Workshop: Successful Grant Writing in the Natural and Engineering Sciences - Module 4: Project Management and Research

Depending on participant interest we will focus on one or more of the three topics:

Projectmanagement Tools for Grant Writing
The workshop will focus on the following essential project management tools: 

• SMART goal setting
• What are priorities in a project? (“MoSCoW” analysis)
• SWOT contingency planning
• Graphical representation of the timeline with a GANTT chart
• What are milestones and deliverables?
• Why to identify stakeholders? How to handle them?

Budgeting
In this module participants will discuss why and how to construct budgets backwards instead of forwards. How to find out how much total sum proposals should apply for? How to distribute funding between salaries, consumables and investments? What are “overheads”? After this block, participants will dispose of the PM armamentarium required for successful grant writing.

Environment
The research environment extends beyond just material resources. The expertise landscape surrounding a project is crucial. Collaborations could be instrumental for grant applications. Participants will gain insights into leveraging a professional network and collaborations to enhance research proposals. But how to find collaborators? What to do if publication lists are short e.g. because Postdocs (partially) shift topic to become (partially) independent? How can potential collaborators get interested in own research? In addition, participants will get access to large databases of successful and non-successful grants.

• Date: Wed, 18 March 2026, 13:00–16:30 h
• Location: online via Zoom
• Target group: Postdocs from the Natural and Engineering Sciences of the UA Ruhr universities (max. 25 participants)
• Trainer: PD Dr. Daniel Mertens
• Registration deadline: 4 March 2026
• Contact for organizational Questions: eventrs.ruhr-uni.bochumde

Weitere Informationen und Anmeldung