Abstract

Academic researchers must compete for research funding in an increasingly complex environment. On the side of Grants Offices / pre-award services, this complexity of funding schemes, especially the rapidly changing requirements of funding bodies and the harsh competition, has increased the need for support, which challenges the existing resources.
One option for the Grants Offices and pre-award services to tackle the increasing need for support with the existing limited resources, is to harness the digital tools in a smart way and offer scalable service models for upskilling of researchers applying for funding.
In this 15-minute discussion, Tampere University Preaward-team briefly introduces its best practices in digitalization of processes and service models for applicants. Participants of the workshop are invited to access a digital whiteboard to share their success stories on their transition from One-to-One interactions to scalable services allowing researchers to upgrade their proposal preparation knowledge on their own pace and to advance from their individual competence level.
The hosts of the workshop will wrap up the discussion based on the shared experiences.
Some of the digitized and scalable processes and services available for all staff members at Tampere University:
- AI-assisted research funding search tool delivering tailored hitlist
- Digital repository of structured learning modules for selected European and national R&I funding programmes. Posts of announcements and recordings of training sessions.
- Digital resource pack with practical tools and templates (e.g. Gantt chart, Pert chart, model management WP text, AI prompts cheat sheet) to support the researcher in the actual proposal writing.
- Service request management system offering support staff a database of expert advises and in-house rerouting to relevant support services.
- A structured digital working environment that can be used for different types of proposal preparations.

As a conclusion, the formalized processes and ready-to-use tools not only upgrade the proposal preparation knowledge, but also enable new staff members in the Grants Office to hit the ground running and reduce dependency of services on individual experts in the Grants Office.