The objective of this course is to impart to the participants foundational knowledge and capabilities for effectively translating their research ideas into strong research project proposals for attaining public funding. After completing this course the participants

• can describe basic principles of research funding;
• know an overview of major national public funding schemes;
• understand the major parts of a research project proposal application; 
• understand the reviewing process and the most common evaluation criteria;
• can generate, visualize, and evaluate ideas for a research project proposal;
• can express and focus their research ideas with an emphasis on novel aspects;
• can write a good-quality research project proposal, either in basic or in applied research, depending on their research idea,
• can analyze review and evaluation feedback by external jury members; and
• can present their research project to a jury and analyze feedback from the hearing discussion.

These aspects of knowledge and capabilities ensure that participants are able to evaluate, develop, and present their future research project proposals.

- Funding schemes and their respective specifics

- Idea generation, and parts of a proposal

- Success criteria for a proposal

- Reviewing process and revision of the proposal

- Proposal presentation and defense

The nature of this course makes it necessary to strictly limit the number of participants to 6 - 12. The selection will be based on a motivation letter that need to be submitted by participant candidates. See detailed admission information at http://www.informatik.tuwien.ac.at/teaching/phdschool/ProWriting.

Selection of course participants will be masde according to ranking criteria, such as

• funding need,
• quality of the motivation letter,
• sufficient knowledge of state of the art,
• experience in (research project) proposal reading, writing, and evaluation
• availability of mentors in the target field of research (candidates should recommend mentors that they find relevant), and
• support letter by a faculty supervisor/mentor (plan for next proposal submission).

In addition there will be a waiting list from eligible candidates who may take the seat of a participant who drops out in an early phase of the course.

• Main weight is on the quality of the proposal.
• For a positive grade, the proposal has to receive overall positive ratings.
• A participant will fail the course, if their proposal, even after one rework cycle, still does not achieve overall positive ratings.

Participants of this course are expected to have sufficient command of the state of the art to review and formulate novel research contributions to their field of research.