a foreigner’s perspective on the swedish grant casino

A foreigner’s perspective on the Swedish grant casino

Ronald van den BergDept of Psychology, Uppsala University

https://ronaldvandenberg.org/simplename.pdf

Slides:


A beginner’s guide to VR grants

Ronald van den BergDept of Psychology, Uppsala University


Slides:


Overview of my Swedish applications2014RJ Research Grant VR International Career Grant

Near-identical applications!

Lesson #1: There’s a large “random” element in the evaluations

reject (didn’t pass 1st round)reject (5/7)

accept (7/7)reject (4/7)

2015VR International Career GrantVR Project Grant

Lesson #2: Learn from reviews of failed attempts and try again

Overview of my Swedish applications

Near-identical applicationsreject (6/7)accept (6/7)

2014RJ Research Grant VR International Career Grant

Near-identical applications!

reject (didn’t pass 1st round)reject (5/7)

accept (7/7)reject (4/7)

2015VR International Career GrantVR Project Grant

2018VR Consolidator GrantVR Project Grant

Review from a failed application (1)VR International Career Grant 2014:

But.. this is supposed to be a basic research proposal…

This was actually covered in my proposal, but only

implicitly

Lesson #3: Always say something about practical/clinical implications

Lesson #4: Always be explicit about important issues

Review from a failed application (2)VR Consolidator grant 2018:

Lesson #5: Even “brilliant” proposals can get rejected

Before you start

• Look up your reviewers

From vr.se:EmotionMain research interest

Clinical/social

Phonetics, developmental psych.

Cognitive neuroscience

Biological psychology

Cognitive aging

Individual differences

Reward and learning

Before you start


• Familiarize yourself with the evaluation criteria

Before you start



• Innovation and originality (1-7)• Scientific quality of project (1-7)• Competence of applicant (1-7)• Feasibility (1-3)

Summarized grade (1-7)

must be a 3?

VR Evaluation criteria:

Before you start


• Carefully read and re-read the instructions


Next: some tips on writing

General writing advise: highlighting

• Highlight key phrases that summarize the story lineAllow reviewers to “recall by skimming”

• Highlight key phrases that refer to evaluation criteriaE.g., “novel”, “contribution”, “feasible”, “applicant’s broad experience”

• Highlight key phrases that refer to possible reviewer interestsE.g., “Individual differences”, “clinical implication”

VR Proposal – section by section

Abstract• Not official part of the evaluation

• However, extremely important for mind setting

• I tend to spend a lot of time on abstract(in many short sessions)

Abstract

• What do you intend to do?• How are you going to do this?• Why is this work important?• What has already been done?

Abstract• General setup: Background

Problem statement

Objectives

Significance

Approach

Loads of online resources about “how to write agood abstract”

Swedish summary• Isn’t evaluated

• Used by VR for PR purposes

• “Good” is good enough?

Purpose and Aims

• Start with “The general purpose of this project is to…”

• Followed by “The specific aims or as follows:”

• Successful grants typically have 3-4 specific aims?

General purpose

Specific aim #1

Specific aim #2

Specific aim #3

State-of-the-art

• Probably not evaluated, but important for understanding your proposal

• Level of detail? -> Know your reviewers!

Significance and Novelty

• One of the evaluation criteria

• Mainly a summary of points also made elsewhere?

Preliminary and previous results• Not obligatory

• However, seems very important

• Can simply be:• Data from pilot experiment• Refer to a preprint or recent publication

Project description• The core of your proposal; longest section

• Split into work packages• Possibly 1-to-1 mapping to specific aims• Each work package can contain multiple studies

• Consider including a back-up plan

SummaryIt’s partly a lottery.

But you can increase your chances:• Apply often• Learn from reviews• Use highlighting• Include preliminary data• Be explicit• Mention practical/clinical implications

Thank you for your attention.

Good luck with your application!


Slides:


a foreigner’s perspective on the swedish grant casino

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