Course Content

Welcome

Congratulations on being invited to an ERC grant interview. Advancing to the second step of the evaluation procedure is an achievement in itself. It proves you have an excellent proposal and impressive resume. Yet, there is still a hurdle to overcome: the interview. This course will support you through the sometimes stressful period that lays ahead.

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Opening remarks

Preparation and support

Module 1: Strategy

In your research proposal you have tried to fit years of research into a few pages. You managed. The document convinced the panel and external reviewers to invite you to evaluation step 2. In this final phase you have an online interview consisting of a presentation and Q+A at your disposal. Depending on the panel you may present your proposal in only ten, eight, five, or even three minutes and you have time to answer around ten questions. That is it. How do you turn this given opportunity into a success? In this module you create a solid strategy in four steps. In step 1 we first explore the low hanging fruit: what does the panel expect from you? Then we have a look at the panel and show how you can use this knowledge to improve your chances of reaching your goal. Step 2 is all about adapting to the online environment. Then we discuss the core message in step 3. Finally, in step 4, you brainstorm about your unique selling points.

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A foundation for success

Step 1: Audience and Goal

Convincing the panel members to fund your proposal. That is what counts in the interaction you are now preparing for. We first mention the low hanging fruit of checking the boxes and then move on to audience and goal.

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What this step is about

What is expected of you?

Mapping your audience

Step 2: Online

ERC organizes interviews online. Our advice: design for online. Here we hand over a list of things you can do to make it work.

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What this step is about

Online vs in-person

Set it and forget it

Light, camera, and composition

Exersice: the perfect picture

Background and sound

Cloting and technology

Exercise: setting your sound

Other adaptations to the online platform

Step 3: Core message

Audience, goal, and setting: check! Now let us have a look at the actual content of the proposal. We will start with its shortest version: the core message.

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What this step is about

Exercise: test your core message

Strength and weakness

Step 4: Unique Selling Points

So you have formulated your Big Idea into a sticky core-message. But, why would they buy it? The presentation and the Q+A offer plenty of opportunities to mention (and demonstrate) the reasons for awarding you. Before thinking about integrating them in a storyline, it pays to list your, what marketeers call, unique selling points. These USPs make you and your proposal stand out amongst your competitors. A good way of creating this list of USPs is by brainstorming using five questions. They are: Why this? Why now? Why like this? Why you? Why here? These questions aim at the importance, urgency, approach and methodology, CV, and network respectively. Let’s dive deeper into each of them.

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What this step is about

Why this and why now?

Why you and why here?

Exersice: do the Five Whys brainstorm

Module 2: The presentation

So far you have explored the panel, defined your big idea, listed and prioritized the arguments that will make them buy it, and you learned how to optimally use the online environment. The second module focusses on the first section of the interview: the presentation. In four steps we here help you to translate your strategy into a coherent story and slides. We follow a route that fosters creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in step 5 and 6. They respectively deal with composing a compelling storyline that integrates your best unique selling points and sketching the slides that help you to bring it across. You thus design a storyboard. In step 7 and 8 your translate this sketch in a script (the words you will say) and a slide deck. Here we focus on the practical aspects of text writing and slide design.

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Storyboard, script, and slides

Step 5: Storyline

You have formulated your Big Idea. And, you know why the panel would buy it. Convincing is not a matter of just sharing the facts. It is a matter of creating a story that makes the panel members believe. What makes a story a story? Let us dive deeper into it.

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What this step is about

Exercise: storyboard

Step 6: Sketching slides

Thus far you have been approaching your presentation from a textual perspective. Now we welcome a true rhetoric superpower aboard: images.

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What this step is about

Visualizing your ideas

Step 7: Script

In the previous step you have completed your storyboard by adding sketches. Now we go back to text again. Text and images provide different angles on the same story. Iterating between them allows you to both finetune your texts and images.

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What this step is about

Writing a script

Exercise: write and test your script

Step 8: Designing slides

You have finished your storyboard and your script. Now it is time to open your PowerPoint and actually make slides. Here are some guidelines that help you to translate your story-board into slides that do not confuse, but do create impact.

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What this lesson is about

Avoid confusion

Extra: PowerPoint tips & tricks

Module 3: Delivery

You strategized in module 1 and compiled your presentation in module 2. Module 3 is about bringing it home. Strategy and presentation are central aspects of the preparation. But, they are useless if you cannot access what you have prepared in the heat of the moment. Due to the nervousness you experience during the interview, your working memory diminishes. It makes thinking clear and accessing your short term (the things you have prepared) and your long term memory. Therefore, we put the working memory at the centre of this module. In step 9 we explain what the working memory does and why it fails you when you experience a high level of stress. Also, we teach you how to regain it and keep it up and running by breathing, grounding, and functional movement. Step 10 builds on that and explains a way to train little behavioural changes that promote connection with you and the content you present. Then, in step 11 we teach you how to stay in control during the Q+A by defining and structuring what we call answer drawers and how to access them in the heat of the moment. Finally, step 12 provides ideas for how to organize mock-interviews in such a way that they help you make the finishing touch.

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Bringing it home

Step 9: Dealing with stress

In module 1, you have been working on your strategy. Module 2 was all about the presentation. Both are essential parts of your preparation. However, a perfect preparation can only be completed by a convincing performance. The most important selling point is a demonstration of genuine enthusiasm during the interview. But, how can you be enthusiastic and authentic during a stressful event such as a grant interview? Stress diminishes your working memory and therefore the accessibility of your memory, the place where all your knowledge is stored. Let us have a look at how this works and what you can do about it.

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What this step is about

What happens inside

Exercise: breathing

Grounding and functional movement

Step 10: Presenting

What do you like the most: presenting or Q+A? Most people have a preference for one or the other. Some like the presentation better. While presenting you are in control. One can rehearse the script till they fully master it. Others prefer the Q+A part. While in conversation they feel connected with your audience.

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What this lesson is about

Exercise: staircase learning

Extra: Understanding your challenges

Extra: Body language

Step 11: Answering questions

Of course the presentation is an important starting point. The Q+A is where you really bring it home. After a mediocre presentation you still can convince the panel with a strong Q+A. A perfect pitch will be ruined if it is followed by a weak Q+A. But, because of the difficulty to predict what the questions will be, many applicants put a lot of effort in finetuning the presentation and almost neglect to prepare for the Q+A. Here we give you the tools to master the Q+A in advance.

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What this lesson is about

Preparing the Q+A

Example questions

Step 12: The last stretch

We are almost there. You have worked your way through the presentation and you know how to present it. But, the proof of the pudding is in eating it. Organizing a few mock-interviews can complete your preparation. These simulations provide the outsider’s feedback on your presentation and answers. With this feedback you can finetune your story, slides, and answers. But even more important is the pre-exposure mock-interviews provide. During the confrontation with the mock-panel member, you will experience the same type of stress responses that the actual interview will evoke. This pre-exposure helps to better cope with the real interview itself.

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What this lesson is about

Organizing mock-interviews

Just before the interview

Keep on learning

ERC StG interview coaching trajectory

Exercise: setting your sound

The following exercise provides a few shortcuts towards a more professional sound.

Start a Webex meeting.

Turn on the microphone and camera.

Take some screen recordings testing different microphones.

Your computer’s built-in microphone
A wired headset
The microphone of your wireless earbuds
A USB podcast microphone from Røde or Sennheiser

Compare the sound of the clips.