
  12POLISH, POLISH, POLISH Andpolish again.  With an ERC grant, you're applying for the highest individual funding one can get in Europe.  Do your homework.
• 18.
  A WORD OF CAUTION
• 19.
  *)THERE IS NOGUARANTEE None of these tips guarantees success.  What they do, though, is to prevent misunderstandings.  If the reviewer does not get the point about you and your proposal, you will lose despite being great, and that sends you back to the drawing board.  If the reviewers do get the point, then it's a fair game: If you are worse than the others, you lose; and if you are better, you win – and that's all that matters.
• 20.
  1UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS TheERC publishes a Guide for Applicants as well as a Guide for Reviewers.  Both should be your bible; at all times, ask yourself how your proposal will stand according to the criteria and the process listed.  Find out what your panel is, who the chair will be, and which past members have been on the panel.  Your proposal will need to win all of them. 2START MANY, MANY MONTHS
 BEFORE THE DEADLINE Unless your story is a winner straight from the inception, you will need lots of time for refining and revising the main idea and the many problems.  In my case, I started writing the proposal 18 months before the deadline; although 6 months would have been okay, too, refining for another 12 months helped the proposal a lot. 3RESERVE SEVERAL WEEKS FOR WRITING You will need lots of time for collecting data, shaping the story, and checking the references.  Consider a 2–3 week retreat for the writing alone, plus appropriate time for polishing.  Let your friends and family know when you'll be back. Do not delegate this. 7HAVE UNIQUE SELLING POINTS Come up with points that only you can satisfy. Do not just write: "ACM Fellow" (everyone is). Instead, write: "First female ACM Fellow from the region of Rhône-Alpes" and generalize as much as possible. Likewise, replace "Best Paper Award" (everyone has one) by "Most cited Debugging Paper since 2010". Coming up with such selling points is hard work; bibliographic query tools are your best friends. 8NO RISK, NO FUN The ERC funds high-risk, high-gain projects.  Your plans should identify these challenges (if it were risk-free, why fund it?) but help to mitigate these risks and thus bring high gains.  Focus on novelty (why is this new?) and potential impact (why is this needed?). Avoid standard cliches from your discipline ("If only everybody had used formal methods, the Ariane failure could have been prevented..."); come up with fresh, real stories and insights instead. 9CLEAR TITLE, CLEAR ABSTRACT Reviewers should get interested in your proposal after a short glimpse of ten seconds.  The message has to be in the title, in the abstract, in the figures, in the diagram, in the examples.  (Yes, please have a diagram that conveys the approach! And please have an example, too! All these are weapons in the hands of your champions.)  If you fear the message could be too complex, try again. If the simple version no longer sounds cool, go back to the drawing board. 11GET TO THE POINT The length of an ERC proposals is clearly limited, and that's a good thing.  Get to the point quickly.  Use a clear language: No buzzwords, no yada yada, no lingo.  If your project on "Examining the security interoperability of cloud business process models" cannot be motivated in plain English, don't expect the computer science panel chair to pitch it against "Curing cancer once and for all". 12POLISH, POLISH, POLISH And polish again.  With an ERC grant, you're applying for the highest individual funding one can get in Europe.  Do your homework. 5USE LOCAL EXPERTISE ERC projects are huge, and thus involve substantial budget and resource planning.  If your university has support for EU and/or ERC proposals, rely on their expertise.  (If you have a colleague who is already funded by the ERC, check with her or him as well, of course!) TWELVE TIPS ON HOW TO PREPARE AN ERC GRANT PROPOSAL *)THERE IS NO GUARANTEE None of these tips guarantees success.  What they do, though, is to prevent misunderstandings.  If the reviewer does not get the point about you and your proposal, you will lose despite being great, and that sends you back to the drawing board.  If the reviewers do get the point, then it's a fair game: If you are worse than the others, you lose; and if you are better, you win – and that's all that matters.ANDREAS ZELLER, CISPA / SAARLAND UNIVERSITY 10HAVE A CLEAR STRUCTURE AND PLAN Put your organization in writing: tasks, dependences, milestones, evaluations, and measurable success criteria.  The point of this exercise is not for the ERC to ask you to follow the plan by the letter once the project starts; the point of this exercise is for the reviewers to see that you can organize things. 4GET PLENTY OF FEEDBACK Your proposal will first be reviewed from people in your discipline, but not necessarily from people in your speciality.  It may also be that your proposal will have to stand against proposals from totally different disciplines.  Hence, your story must appeal to readers no matter what discipline and speciality they're from. 6SELL YOURSELF 50% of the grading is your past achievements, and you will have to work hard on these.  What you need is irrefutable evidence for impact and excellence.  That is, facts (numbers!) on awards, services, papers, talks, students, tools; lasting impact in academia and industry; your quality as networker and advisor; and, last but not least, your ability to shape and create research fields. With you, the project is safe.