CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST: HUMAN FRONTIER SCIENCE PROGRAM ORGANIZATION MASTER CLASS: GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP

The Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO), in collaboration with its South African members, viz. the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and the National Research Foundation (NRF), invites expressions of interest for participation in the HFSP Master Class: Grant writing workshop to be held at the NRF in Pretoria from 26-29 November 2024.

Deadline for submissions: 14 August 2024

The HFSP Master Class will bring together scientists interested in HFSP for a special workshop offering hands-on training in grant writing led by experienced HFSP reviewers with integration of examples of HFSP supported research projects, introductions to HFSP programs, and interactive live exchanges with scientists in other countries.

This first edition of the HFSP Master Class will be held simultaneously at venues in India and Korea and some sessions will be live broadcasts across the venues.

Why the HFSP Master Class?

Every year HFSP introduces support programs to the scientific community through presentations during scientific meetings, on invitation by universities or member countries. While these presentations offer detailed insights by the Scientific Directors, they do not include hands-on training for grant writing. The HFSP Master Class is different because it offers a novel and highly innovative value proposition:

1. The Master Class is by invitation only for a small group to allow for more personal interaction and consideration of specific career situations or research interests.
2. The integration of a dedicated training team composed of members of HFSP Review Committees is advantageous because the reviewers can provide explicit and verifiable information on writing applications because they have reviewed for HFSP in the past.
3. The hands-on writing is not just an English writing class for science articles but also a very focused approach to develop an application for the letter of intent stage for HFSP applications. This is a very different approach from a standard writing class that addresses shortcomings in grantsmanship in HFSP member countries.
4. Live broadcasting between meeting hubs in different countries allows the participants to gain a greater insight about grant writing aspects from multiple scientific perspectives.
5. Certification: HFSP is not a degree awarding institution, but the host institutes of the meeting hubs are in the position to certify successful participation in the HFSP Master Class.

Why the Letter of Intent stage?

For HFSP programs the Letter of Intent (LOI) stage is the most critical step on the way to success. The LOI is a rather short document that includes a scientific abstract and short written accounts by grant team members outlining their contribution to the overall research effort. The abstract is the key element which is read early on by the evaluators and if it does not provide a convincing concept the application is doomed to fail.

A second priority item in the Master Class will include training in writing a public abstract because it is an important exercise for any scientist in convincing a general audience about the value added of the proposed research.

Finally, hands-on writing of research plans with scientists in other countries is real-life training for the submission of a full proposal that follows a successful LOI. At the same time this part of the training allows for networking with scientists from other disciplines and may lead to a grant application in the future.

Workshop outline and training concept

The workshop program will include pre-meeting writing tasks for scientific abstracts which are assessed remotely by the training team and discussed live at the meeting hub. Onsite writing tasks will include individual writing tasks (public abstracts) and team efforts (drafting a research plan for a letter of intent).

Proposed agenda items are:

Day 1 (half day):

• Kick-off plenary talk with an invited keynote lecture presenting ongoing or recently finished HFSP research.
• Part I (Live broadcast): Introductory sessions with introduction of the training team and presentations about the organization and the various HFSP support.
• Meet & Greet: Getting to know each other.

Day 2 (full day):

• Part II: Local sessions discussing feedback by training team for the pre-meeting writing tasks
• Part III (Live broadcast): Joint session of all meeting hubs with presentations of writing examples highlighting grantsmanship issues and showcasing examples. Led by training team this session should allow interactive discussions of noticeable strengths and short comings in the first step of writing tasks.
• Part III (Live broadcast): How to write a convincing letter of intent? A presentation of examples from real HFSP applications that included compelling letters of intent (LOI) and recommendations of what should be included in a LoI (Led by training team and HFSP scientific directors).
• Part IV: On site assignment: Writing a public scientific abstract.

Day 3 (full day):

• Part V: Local sessions discussing feedback by training team for the public abstract with presentation of examples.
• Part VI: Onsite assignment of writing a joint research project for a letter of intent.

Part VII (Live broadcast): Joint session of all meeting hubs with presentations of writing examples highlighting grantsmanship issues and showcasing examples for the LOI assignment. Training team will provide general feedback based on selected examples from each hub, followed by interactive discussions.

Eligibility

This call is open to early stage and established researchers working in the life sciences, as well as Doctoral students/postdoctoral Fellows working on a biological topic who want to embark on a novel and frontier project focusing on the life sciences. Previous unsuccessful applicants of HFSP grants are also eligible for nomination.

Only researchers, Doctoral students and postdoctoral Fellows registered at South African institutions are allowed to be nominated.

Application process

Applications must be electronically submitted to the SAMRC/NRF by 14 August 2024.

For enquiries contact: Dr Abeda Dawood at abeda.dawood@mrc.ac.za / Tel 012 339 8522 or Puleng Tshitlho at PR.Tshitlho@nrf.ac.za/ 012 481 4061.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

To apply please click on the link.