The AJE Grant Support Team

o Deep experience in writing

and editing grants
o Consult on opportunities: Planning
through to figure creation
o Edit existing grants, and can provide
the pre-peer review Please see:
o Grant writing support packages www.aje.com/services/grants/
o AI Editing Tool
o Provide presentations, resources, Or contact our team for more
and training for researchers
information:
o Online michael.snowden@researchsquare.com /
gareth.dyke@researchsquare.com
Why is it important to have your own
research funding?

Pitch your research (practice makes perfect)

Builds your confidence

Academic independence even as a mentored researcher

Success brings more success

But where do you start?

University

Student / postdoc groups

Scientific & learned societies

Listserv and email groups

National research funders

Research funding databases

And how?

Keywords, keywords, keywords

Funding call keywords ≠ research project keywords

Generics keywords > specific keywords
 When & how to use keywords

Specific title General Specific Society General National funders

subject funders funders funders
The Role of Acute and Neuroscience • Brain & • FENS • EMBO • Swedish Research
Chronic / Psychiatry Behavior • SFN • Human Council
Neuroinflammation in Research Frontier • DFG
Depression: (Biomedical Foundation Science • NIH
Uncovering the research) Program • ERC
Relationship Between • American
Histamine and Psychiatric
Serotonin Transmission Association
Search according to your
profile / needs

current location

activity location

citizenship

type of funding

career stage

subject area
PhD

Funder Award Benefits Location Subject

International Graduate Student 12.5K USD/year for Global Biomedical

Foundation for Ethical Fellowships for up to 3 years research
Research (IFER) Alternatives to the Use of
Animals in Science
Boehringer Ingelheim PhD Fellowship Stipend for 3.5 Europe / Biomedical
Fonds years European research
Fonds der Kekulé Fellowship 1850 EUR/month Germany Chemistry
Chemischen Industrie 2 years
(FCI)
Novo Nordisk Fonden Mads Øvlisen PhD 2 million DKK Denmark Arts
Scholarships within Art 3 years
History
Swiss National Doc.CH 4 years stipend Switzerland Humanities
Science Foundation Social sciences
(SNSF)
PhD & Postdoc

Funder Award Benefits Location Subject

The Foundation Blanceflor Scholarship Up to 170K SEK for Sweden/ STEM

Blanceflor personal expenses Italy citizens
Boncompagni
Ludovisi, née Bildt
FEMS FEMS-Jensen Award 10K EUR for Member Microbiology
exchange visit countries
National MPS Society Research Grants 50K EUR Global MPS – rare
diseases
Gerda Henkel General Research Grants Stipend for up to Global Humanities
Foundation 24 months
Canon Foundation Canon Research 27.5K EUR Europe/Japan All disciplines
Fellowships 1 year
Postdoc

Funder Award Benefits Location Subject

Cystinosis Research Cystinosis Research 75K USD/Year Global Rare disease

Foundation Fellowship 2 years

Cancer Research CRI Irvington Postdoctoral 74K USD/Year Global Immunology

Institute (CRI) Fellowship 3 years
Human Frontier Cross-Disciplinary 3 years stipend Member Non-bio to bio
Science Program Fellowships countries
(HFSP)
Alexander von Georg Forster Research 24 months stipend Developing SDG
Humboldt Foundation Award countries to
Germany
The World Academy TWAS-IsDB Postdoctoral 6 months stipend Developing SDG
of Sciences (TWAS) Fellowship Programme countries
New investigators

Funder Award Benefits Location Subject

Swedish Research Starting Grant 1.5 million Sweden Medicine |

Council SEK/year Scie & Eng |
(Vetenskapsrådet) 4 years Education
ERC Starting Grant 1.5 million EUR Europe+ All disciplines
5 years
Volkswagen Earth System Sciences 1.5 million EUR Germany Earth science
Foundation 6 years + sustainability
TWAS Seed grant for African 62K USD Africa STEM
investigators 2 years
The Academy of Starter Grants for Clinical 30 GBP UK Clinicians
Medical Sciences Lecturers 1-2 years
Novo Nordisk Fonden Start Package Grants 4 million DKK Denmark Health &
4 years sustainability
Women in research

Funder Award Benefits Location Subject

Helmholtz Association Distinguished 600K EUR/year Germany STEM

Professorship for Women
Scientists
Nature Nature Awards for Inspiring 50K EUR Global STEM
Women in Science
VinFuture Foundation VinFuture Special Prize for 500K USD Global STEM
Female Innovators
OWSD PhD fellowships 4 years stipend Developing STEM
countries
L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science +5K EUR prize Global STEM
money
Falling Walls Female Science Talents Mentoring Global STEM
Foundation Intensive Track
 funding list for
women researchers
https://www.scientifyresearch.org
/all-funding-for-women-in-
research/
funding list for travel grants
developing countries
https://www.scientifyresearch.org
https://www.scientifyresearch.org
/all-research-travel-funding/
/all-research-funding-developing-
countries/

All funding lists: https://www.scientifyresearch.org/research-funding-lists/

Getting Funded With Good Grant Writing
Links, Resources and Material

S & M auf der Slackline

 AI-based tools
• https://www.perplexity.ai/ for finding papers, extracting key claims,
summarizing, and brainstorming ideas,
• https://elicit.org/ for enhanced literature review by providing interactive
summaries of key information about those papers in an interactive table,
• https://www.researchrabbit.ai/ for identifying manuscripts connected to your
manuscripts of interests with respect to content and/or authors,
• https://www.jasper.ai/ and https://app.neuro-flash.com/aiWriter for generating
and summarizing text,
• https://chat.openai.com/chat for brainstorming and texting,
https://www.deepl.com/write for optimizing text,
• https://openai.com/dall-e-2/ for images and
• https://contentatscale.ai/ai-content-detector/ for detecting AI-based writing.
 Additional Resources
• Asynchronous learning platform on how to do scientific writing (voucher
only valid until 23.3.23!): https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-write-
your-thesis/?couponCode=98D7EC9C60A7925774D0
• Our podcast including several episodes on scientific communication:
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theimperfectscientist
• Linkedin article about my AI-based writing pipeline:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7038777681999462
400
• Connect with me via linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-
mertens-05060814
• Interested in more soft-skill content? mertens@schillermertens.de,
https://www.schillermertens.de/
Getting Funded With Good Grant Writing

S & M auf der Slackline

Scientists
learn from
scientists
www.mertens-lab.de
The Mertens Lab is
Active.
Daniel Mertens
Third Party
Grant Funding
13.7.2013
The grant writing
pyramid
The grant writing
pyramid
The grant writing
pyramid

What?

WHY? WHO?
The grant writing
pyramid

What?

WHY? WHO?
Simon Sinek: Start with the “Why?”

YouTube, 04.05.2010, 3rd most viewed TED talk

The grant writing
pyramid

What?

WHY? WHO?
Adapt to your audience!
You – the most knowledgeable person
about what you did / found / conclude

Specialists – want more detail, master technical terms

Nonspecialists –
need more background and more interpretation
need nontechnical terms or defined technical ones
 Please answer in the chat:
• What are specific reasons for why a specific research should be
funded?

• Who is the audience?

(Feel free to like other comments as well.)

The grant writing
pyramid

What?

WHY? WHO?
Gary Larson
adapted from Jean-Luc Doumont
Structuring Principle:
“And, But, Therefore”

Randy Olson, “Houston, We Have A Narrative!”

“And, But, Therefore” Examples
Topic

“For 8,000 years sea level has been stable and

civilizations have been built right to the edge of the
ocean, but for the past 150 years sea level has
been rising rapidly, therefore it is now time to
come up with a new management plan for coastal
areas.”
“And, But, Therefore” Annotation

Fact 1 And Fact 2

To understand
the problem

But problem

Consequence,
Therefore conclusion
 “…but it´s unknown.”
is not a sufficiently interesting “but”.

Please write into the chat:

• What are better options for "but" instead of

"it´s unknown"?
 More interesting “but”s:

• XYZ will break resistance to treatment.

• XYZ will empower neglected youths.
• XYZ will allow us to detect the next supernova.
• …etc.
The grant writing
pyramid

What?

WHY? WHO?
Structure is different between a paper and a grant

Manuscript / Paper Grant

Title Title
Abstract Summary / Aims (SMART)
Introduction Introduction / State of the Art
Material and Methods Methodology
Results Preliminary Data
Work Plan (SMART, GANTT,
Milestones, Deliverables, SWOT)
Budget (Personnel, Consumables,
Investment/Equipment, Travel
Discussion Impact / Outlook
Structure is different between a paper and a grant

Manuscript / Paper Grant

Title Title
Abstract Summary / Aims (SMART)
Introduction Introduction / State of the Art
Material and Methods Methodology
Results Preliminary Data
Work Plan (SMART, GANTT,
Milestones, Deliverables, SWOT)
Budget (Personnel, Consumables,
Investment/Equipment, Travel
Discussion Impact / Outlook
 Budgeting
• Forward planning (Baking a cake)
• Backward planning (16th-birthday party)
• Total sum: Go with the herd
• First salaries, (then investments), then consumables
• Salaries / positions:
• Not money, but vouchers, overheads
 “Baking a cake” - budgeting
• You plan forwards
 “16th-birthday-party”-budgeting
• You plan backwards.
 Total sum – go with the herd
• You need a reason to stick out
Salaries: ask how high
the employer rate is
 Instead of money you get vouchers
• They are non-transferable
– item,
– person,
– location
• They expire
Example
1
 Example 2:
large network
 Budgeting
• Forward planning i.e. how much does it cost
– Baking a cake
• Backward planning how much do I get
– 16th birthday party
• Total sum: Go with the herd
• First salaries, (then investments), then consumables
• Salaries / positions:
– ask how high!  different levels, different countries
– attach people to project parts. What will the people be doing. N.N. vs. real names
• Not money, but vouchers, overheads
– Example from Pierre Hainaut
– Later: don’t be public about who is doing what (i.e. on website)
• Show examples for how coarse-grained: Krebshilfe vs. VHI
The grant writing
pyramid

What?

WHY? WHO?
 Pipeline of AI-tools to fundamentally change the way we
write (and do science).
• https://www.perplexity.ai/ for finding papers, extracting key claims,
summarizing, and brainstorming ideas,
• https://elicit.org/ for enhanced literature review by providing interactive
summaries of key information about those papers in an interactive table,
• https://www.researchrabbit.ai/ for identifying manuscripts connected to your
manuscripts of interests with respect to content and/or authors,
• https://www.jasper.ai/ and https://app.neuro-flash.com/aiWriter for generating
and summarizing text,
• https://chat.openai.com/chat for brainstorming and texting, -
https://www.deepl.com/write for optimizing text,
• https://openai.com/dall-e-2/ for images and
• https://contentatscale.ai/ai-content-detector/ for detecting AI-based writing.
 Pipeline of AI-tools to fundamentally change the way we
write (and do science).
• https://www.perplexity.ai/ for finding papers, extracting key claims,
summarizing, and brainstorming ideas,
• https://elicit.org/ for enhanced literature review by providing interactive
summaries of key information about those papers in an interactive table,
• https://www.researchrabbit.ai/ for identifying manuscripts connected to your
manuscripts of interests with respect to content and/or authors,
• https://www.jasper.ai/ and https://app.neuro-flash.com/aiWriter for generating
and summarizing text,
• https://chat.openai.com/chat for brainstorming and texting, -
https://www.deepl.com/write for optimizing text,
• https://openai.com/dall-e-2/ for images and
• https://contentatscale.ai/ai-content-detector/ for detecting AI-based writing.
 1. Perplexity
• For your first entry into a new field.
 2. Elicit
• Effective (and more objective?) literature review.
Papers are directly summarized.
Search results can be optimized.
Questions can be asked to papers.
All papers can be searched for terms.
Meta-data of papers identified.
ChatGPT for generating text
(NOT for sourced data!)
 Cover letter
90% there
and done in
<2 Minutes.

(done with GPT4)

ChatGPT is suitable for brainstorming and
experimental planning.
(done with GPT4)
(done with GPT4)
(done with GPT4)