Research Newsletter - Issue 91: Information and Updates


Research Development Resources for EU Funding - Stakeholder Survey

DCU Research is conducting a survey of the DCU research community to learn more about the kind of resources and support materials that researchers and research stakeholders in DCU require when applying for EU funding. Your feedback will help us develop and improve the level and quality of EU funding research development resources and supports we can offer. 

You are invited to participate in this survey as your feedback will be extremely valuable to us. The survey should take a maximum of 10 minutes to complete. You can access the survey using the link below:

Research Development Resources for EU Funding Survey

Please complete the survey by Friday, 8th March 2024. 

Thank you in advance for your participation in the survey. 

The survey is part of a larger cross-team project aimed at creating a comprehensive suite of proposal writing resources and supports to help DCU researchers in preparing EU grant applications. 

Cross-team project members: Katya McDonagh (Project Lead/Research Support); Sumona Mukherjee (Research Support); Amy Hall (Research Development/EU); Sophie Ball (Research Development/Erasmus); Faisal Zahoor (Research Development); and Irene Ryan (Research Project Administration). 


The Seven Deadly Sins of Multi-Partner Bids

From the Research Professional know-how archive: Identify the hazards involved in consortium bids before you stumble over them.

Learning the ins and outs of applying for EU funding is neither quick nor particularly easy. But with €85.5 billion expected to be available under Horizon Europe, the successor to the Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme, having a strong EU grant-writing game could make a huge difference to your career.

Writing proposals is often a time-consuming process—and as standard European calls award funding to consortia, bids require input from multiple partners across countries and sectors.

One person to have navigated more Horizon 2020 calls than most is Emmanuel Detsis, from the European Science Foundation. With a background in astronomy and space science, Detsis has written proposals for calls in areas including space disciplines, social sciences, cybersecurity and migration.

With almost a decade’s experience partnering on projects with the ESF, and having seen bids succeed and fail, Detsis has gathered together the seven mistakes you don’t want to make when writing your proposal:

  1. Fitting your research to the wrong call

  2. Going beyond what the call is asking for

  3. Forgetting to balance the different aspects of the project

  4. Having someone without the right skills writing the proposal

  5. Including too many people in the consortium

  6. Forgetting to include non-academic partners

  7. Not carving out enough time to finish the job

Read more here