What is this event?

Here, students, researchers and research administrators can learn directly from experts and current grantees or alumni:

• What types of grants there are and when are the calls?
• What kind of documents and skills are needed for application?
• How can researchers and institutions benefit?
• How does the evaluation process work?
• How to write a good proposal?
• How to optimise your proposal, how to find hosts, and how things work once you get the grant!

Which grants?

This event will focus on two grants: the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowships (IF) and European Research Council (ERC) grants. These are both grants for individual researchers wishing to spend several years in Europe either in a research team that already exists (MSCA IF) or by creating their own research group (ERC).

Event features

The event's main feature is a double seminar and interactive workshop proposed by professional trainers who come especially from Europe.
It proposes, over a full day (either in Tokyo or in Osaka), a comprehensive training for researchers willing to prepare a proposal for either MSCA IF or ERC grants.
Grantees and alumni will also provide experience feedback and support the discussions and the different workshops with their know-how.

Where and When?

This year, we propose four full days of training:

• 9 July, EU Delegation Tokyo: MSCA IF training
• 10 July, EU Delegation Tokyo: ERC training
• 11 July, KANDAI MeRISE Osaka: MSCA IF training
• 12 July, KANDAI MeRise Osaka: ERC training

Attend, and you're sure to improve your grant proposal writing skills!

Organiser

EURAXESS Japan

Host & Support:

Delegation of the European Union to Japan

Kansai University

About the MSCA IF grant

The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowships (IF) aim at supporting the international mobility of researchers within and beyond Europe as well as helping to attract the best foreign researchers to work in the EU. The grant usually covers two years' salary, a mobility allowance, research costs and overheads for the host institution.

IF is for experienced researchers of any nationality, i.e. researchers holding a doctoral degree or at least four years’ full-time research experience by the time of the call deadline; in any discipline (no age limit).

Individual researchers submit proposals for funding in liaison with their planned host organisation. Proposals are judged on their research quality, the researcher's future career prospects, and the support offered by the host organisation.

There is a yearly call for applications which opened on 12 April and will close on 12 September 2018.

Further materials about MSCA IF:

Grant details, Tips & tricks for application, Interviews of grantees on EURAXESS website

Official MSCA website

About the ERC grants

The European Research Council (ERC) is a funding organisation for frontier research. It aims to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe by funding the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, and supporting their innovative ideas. Researchers from anywhere in the world can apply for ERC grants provided the research they undertake will be carried out in an EU Member State or Associated Country. ERC grants are becoming more and more internationally recognised as awards for scientific excellence.

Research projects funded by the ERC can last up to five years and can cover frontier research in any scientific domain, including social sciences, humanities and interdisciplinary studies. The grants may help both emerging research leaders ('ERC Starting Grants' and 'ERC Consolidator Grants') and already well-established and recognised scientists ('ERC Advanced Grants'). Find out more about the different ERC grants.

If you are moving to Europe from a third country, you can apply for additional funding, which can total up to €2 million for a Starting Grant (instead of €1.5 million for those already established in Europe), €2.75 million for a Consolidator Grant (instead of €2 million) and €3.5 million for an Advanced Grant (instead of €2.5 million).

There are three calls per year according to each category. In 2018, the call deadlines are: October (yet TBA, Starting Grants); 9 February (Consolidator Grants); 31 August (Advanced Grants).

Further materials on ERC grants:

Grants details, Possibilities from Japan, Tips & tricks for application, Interviews of grantees on EURAXESS website

Official ERC website

MSCA IF Trainer:
Cristina Gomez, NCP for MSCA, Spain

Cristina Gomez joined the International Projects Unit of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) in 2009 to coordinate EURAXESS at national level and also carry out the monitoring and support to other FP7 and international projects. In January 2014, she was appointed National Contact Point and Expert at the Programme Committee for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, becoming part of the European Office, whose objective is to encourage the participation of Spanish Institutions in Horizon 2020. She has over 9 years of experience in national and European research landscape, with a focus on career development and mobility of researchers. As an MSCA NCP since the beginning of Horizon 2020, Cristina participates very actively in the international NCP network and contributes to the promotion of the programme by delivering a large number of informative and hands-on training sessions in Spain, Europe and worldwide. Besides, she offers direct support to researchers and institutions, including personalized pre-screen service of MSCA proposals. As part of FECYT European Office communication Strategy, she has widely contributed to the promotion of Spanish institutions funding offers (MSCA and others). LinkeIn profile | Twitter account

ERC Trainer:
Stefanie Schelhowe, NCP for ERC, Germany

Stefanie Schelhowe leads the team of the German National Contact Point for the ERC in Bonn. With more than 10 years work experience with European research policies and funding, she is specialised in ERC proposals since 2009. Besides dealing with daily questions of applicants, she has trained researchers in several information and proposal writing events as well as in specialised ERC interview trainings. Core areas of expertise: - Over 10 years work experience with European research policies / funding - Since 2009 National Contact Point for the European Research Council (ERC), since 2013 head of team - From 2010 to 2013 National Contact Point for the Joint Research Centre (JRC) - Advising on proposal writing, evaluation process, grant management, interview preparation - Organisation of high-level events, information and proposal writing events, interview trainings - Detailed specific and generalist understanding of Horizon 2020 - Active as a trainer since 2009.

Alumni & facilitators:

Grantees and alumni from ERC and MSCA IF, but also researchers with experience in writing the grants will participate in the event with short feedback on their experience, and as facilitators to the interactive sessions.

Our experiences with the MSCA IF grant:

Takeshi Yoshimatsu MSCA IF Fellow May 2017 - April 2019 School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, UK (Tokyo and Osaka events)
Takamitsu Watanabe Deputy Team Leader, RIKEN Centre for Brain Science, Japan Former MSCA IF Fellow: University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UK (Tokyo event)
Richard Obexer Postdoc, University of Tokyo, Department of Chemistry Future MSCA IF Fellow, October 2018 - October 2020: University of Bristol (UK) (Tokyo event)
Taichiro Iki Assistant Professor, Osaka University, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences Former MSCA IF Fellow, March 2013 - Feb 2015: ETH Zurich (Switzerland) (Osaka event)

Our experiences with the ERC grant:

Takamitsu Watanabe Deputy Team Leader, RIKEN Centre for Brain Science, Japan 2nd stage evalation (interview) experience on ERC Starting Grant (Tokyo event)