Successfully completed project DMAMV

Mecklenburg-West Pomerania external funding agency

Customer: Centre for Research Support and Commercial Services at Universität Greifswald on behalf of the Ministry for Science and Education in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (MV)

In order to improve the success of universities and research organisations located in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (MV) at winning funding from the European Framework Programme compared with other parts of Germany, the government of MV decided to fund additional ‘capacity building’ support measures to encourage greater participation and success in Framework 7. Tutech was asked to bid for work under contract to the Universität Greifswald to offer services, workshops and coaching to enable researchers and research funding support staff across MV to improve their skills in preparing Framework 7 bids. The beneficiaries included the universities of Rostock, Stralsund, Neubrandenburg and Wismar as well as Greifswald, and research organisations such as the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP Greifswald).

Tutech was commissioned to provide workshops for researchers, plus ‘train-the-trainer’ coaching for support staff over a period of two years as well as bid-related coaching/consultancy for individual proposals during this timeframe.

The assignment started with the need to win acceptance and build trust between the different organisations, and to convince everyone that Tutech had the ability to make a difference.

Through the kick-off meeting, rapport and good team working was quickly established to the satisfaction of all stakeholders. Workshops included topics such as principles of funding systems, networking, lobbying, how to write proposals, and communicating and disseminating research findings. Whilst some workshops, such as how to prepare grant applications and project management, were taken from Tutech Academy’s standard portfolio, others were tailor-made specifically for the agency.

Legacy

Participation of M-V-based researchers in FP7 and H2020 has increased and there is now a much stronger community of experienced players