To strengthen research support within the university, the university-wide Leiden Research Support Network (LRSN) was established in 2020. This network has initiated an important change in the way we organize research support and supports researchers with faster access to the right support.

In recent years, various meetings, workshops, and training sessions have been organized for and by research support professionals. These range from practical workshops and webinars to interactive community sessions, with the annual Leiden Research Support Network Conference as a highlight. On this page you will find an overview of all network activities.

The network has a collaboration environment in Teams and a Knowledge Base in SharePoint. Each community also has its own Teams channel for sharing knowledge, asking questions, and discussing developments.

Within the program, an important change has been initiated: the firstline contact points are now being organized at the institute or faculty level. These colleagues are the first point of contact for researchers and work closely with colleagues from the central expertise units (secondline support). In (virtual) Research Support Offices, colleagues from different domains within a faculty or institute join forces to support supporters as effectively as possible. This model is being implemented step by step by faculties and institutes.

The Research Support Portal has been developed as a guide for researchers throughout all phases of (externally funded) research projects. For each phase of the research process, valuable information is available and the right contact points for support can be found.

The demand for support in applying for research funding continues to grow. Grant applications are becoming increasingly complex, and the requirements from funders are changing. The LRS program responds to this by increasing expertise, developing new working methods, and expanding capacity. 

The Research Funding Community is a network of grant advisors from the first line (faculties and institutes) and the second line (the central Grant Development Team). The community provides support for activities related to acquiring research funding and manages a Teams channel and a knowledge base with relevant materials, news, and events. For more information, you can contact community manager Anke Klerkx.

To make the application process clearer, quick guides have been developed. These show the process steps of a grant application and who provides support in which phase. This helps clarify the complexity of the process.

Capacity for supporting collaborative projects has been expanded, particularly for interdisciplinary projects involving societal partners such as NWAORC, Horizon Europe, and Gravitation.

The requirements and rules set by legislators, regulators, and funders are becoming stricter and more complex. This increases workload and responsibilities for researchers and research support staff. The program assists by improving support around the financial management of externally funded research projects. We particularly focus on the role of project controllers in both the preaward and postaward phases. Improvements include: 

• A streamlined procedure for preparing and approving project budgets. 
• An interactive flowchart that guides researchers step by step through the signing and approval of contracts and grant documents. 

The Research Project Control Community plays an important role in this. Project controllers in the community share knowledge, organize workshops and training sessions, and maintain a knowledge base in SharePoint containing manuals and instructions for financial management of research projects. 

Together with project controllers from various faculties, a budget module has been developed for externally funded research projects. The module contains uptodate rates and offers researchers a clear overview of their project budget. The module is updated regularly and can be requested through your institute’s project controller.

Applying for, managing, and reporting on externally funded research projects is becoming more complex. Therefore, Leiden University has selected Vidatum as a project management tool through a European tender. Vidatum supports researchers in applying for, managing, and reporting on externally funded research projects. Learn more about the implementation process.

The Data Management program aimed to help researchers manage research data responsibly so they can comply with laws and regulations, codes of conduct, and funder requirements. Various activities from this program have now been transferred to the Centre for Digital Scholarship. This Centre is part of the Data Management Community of the Leiden Research Support Network.