For every young, aspiring, talented scientist, advanced research on their field is a priority. If a scientist has already produced excellent supervised research work, if they have enough experience and if they are ready to start working independently as potential research leaders, the European Research Council Grants are certainly what they need to aim for.

If you are a scientist who wants to start a career as a researcher but you do not know how to get an ERC grant then one thing we can definitely recommend is training. ERC research grants are not easy to get and without proper training even the most brilliant scientists/researchers do not have the technical knowledge needed to write and submit a successful proposal.

An European Research Council Grant Training will be able to solve those problems by answering major question like who is eligible to apply for such a grant or what proposals are going to be eligible for a grant. In particular a good training must be able to cover the following sectors:

• Who can apply: Although most of the time, it is very clear as to who can apply for a grant, there might be a few misunderstandings from time to time. A proper training course must answer and clarify this question in the very beginning of the session.
• Criteria for eligibility: An application can be submitted for any research field. But what are the eligibility criteria? That is the second sector that the training will need to cover.
• Location of the Research: Where will the research be conducted? The Host Institution or HI plays a very important role for the application. This part needs to be very clear and very specific and of course in accordance with the EU criteria.
• The Research team: Every major research needs a good research team. There are certain technical EU criteria that need to be met when choosing that team. A training course will give you all the information you need on that criteria. The quality of the team itself, however, is going to be your responsibility.
• Grant money: How much grant money can a research get? How will you be able to request the maximum amount? These are topics that a good training course needs to cover.

After these points have been covered, you have the knowledge needed to start writing your research proposal. But how will you ensure that the proposal will be good enough to be granted a funding? The training session will also need to cover that as well. In particular the trainer will need to talk about major steps like:

• Reading all the official documents carefully before starting to write a proposal
• Having all the details needed, from the HI, for the application process
• Step by step analysis on how to write each part of the proposal, by familiarizing yourselves with the official proposal form
• The importance of deadlines and how they work
• Keeping track of the evaluation process of the proposal.

Knowing the evaluation criteria will help you build your proposal based on them. That can definitely give you much better odds during the evaluation process.  So when you choose a training course for the ERC grant proposal writing, keep your eyes open for a course that will examine all evaluation criteria and that will explain them to you, one by one.

Training courses are essential when it comes to EU project proposals. Find the best courses that will teach you how to write detailed, grant-worthy proposals and start your game-changing research today.