Courses

Amsterdam UMC offers a variety of courses aimed to stimulate personal and academic development and further improve soft skills that are important for post-doctoral researchers.

Date, Time and Location: 23^rd June, 9am-5pm , AMC

Note: This course is already full, but you can still register to be on the waiting list. If you are not invited this time, everyone on the waiting list will receive priority registration for our next course, scheduled for January 2026.

Waiting List registration link here

Content

This grant-writing course is designed to equip you with the essential skills to craft well-structured, clear, concise, and persuasive grant proposals. Across the day, we will guide you through the different sections of a grant application, providing practical tips and actionable strategies to improve your proposals.

The early morning sessions will focus on high-level topics essential to grant writing, such as open science, data management, and valorisation. These sessions will introduce key concepts and provide an overview of what researchers need to know when addressing these areas in their grant proposals. While all participants are encouraged to join, researchers with prior knowledge in these topics may choose to start their day with the later sessions, beginning at 10:30.

In the midday and afternoon sessions, the focus will shift to practical tools and hands-on activities, such as creating a multi-year funding plan, developing a narrative CV, and applying effective writing techniques. Participants will also learn to use writing templates to improve structure, clarity, and cohesion, and will receive tips for writing compelling abstracts and grant sections.

The course concludes with an interactive workshop where participants will pair up to review and refine each other’s abstracts, putting the day’s lessons into practice.

Amsterdam UMC postdocs and final-year PhD students are invited to join this course, which is designed to benefit both beginners and experienced grant writers. By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the grant-writing process, practical tools to enhance their proposals, and constructive feedback on their abstracts.

Preparation: Participants need to bring a printed version of the abstract of their grant application.

Detailed Agenda

09:00-09:05. Welcome and Introduction of the course.

09:05-9:30. Open Science. We will go through the different open science practices that researchers can incorporate in their proposal.

9:30-9:55.Data Management. We will discuss the different types of data a research project can generate, and how to use the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

9:55-10:15. Valorisation and commercialisation. We will go over the most important points to consider when writing the exploitation section of grant proposals.

10:15-10:30. Break. Coffee and snacks will be served.

10:30-11:00. Grant Planning. We will go over how grant planning can help you to reach your research and career goals, and how you can design your multi-year funding plan.

11:00-12:00.Narrative CV. We will expose important concepts when developing your narrative CV (a CV in a format that provides a structured written description of a person's contributions and achievements reflecting a broad range of relevant skills and experiences).

12:00-12:30. Vegetarian Lunch will be served.

12:30-13:30. Grant Writing: Writing for Reviewers. We will define how to produce a grant narrative that convinces and enthuses a grant committee of reviewers.

13:30-14:15. Grant Writing: Two writing templates. We will review two writing templates to help you improve your story line to enhance the clarity, structure, cohesion and simplicity of any text.

14:15-14:30. Break.

14:30-15:30. Grant Structure: Grant Template & Abstract. We will discuss how we can incorporate a specific grant writing template to help you write the different sections of the grant. We will also review and provide actionable tips to write grant abstracts. Finally, we will go over the structure of a grant proposal and provide tips and tricks on what to consider when writing each of the different sections of a grant proposal.

15:30-15:45. Break. Coffee and snacks will be served.

15:45-16:45. Workshop Abstract Writing. In this interactive workshop, participants will pair up to review and provide constructive feedback on each other's abstracts. Each participant must bring a printed copy of their abstract. After receiving feedback, participants will revise their abstracts, applying tips and techniques from earlier sessions.

16:45-17:00. Wrap up. Reflection on the main takeaways and space for final questions.

This workshop is organized by Research Policy Office and Research Grant Support, and will be instructed by Amsterdam UMC staff from four different Research Support Domains: Research Grant Support (Bart Jordi and Silvia Calpe), Medical Library (Lieuwe Kool), Research Data Management (Meriem Manaï), and Valorization (Maaike Alderliesten).

For more information about this workshop please contact the organizers: Raiza Hasrat (RPO, researchsupport@amsterdamumc.nl) or Silvia Calpe (RGS, s.calpe@amsterdamumc.nl).

Post-doctoral researchers are given opportunity to discuss work-related non-research issues in groups of peers under guidance of a policy advisor of the Research Policy Office. These meetings are designed to connect peers and create a confidential environment for open discussion and reflection.

Course overview

Intervision is a form of peer learning that helps to create a safe and reflective space to tackle a common challenge or problem. During intervision you will get support from peers (fellow postdoctoral researchers), reflect and discuss issues without hierarchical differences. You get insight and find possible solutions to the cases, which could be recognizable for everyone in the group. At the end of each session, the case presenter and all other participants find new and helpful ways to address an issue at their workplace.

Please make sure you are available during these meetings.

Dates

Discussed together with the group

Number of participants

Groups will consist of 4-8 participants.

Registration

Please register here.

For more information contact

researchsupport@amsterdamumc.nl

Are you a PhD or Postdoc and have you ever thought about the impact your research can have outside of academia? Would you like to explore how you can increase the impact you’re already making?

IXA offers a new modular learning path on getting involved in valorisation and creating impact particularly suitable for late phase PhD students and postdocs who want to become proficient in valorising their research.

The objective

To inspire you and make you aware of the power that comes with creating value and impact through your research.

The Learning Path is composed of 2 modules of a total of 3 workshops interspersed with online information.

The first Module focuses on impact, what it means for you, how to create it, the challenges you’ll encounter and how to take the first steps to create impact. Module 2, consisting of two workshops, guides you in concretising your ideas or research results into a plan. You will make a stakeholder analysis and learn about the support available within the knowledge institute.

No costs

Participation is free of charge. Registration is required, so is cancellation if you are not able to attend.

For other questions contact Christine Schalkx or Caroline Kleine Staarman at: programs@ixa.nl.

Supervision courses are important if you want to supervise PhD candidates and master students. The courses can be found on the doctoral school website: Superb Supervision; several courses or inspiration meetings on mentoring your PhD Candidate (amsterdamumc.org)

Inspired Supervision: Inspiration meetings for Experienced Supervisors of PhD Students VU Centre for Teaching & Learning - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Amsterdam UMC offers various leadership courses to improve your guidance of more junior researchers and how to balance your work with new additional responsibilities.

Leiderschapsontwikkeling (tulpintranet.nl)

Amsterdam UMC, Locatie VUmc - Cursus Projectmanagement in de zorg

Amsterdam UMC, Locatie VUmc - Basismodule Spin in het web & Vervolgmodule Projectmatig werken

Are you interested in exploring your career opportunities inside or outside Amsterdam UMC? Would you like help in developing your transferable skills to increase your career chances in or beyond academia? Are you looking for courses to develop your communication skills or? Look which Personal Development courses suit your needs or sign up for a mentoring program. Alternatively, you can choose to reflect on your how to use your strengths and surpass your weaknesses to benefit your career during individual coaching sessions with a coach from the Amsterdam UMC coachpool.

If you have questions regarding your career trajectory, make sure you contact the career trajectory team (loopbaanontwikkeling) loopbaanontwikkeling@amsterdamumc.nl or coachpool@amsterdamumc.nl (English and Dutch)

Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc - courses on Research Integrity

The VIRT2UE course explores what it entails to perform ‘good’ research as a researcher and discusses the moral dilemmas encountered in research. Moreover, it explains what it means to act professionally and with integrity.

As a researcher from Amsterdam UMC you have access to a variety of support services including consultations, tools and training from the Research Data Management Team (Research Data Management Amsterdam UMC). You can request such RDM support through the RDM Helpdesk. An extensive overview of the services offered by RDM can be found here.

Highlighted RDM training and support services:

‘Writing a DMP’ Training (VUmc) This interactive training will teach you how to set up an effective Research Data Management Plan (DMP). The training is most suitable for researchers that are in the beginning stages of their research as you will be working on your own DMP and will receive concrete, personalized feedback on your DMP. For more information and dates see the RDM course overview.

‘RDM’ (AMC) This course explains the concepts of a Research Data Management Plan through a combination of an e-learning module and an in-person course day (3-4 h). The e-learning module covers procedures and software applications for research data management, as well as how to deliver a reliable and reusable data set for data analysis by correctly defining, collecting, and processing data. During the course day (online) the FAIR principles, (institutional) guidelines, and their documentation in a data management plan will be discussed.

For more information and dates see AMC Intranet - Cursussen.

Amsterdam UMC RDM course Research Data Management is currently harmonising the ‘Writing a DMP’ (VUmc) and ‘RDM’ (AMC) courses to be able to offer one Amsterdam UMC Research Data Management course. The course will include both an e-learning component and a course day (3-4 h) to explain the concepts of a Research Data Management Plan.

Dates: To be announced

For more information contact the RDM Helpdesk

RDM Consultation For personal help with your Data Management Plan, you can request an RDM consultation via the RDM Helpdesk.

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