Writing your proposal
The pages under ‘Writing your proposal’ guide you through the process of writing a proposal, and provide you with generic tools, examples and materials for writing. It is based upon the collective knowledge and experience within Leiden University supplied by applicants, committee members and evaluators, and deals with the most frequently asked questions. It also guides you to the information you may need from other supportive departments than the Grant Development Office and Luris.
Is this the right grant and the right time?
Writing a research proposal, whether it is for an individual fellowship or a collaborative project is a time consuming endeavour. Therefore, the first step is to assess your chances of success with the application checklist and decide whether or not to embark upon it. If the answer is yes, the second step is to start well-prepared and take sufficient time. The best proposals are those which have had time to mature. If time is your enemy, these pages will help you to get a quick grasp of everything necessary for submitting a proposal and pulling it off anyway within limits, of course. You sometimes have to be realistic about what you can achieve.
Keep up to date with the funding calendar
Always check out the specific tips and tricks per grant opportunity via the funding calendar. Bookmark the funding calendar page of the selected grant and let it guide you through the process. All available information on a grant is on its funding calendar page and you can use it to make sure that you have everything you need and you know what you need to do. You will also find more information on meetings, courses and consultation hours.
Hands-on support
These pages are designed to make all information accessible to you. However, please contact your faculty adviser as soon as you start thinking about writing a proposal. We are happy to discuss your outline at an early stage, guide you quickly through the writing process and are available as a sounding board and for critical review. At the faculty level, there may be internal review procedures, where you will get advice on how to strengthen your proposal.
Is something missing?
If you cannot find the information you need, please let your local grant adviser know immediately and they will help you.
Writing a proposal needs to be well-prepared and takes time.
The faculty's Research Desk and the Grant Development Office will gladly help you: on this writing a proposal website you will find all kinds of useful information to guide you through the process of writing a proposal, and provide you with generic tools, examples and materials for writing.
Our support team, as well as the Grant Development Office, will provide you with information on:
- finding suitable grant opportunities
- writing your proposal for an individal grant or colleboratieve project
- preparing and writing for an individual or collaborative grant
- datamanagement
- getting feedback and training
- rebuttal and interview
- valorisation and impact
If you need to write a data management paragraph or a data management plan as part of your proposal, you can contact the Data Management Team at the Centre for Digital Scholarship.
Your funder may require you to publish Open Acces. You can contact the Open Access Team at the Centre for Digital Scholarship through this emailaddress for advice on your budget or on alternative ways to comply with funder requirements. They also provide an overview of agreements with journal publishers that allow Leiden researchers to publish their article Open Access without additional costs.
Research proposal budget
- Mail to Projectcontrol for drawing up a budget for your research proposal.
- NWO/KNAW/ZonMw grants: Bert Dubbeldam
- EC and other grants: Remco de Kler