Consulting Research Funding

 

Werner KlotzbücherDear Visitor,

welcome to the platform for my worldwide consulting activities on research funding and proposal writing. As you will see below, I have a two-prong approach: (1) very practical in-house seminars for Graduate Schools and (2) very much hands-on individual consulting by skype up to the deadline without office hours.

Due to the current Covid-19 crisis all my normal seminars have been cancelled. 
However:   I do give Zoom webinars to small groups.  

As trained physicist and chemist I used to be a scientific coworker of the Max Planck Society - and as sideline advised on research funding topics. I was pretty good at this, and thus continued this line after my official retirement. Much to my surprise I discovered a niche - apparently no one else in the German consulting system offers the very practical palette of information and straight application assistance (which is quite different to the cost-free support by KoWi and the National Contact Points).

These days I lecture for all kind of organizations worldwide on funding opportunities, and coach scientists to successfully apply for grants from German, Israeli and European funding organizations - especially the Marie Curie and ERC Actions of the Horizon 2020 / Horizon Europe programs of the European Commission. Here I just list an overview, you find details in the Service List 2021

SEMINARS:   
1.  A day-long seminar geared towards German Graduate Schools on  the wide variety of funding opportunities, starting at DAAD / DFG and passing through foundations, Horizon Europe and NATO to the international possibilities (German or English, slides in English).      Sample agenda

2.  A one- or two day seminar for international young scientists on research funding opportunities, and the tricks and pitfalls to consider to be successful in their applications. These seminars are usually part of status meetings of funding agencies in Asia, Africa or South America - sometimes coupled with subsequent individual consulting.       Sample agenda 

3.  A variable-time, but very much hands-on seminar for excellent scientists on the points to consider when applying for a Starting (StG),  Consolidator (CoG), Advanced (AdG) or Synergy Grant (SyG) of the European Research Council (ERC). Sample agenda

4.  A variable-time, but very much hands-on seminar on the points to consider when applying for any of the offers in the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA), particularly the Individual Fellowships (IF / GF) and Doctoral Training Networks (ITN). 

5.  
A seminar (3-8 hours) preparing scientists for the interview phase of ERC StG, CoG and SyG applications. This interview training is very personal, and resembles in parts the seminars offered in Germany by KoWi.   

PERSONAL ASSISTANCE:
By e-mail and Skype / Zoom / WebEx I accompany an individual scientist as her/his personal "devil's advocate" during the process of improving an application to the ERC, the Marie Curie Program,  the German "Wissenschaftsrat" or the Israel Science Foundation. For successful ERC StG, CoG, AdG and SyG customers from abroad this usually includes coaching for the interview phase in Brussels. 

The research topics of my customers cover a wide range - from the natural sciences to clinical studies and political sciences. In their interest I strive to design all our communications - be it webinars, pre-established SOPs, e-mail or video conference to assure an outstanding level of quality. It is my aim and pride to offer thoughtful solutions, thus enabling my clients to be successful.

At a time when success requires far more than 90 out of 100 points all of my clients appreciated the confidential and very critical personal pre-evaluation - at a very reasonable financial investment. If necessary, please contact me for testimonials.   

SUCCESS: 
No one can guarantee success, but all my customers know I try to get them to submit a perfect application. If needed I will get you in contact with someone in your field. 

COSTS:
For individual consulting you can choose:  I either charge a very reasonable hourly academic rate (in 15 min units) retained in time sheets or a fixed sum and both sides can cancel the contract on short notice.  For national and international seminars there are fixed prices.  


This is, and will remain, a fairly simple-structured site providing basic information. I have neither time nor interest to develop a very elaborate version - especially as most of my customers contact me because of word-of-mouth recommendations.

You will find some information about myself and the support I offer for universities, "Fachhochschulen", independent research institutions and individual scientists in the attached flyer. Please note that, in general, I tend not to consult for scientists in industry or commerce.

If you have a particular question or need please do not hesitate to contact me at office@icck.eu.

      Thanks for your interest,

                                     Werner Klotzbücher


Current topics:

-  My portfolio for 
   *   German universities & research institutions  (including examples)

   *   German "Fachhochschulen" (including agenda)
   *   Universities & research institutions outside Germany (including examples)
   *   Individual counselling for Marie Curie (MSCA) and European Research Council (ERC) calls
   *   ERC StG, CoG, AdG and SynG interview training


CONTACT
:

ICCK Information & Communication Consulting Dr. Klotzbücher
Windmühlenstrasse 55  *  D-45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr   (Germany)
Phone    +49-208-995400;    Fax   +49-208-995402;   Mobile  +49-170-4060-209
E-Mail   office@icck.eu


Special links:

MIDE revival:
I used to be a real scientists - and here I plan to list the old MIDE communications (which vanished with my official website upon retirement) for my matrix isolation spectroscopy colleagues.


Scientific cooperation with JAPAN:  
A copy of my article on "Hidden Opportunities. A personal view of German-Japanese scientific cooperations" published in the newsletter 04/2014 of the Deutsch-Japanischer Wirtschaftskreis (Düsseldorf) and the updated full version from
http://www.djw.de/expertenpool/hinweise-unserer-mitglieder/details/article/artikel-german-japanese-scientific-cooperation.html


Scientific cooperation with RUSSIA:  
Since 1986 I was involved in establishing scientific contacts and cooperations between the matrix isolation communities in the "West" and in the (now former) Soviet Union. On my first visits to Moscow, Charkov, St. Petersburg and Nishni Novgorod I was hit hard by the lack of information and communication on both sides. Tempted by a discussion with Academician Oleg Nefedov, both a matrix isolation chemist and a Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences USSR, I wrote an article about my experiences and thoughts - which he arranged to be published in "Nauka". Here you find the Russian version and my initial English text - and after 25 years I fear that not that much has changed...


       PS:  Eine deutsche Version dieser Webseite wird es nicht geben!
              Allerdings: das Angebot für Fachhochschulen, speziell in NRW, ist auf Deutsch!