Abstract

Composing a solid research consortium and managing a collaborative proposal preparation can present a daunting task, especially to first time applicants. This presentation shares best practices of how the KU Leuven Research Support Team for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) organizes a range of activities to support and reinforce its SSH academic staff in precisely these challenges.

The presentation focuses on research support strategies to help researchers build a good consortium. This includes matchmaking activities (based on topics and based on individual researchers), practical information on consortium building, different communication channels towards researchers, and other support for collaborative research. First, we discuss a range of matchmaking activities. A number of formats of thematical matchmaking sessions is presented. Not only do SSH researchers at KU Leuven receive tailored information about potentially interesting research topics coming up in the Horizon Europe work programmes, they are also are invited to meet up with researchers from other groups (Science, Engineering and Technology or Biomedical Sciences) at KU Leuven, or from other institutions, and discuss potential collaborations around strategically chosen upcoming research topics in the work programs. The Research Support Teams streamlines these discussions and mediates and supports routes to crystallize fruitful discussions into actually submitted research proposals.

In order to help overcome any challenges for researchers related to consortium building, the Research Support Team has rolled out a set of supporting measures on that topic as well. Team members often organize intake meetings for KU Leuven researchers considering to embark in a collaborative research project proposal and they attend kick-off meetings of consortia to offer start-up information and guidance regarding the proposal format, do’s and don’ts in collaborative projects and various practical tips that help streamline the proposal writing process (e.g. the development of an online module for proposal writing for collaborative research). When useful, they perform a policy check for the researchers, gathering all relevant policy and research & innovation relevant background information that may be relevant as context during the proposal preparation phase. Typically and most importantly, they perform extensive and repeated proofreading services during the proposal writing stage, offering extensive strategic feedback on draft versions of the proposals.

Finally, the Research Support Team strongly promotes various internal funding schemes that help prepare and/or support collaborative proposals. Learning outcomes of this presentation are i) ideas for research support staff on how to organize collaborative research support, ii) inspiration for matchmaking support, and iii) practical tips for consortium building and how to communicate this to researchers.