When: Once a year, starting in October, 4 months before the main application deadline of Research Council of Norway (NFR), bi-weekly meetings of 1,5 hours. Remote work on participants’ own proposals in between the classes. Regular feedback on the remote work.
Participants: Target group are early career scientists (PhD, Post Doc, Researcher) who have concrete plans to submit a project proposal but have little or no experience yet in proposal writing.
Lecturers: The class is arranged by the research advisers of the Bjerknes member institutes UiB-GFI, UiB-GEO, NORCE Climate and NERSC.
Over a time period of 4 months, participants consecutively develop their scientific idea into a complete proposal ready to submit. Specific aspects of project proposals – such as objectives, impact, CV work plan – are explained during dedicated lectures. Participants get tools and concrete instructions for remote work tasks on these aspects. Until the next class meeting, participants send their completed tasks to their research adviser who provides individual feedback. Participants also interact with a scientific mentor for scientific feedback.

The class has a special focus on the NFR funding schemes Researcher Projects for Young Research Talents, International Mobility and Scientific Renewal. In-depth information on NFR evaluation criteria, proposal templates, and CV templates will be central. This class is also open for early-career scientists who plan to submit a proposal to other NFR funding schemes, as well as to other deadlines and funding schemes such as EU MSCA PF or ERC StG. Lectures will be adapted to the participants’ needs.
The focus of this class is on an assisted full proposal development towards a concrete deadline. Early career scientists who are interested in general proposal writing training but are not yet ready to develop a full proposal may join the annual 2-day CHESS proposal writing workshop which is arranged in April/May.