Sedef Iskit is grant advisor at IXA-GO. She is part of a growing team of funding and valorisation specialists who helps researchers secure external funding for research.
Sedef joined IXA-GO when the new team was beginning to take shape after the VU-VUmc split: “I, and another colleague, joined in mid-2021. Then the grant advice team became really fully operational. So for a while, researchers couldn’t really find us. We’re still working very hard on our visibility and better position the support that we provide to researchers via our website.”
“In the beginning of 2022 we merged with business developers that are dedicated to VU, from PAN Amsterdam Innovation Exchange team, they’re the IXA component. So now we are a large team of specialists supporting researchers through the entire researcher journey – from getting a research idea funded to valorisation steps, and from license agreements to intellectual property rights.”
How does IXA-GO help researchers secure grants?
“Once the researcher decides to apply for a grant, we give them general information about what this grant requires. For some grant applications, we have templates with detailed instructions, in addition to what the funding agency prescribes. We of course have our own experience with the funding programme which we can share with the researcher. And then, during the preparation process, we offer them one or two rounds of reviews, where we read their proposals, advise them on how to improve, and talk to them on how to address certain criteria. If they have not already done so, we direct them to project control to get their budget correctly done. We help them as best as we can in all steps of the submission. Our team is young but we already see a trend that our support leads to higher success rates.”
At which stage should researchers contact IXA-GO for help?
“We are available for them from the very beginning of the process. I would however very much like to mention Research Connect, an online tool that anybody with a VU account can log on to. With keywords, you can find funding opportunities that fit your research or field. This is very important for researchers to be aware of. It includes a lot of funding programmes from around the world. We, however, can’t use it as effectively as researchers, as they know their own research and thus the right keywords best. As a researcher, you can request weekly or monthly updates including those keywords for new funding calls. Researchers are then notified six months ahead of time. They don’t have to constantly scroll around to find funding. If they then have further questions, we can help them out, with details, with constructing the proposal. But it’s a great tool as a starting point for researchers.”
How do you reach out to researchers yourself?
“We organise all sorts of workshops, also meant for entrepreneurial researchers. These can be general information sessions or smaller workshops. For instance, there is a series of onboarding videos being developed to bring VU researchers up to speed about our services. We also invite speakers from RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency), who are the national contact persons for European funding opportunities. Finally, we work together with faculties and policy advisors of Institutional Affairs to support the scouting of (teams of) researchers for large funding programmes, such as NWO Gravitation. We recently launched a quarterly newsletter for VU Grants Office, through which we announce our events, upcoming deadlines, and latest news from the funding world.”
“There are many funding opportunities, but these can be very complex to go through, it can be very overwhelming for researchers. So we also organise events where RVO then gives general information, but if there are researchers who are busy with an actual proposal, they can sit down with us and RVO advisors, to discuss their project.”
IXA-GO consists of the components business development and expertise on grants. How do those two components work together?
“One of the best examples is a consortium project, which often also includes private partners. That requires universities and companies co-financing the project. These kinds of projects require a good stakeholder mapping. And we experienced that a business developer looks at a stakeholder very differently than me, a GO advisor, or the researcher. So all of our powers really come together in identifying relevant stakeholders. On how to reach them and how to include them in the project.”
“All of this is geared towards creating impact, because as a researcher you want your project to reach its end goal, which is what society is going to use it for. In order to achieve that, you need to find out all the step, that includes all the work that has to be done when the lab work is over. The researcher is not always involved after certain steps. Who is involved and who is responsible for picking what up, requires different perspectives. Here we can work very effectively with business developers. There are also intellectual property challenges in research and partnerships. We can also help frame that.”
Overview of helpful links:
IXA-GO
Research Connect
VU Grants Office Newsletter