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External Relations Team

Research Support Office at the Faculty of Science

Our mission at the External Relations Team (ERT) is to support scientists at the Faculty of Science in the further development, and management, of their research. We guide individuals and teams through the national and international funding landscapes and assist throughout the application process. We support in the identification of opportunities, as well as the development of ideas and partnerships- We do this with a view to both short term funding goals, as well as long term strategic ambitions. We encourage an international approach to networking and collaboration as well as striving to build stronger ties between our researchers and the various funding agencies and national ministries, as well as with diverse societal partners and collaborators, ensuring that we are relevant to and engaged with, national policy debates and research needs. In addition, we facilitate the smooth running of funded projects ensuring legal compliance and impact delivery. You can find out more about what we offer below with regards to both development and support services.

Research Support

Support for grant proposal writing and project management

How to work with us. 

 

We are here to support you in achieving your funding and research development goals. Funding applications involve the pressure of deadlines and therefore require forward planning. The further ahead you communicate your needs to us, the more substantial (and useful), will be the help that we can offer.  
We do our very best to accommodate even last-minute requests, but at certain times, especially just before major call deadlines when many people require help, we may have limited capacity to support you if you reach out only a few days before your deadline. If everyone in the team is already busy with tasks they agreed to many weeks before, there can simply be too many prior commitments ahead of your new request. In such rare situations we always want to let you know right away such that you can find another solution. In addition, some funding goals require significant periods of preparation to stand good chances of a successful outcome. If you get in touch early, then we can make sure that you get all the support that you need for the process.

To help you in your planning, here are some rough guidelines for our general turnaround times on the most common requests that we receive. Often our response will be much faster, but occasionally may also require longer:
Budget feedback or smaller budgetary queries - 48 hours 
Eligibility queries relevant to a specific call or funder - 48 hours (often much quicker but occasionally if we need to contact them it takes additional time)
Translating a budget, for example from an EU consortium template into the SDU sheet for internal approval – 1 week
ERC starting grant – 6 months
Draft proposal of average length – detailed input and editing for clarity, grammar etc – 3 days
Support in identifying collaborators/partner search – 2 weeks

It also helps us to help you if you are clear and specific about the support that you require, this helps avoid any ambiguity, confusion, or misinterpretation that can also impact getting your proposal or budget ready in time to the very best standard.

 

Last Updated 09.04.2025