What is needed in a Proposal for a Lorentz Center workshop?
Please read the following guidelines carefully. An outline for a Lorentz Center workshop proposal is also given below. Keep in mind that a proposal needs not be long - in our experience a well-chosen topic and setup can be explained in just three pages.
For assistance, advice, and suggestions at any stage of the preparation of a proposal you are welcome to contact Henriette Jensenius who is in charge of planning and evaluation of the scientific program (
, telephone +31 (71)527 5580). We strongly recommend in any case to send in a (draft) proposal for feedback in good time before the submission deadline you are aiming at. Deadlines for submission are 15 January, 15 May and 15 September.
How to write a successful proposal:
SCENTIFIC OUTLINE
A concise and clearly motivated scientific case that explains why a workshop on the proposed topic is timely. What progress can be made, what do you expect to bring about in the field during the proposed Lorentz Center workshop? While not too technical, be specific about the scientific/technical challenges, possible targets or outcomes, and/or the issues which will be discussed.
To ensure that the goals and motivation are explicitly and concisely stated, you should include a sentence beginning with: "This workshop will be considered a success if ...".
Think carefully who to involve as co-organizer(s). In our view co-organizers serve two functions: they help to attract the right people to the workshop, and during the workshop they stimulate open discussions. Typically most organizers are mainly involved in the scientific aspects of the workshop. One or two of them acts as the contact for the Lorentz Center staff in organizational matters. It is advisable to have a coordinator residing in the Netherlands for efficient and easy contact with the Lorentz Center. Mention the (relevant) areas of expertise of EACH (co)organizers.
If you try to bring different communities together, it is often a good idea to have the backgrounds of the co-organizers reflect this.
Mention the connection of the theme proposed to the Dutch research community and the possible profitable results of organizing this workshop in the Netherlands. You may also consider choosing a co-organizer (with good contacts) in the Netherlands so that the Dutch research community will be involved in a natural way. (Although much appreciated, a connection to Dutch research is not a prerequisite for granting approval to a Lorentz Center workshop.)
Before submitting your proposal, it is usually helpful to send your draft to a few colleagues and to ask them a few questions such as: Is the program description broad enough or are some vital subfields missing?
PROGRAM
A justification of the desired length of the workshop. Most common are workshops of one week. Please give a clear motivation for choosing a shorter or longer period. For instance, while it is clear that workshops covering two weeks or more offer good possibilities for in-depth discussions and reflections, hence for establishing new collaborations, keep in mind that not all participants will be able to be in-house for such an extended period. Longer workshops therefore run the risk of dissipating into several mini-workshops. It is important that the vast majority of the participants participate for the complete workshop period. On the contrary, less than a week is often not enough to establish new collaborative contacts.
Please give a tentative workshop program. We advise you to reserve ample time for discussion sessions and in any case avoid planning more than 4-5 hours of lectures per day (questions included). A proven format is two introductory talks in the morning and one or two shorter ones in the late afternoon, leaving the time in between open for discussions. Long coffee breaks, poster sessions and other informal sessions are encouraged. A preliminary time schedule should be provided to illustrate this point.
Consult this page for constraints on the program and a few general recommendations.
PARTICIPANTS
Give an estimate of the expected number of participants. Include a list of keynote participants and invited speakers including their affiliation and expertise (this to help also non-experts assess the thematic coverage and geographical spread). Indicate whether you have contacted the prospective key participants and whether they have confirmed their participation ("pending approval"). Obtaining such preliminary statements of interest are important indicators for the assessment of the potential quality and feasibility of the workshop.
Deskspace can be offered for up to 55 people, although many successful workshops have 30-40 participants. Workshops of more than one week often have more participants as not all of them stay for the full duration. Consult the following link for further information about the facilities available to the workshop: 'Facilities'.
The Lorentz Center and its program boards strive to increase the representation of underrepresented groups at the scientific workshops. Please keep this in mind, and take a moment to consider if there are excellent women, or researchers from other underrepresented groups, who would enrich your workshop. Since the program boards may ask for information about this, you might want to address the issue explicitly in your proposal.
We strongly encourage you to invite young promising researchers. A couple of tutorial type lectures may be good to broaden the horizon of young scientists and the local science community. Active particpation may be stimulated by poster sessions, "flash" talk sessions, or by assigning junior participants as "scribes" of some sessions. Provide an estimate of the ratio of junior and senior participants.
BUDGET
Please include a preliminary budget in your proposal (further information provided below), and identify possible co-sponsors. Costs of the Lorentz Center facility and infrastructure and staff are covered by Leiden University. A nationally funded budget is available for partial financing of the costs of the workshops, hotel expenses of participants, travel, conference dinner etc. Supplementary funds are welcome and in many cases necessary to balance the budget of the workshop. The final funding of any given workshop also depends on the quality, impact, size and length of the workshop.
Find below further guidelines on preparing the budget.
FACTSHEET
Finally, make sure to provide a separate factsheet with the following information:
Title of the workshop (in case the title is lengthy, please also provide a short title that can be used for the organisation)
The requested dates for holding the workshop
The amount of financial support requested from the Lorentz Center
Full contact details (name, affiliation, mail address, e-mail, and telephone numbers) of ALL (co)organizers.
For use on the workshop webpage EACH (co)organizer must further provide: a short form of their affiliation (informative for colleagues) AND a webpage link (if available).
Outline of a proposal
Title
Scientific case and motivation (0.5 to 1 page)
Organizer(s) and co-organizer(s) with their affiliations and areas of expertise
Length of the workshop and a preliminary program with a time schedule (breaks included) (0.5 to 1 page)
Number of participants expected; names of key participants and invited speakers (including affiliations and field of expertise); ratio of senior and junior researchers; connection to Dutch research
Budget (see below)
Factsheet (see point 14 above)
We strongly recommend consulting the science coordinator with a draft proposal or a preliminary idea at an early stage:
, telephone +31 (71)527 5580.
Please send your proposal by email to
.
Budget
The Lorentz Center covers the costs for organization, secretarial support, computer assistance and administration costs. The Lorentz Center can also provide some funding for other costs. Please give an estimate of the total budget and indicate contributions from possible sponsors/donors. Also indicate how much you expect to request from the Lorentz Center. In this calculation please use the following numbers:
Hotel: 72,10 Euro p.p. per night. On average you should count on as many nights as there are days in your workshop. Usually lodging is not offered to all participants. Please indicate the number of persons eligible for reimbursement of hotel costs.
Wine & Cheese party: 8 Euro per person. We tend to have a welcome party on the first workshop evening. Workshops of two or three weeks sometimes have two parties planned, also one at the start of the second week.
Workshop Dinner: starts at 35 Euro per person
Coffee/tea/drinks: 5 Euro * number of days * number of persons
In our experience most participants are able to fund travel costs themselves. However, often organizers chose to include in the budget support for participants who otherwise could not attend and sometimes also contribution towards travel costs for keynote speakers.
Please, complete the Budget form (click to download).
If your PC does not support this xls format, you may use your own format.
From the nationally funded budget it is possible for the Lorentz Center to support a typical workshop with up to 10.000 Euros per week. This may for example cover a significant part of the local costs (items 1-4 above). The allocation is thus flexible depending on possible other financing and the priorities of the organizers.
In case you would like additional funding, you should apply to other funding agencies. We advise you to begin this as soon as possible. Specifically, do not wait for the evaluation from the Lorentz Center, but start application "pending approval".
NOTE: If a significant part of your budget depends on external funding which is pending at the time of the submission of the proposal, please indicate how you will budget in case it is not granted.
For details on the budget breakdown and for an early reservation of the desired timeslot, you are advised to contact us at your earliest convenience by email
or by telephone +31 (71) 527 5405.
Please read the following guidelines carefully. An outline for a Lorentz Center workshop proposal is also given below. Keep in mind that a proposal needs not be long - in our experience a well-chosen topic and setup can be explained in just three pages.