Søknadslunsjer på HSL: Translating the Funding Call: Three Moves for a Stronger Research Proposal

A strong research idea does not automatically make a strong funding proposal. Writing a proposal is an act of translation: not changing the research to please the funder, but understanding how a particular funding scheme defines excellence and making the project legible within that logic. Drawing on my experience as both an applicant and a reviewer, I focus on three moves that shape strong proposals from the outset: reading the evaluation logic, designing the fit, and building your case. I discuss how funding calls and evaluation criteria can be read together, how a research idea can be positioned without losing its intellectual core, and how a proposal can be constructed so that its ambition, significance and feasibility are clearly visible to reviewers.

About the speaker

Sari Pietikäinen is Professor of Arctic Human–Nature Relations at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She is the Principal Investigator of RiverPulse, an ERC Advanced Grant project examining changing human–nature relations in Arctic river systems. She has extensive experience in developing and leading externally funded research, with funding from the ERC, EU programmes, NordForsk and the Research Council of Finland. She also reviews proposals for major research funding bodies, giving her experience of research funding from both sides of the process.

Registration required

Please register for this event before Friday 25 September, so that we can make appropriate catering arrangements. 

Colleagues based outside Tromsø may follow the event online. A streaming link will be sent after registration. 

Søknadslunsj is organised in collaboration with UiT’s Center for Arctic Humanties.