Many calls for grant proposals demand an interdisciplinary project, for example to tackle a specific societal challenge. But how do you ensure that your proposal includes all correct disciplines in a meaningful way? And what does it mean to lead a consortium with all these different experts you don’t usually talk to?
A multidisciplinary and multisectoral consortium led by Prof. Bianca Brundel (Amsterdam UMC) acquired funding to study the mechanisms that drive atrial fibrillation, the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia. CIRCULAR was funded by the competitive Dutch NWA-ORC programme. Fundament supported the consortium in all steps of the process, from drafting a convincing pre-proposal and full proposal to writing the rebuttal to reviewers’ comments and preparing for the interview.
NWA-ORC is the largest funding programme related to the Dutch National Science Agenda. All research topics are welcomed, as long as they are connected to the NWA. The essence of the NWA-ORC programme is centered around having impact. What exactly is meant with this term and what are you supposed to write in the proposal for this programme?
NWA-ORC is the largest funding programme related to the Dutch National Science Agenda. All research topics are welcomed, as long as they are connected to the NWA. An important criterion is that the consortium should consist of partners spanning the entire knowledge chain. But what is this knowledge chain and how should you take it into account when drafting your proposal?
In NWA-ORC the ‘breakthrough’ is introduced as the key aspect of this programme. Projects are supposed to include potential breakthroughs, be it societal ‘and/or’ scientific. What exactly is meant with this? And what does ‘and/or’ imply? Since we’re only in the second year of the programme not much can be said with certainty, but I’ll give it my best try to explain here.
![[FUNDED] CIRCULAR: Co-creation and animal-free solutions for atrial fibrillation](https://fundament.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CIRCULAR_logo.png){kind=logo}
