Abstract

The research grant development process can be broken down into the following four main phases.
Exploration: Exploring different opportunities and selecting the most suitable funding mechanism and call topic.
Formation: Analysing the call topic and developing the main proposal concept and the core consortium.
Application: The main process of writing-up the grant application, elaborating the detailed workplan, putting together the full consortium, developing the budget and the administrative forms.
Finalisation: Final refining, formatting, submission and checks.

The use of AI tools for each one of these phases will be the subject of a moderated discussion, considering: Which tools are the most suitable? In what way could they be used to offer maximum help? Are there any ethical, commercial or other considerations that should be taken into account to limit the use of AI tools?

The discussion will be moderated by Michael Papapetrou, who has been working for 20 years in European research projects and has been involved with hundreds of proposals, as coordinator, partner, consultant and evaluator. The panel will consist of professionals involved in the field, having different roles and points of view:

Maeva Vignes: Member of the Research Support and Policy Team at SDU (University of Southern Denmark)
Noemí Carranza Herrezuelo: Head of International Projects, Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau – Centre CERCA, Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau)
Paul Tuinenburg: Co-founder of Impacter, an AI tool that helps the user to write better grant proposals.

There will be involvement of the audience throughout - at the start through slido polls to set the tone in terms of how many in the room use AI tools and what opinion they have of them, and later on by giving the floor to the audience to ask questions and contribute to the debate.

The outcome will be an improved understanding of best practice in the use of AI tools during the Exploration, Formation, Application and Finalisation or research grant proposal applications.