Research Support
As a researcher, you can get help in all phases of your project: Pre-award, at-award, and post-award. These services are provided by research support units at your faculty or SDU RIO.
When embarking on a research project, it's essential to have support at every stage. At SDU, researchers can benefit from comprehensive assistance throughout the entire process.
Pre-award assistance helps with funding applications, ensuring you have the resources needed to start your project. At-award support focuses on negotiating contracts, making sure all agreements are in place. Finally, post-award aid helps with administration and project management, keeping your research on track and well-organized.
The research support units at SDU provide support in all of the three phases.
What is pre-award, at-award and post-award?
The pre-award phase represents the beginning of the grant lifecycle, which includes identification of funding opportunities, proposal preparation , budget approval and submission.
The post-award phase is where the research is being carried out. Project implementation usually includes reporting of scientific progress as well as project economy and admin compliance.
Pre-award services
Do you need guidance on funding opportunities, proposal writing, administrative support, or navigating ethical considerations? Reach out for help as early as possible.
Each faculty has research support teams that offer tailored services to researchers. In collaboration with RIO the research support teams provide resources and expertise to help you with the different tasks.
Strategic help
Get strategic advice within several disciplins
- Career development & CV building
- Personalized funding strategy
- Idea and project development
- Coordination and collaboration
- Quality assurance
- Peer group workshops
- Individualized administrative support
Quality check
Get a quality check
- CV optimization
- Proposal writing support
- Standard submission timeline
- Standard administrative support (budget calculation, budget approval)
Find the research support services
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The application process from idea to submitting a proposal
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Strategic support
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Expert knowledge of specific funding types
TEK’s Funding Team supports the faculty's academic environments in relation to external funding of research and collaboration projects.
- Supporting our researchers in all aspects of external funding
- Providing researchers with the insight and knowledge to write highly competitive research grant proposals.
- Keep up to date on all relevant national and international funds, networks.
- Build and strengthen networks for internal and external collaborators such as foundations, researchers, public councils and boards, etc.
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Activities strengthening the collaboration between TEK and public/private institutions
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Support services include
Support will be offered based on strategic fit for the section, time until the deadline and availability of resources at TEK Innovation. A plan for the level of support will be agreed upon – if this is the right call at the right time.
Research Support Humanities offers support to researchers within the humanities at all stages of the funding process, including
- Help identifying appropriate sources of funding
- Help turning project ideas into fundable proposals
- Help finding collaborators and partners, in the faculty and beyond
- Help planning the application process and navigating the formal requirements of individual calls
- Help scoping your budget and liaising with the finance team in your department
- Sparring and dialogue at all stages of the application process
- Planning next steps after the application cycle has ended
For more, visit Research Support Humanities’ internal sharepoint site.
Research Support (SUND) is a research funding service shared between SDU's Faculty of Health Sciences and health sciences research in the Region of Southern Denmark.
Support services include among other things:
- Advice on career development and CV building
- Funding strategies for researchers, units, departments
- Identification of funding opportunities & information services (workshops, homepage, newsletter)
- Analysis of applicant profiles & funding success rates
- Organization of meetings with funders
- Design of workshops for proposal development and writing
- Individual support during proposal development and writing
- Coordination between collaborative partners
- Grant interview training
- Administrative support
- Strategic Help
- Professional network
- External Collaboration
We would be happy to hear from you regarding any of the topics above, or with feedback or suggestions on our services.
The External Relations Team at the Faculty of Science (NAT) can help you with:
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Before you apply
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When you apply
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Our grant writing toolbox offers
At SDU RIO we offer support within strategically important funding areas for SDU.
We focus on:
At-award services
When you have received a grant and require this type of service, we urge you to contact the research support unit at your faculty. If you receive a grant letter for a EU-grant, RIO can assist you in the negotiation process. More details can be found below.
Foundations in Denmark
All research support units can help with advice and negotiations with foundations.
European funding and the EU Portal
Once an EU application is selected for funding by the European Commission the coordinator receives an invitation to the contract negotiations. It is always the coordinator that negotiates with the Commission on behalf of the partners.
Starting an EU project, there are two things that must be in place:
- The contract with the Commission (Grant Agreement)
- In multi-partner projects an agreement between the partners (Consortium Agreement).
The first task after a project has been invited for negotiation is to give SDU RIO Research Support access to the project on the EU portal.
Access should be given to RIO. For SDU coordinator projects access should be “Coordinator contact” and for SDU partner projects access should be “Participant contact”. This access can be given by any of the persons that have been involved in the proposal preparation.
When access is granted you will get contact to SDU RIO Legal Services and SDU Financial Services according to SDU procedures. You will be contacted about the next steps.
Post-award services
When you have received funding for your research project, you might need a project manager or assistance with administrative tasks.
You can get help with these assignments from the research support unit at your faculty or from the research support unit in SDU RIO.
Find the research support services
When you receive an external funded grant, your local department secretariat is your go-to and they can give advice and support when running your project. They are responsible for the administration and finance of the Departments various post award support activities, in safeguarding positive project outcomes, and the best use of resources across the department and different projects.
Their support can be regarding general project management, the hiring processes, budgeting, finances, travels, communication and conferences etc.
- Department of Business and Sustainability
- Department of Political Science and Public Management
- Department of Business & Management
- Department of Law
- Department of Economics
When you receive a grant, BSS Research Support team can also help researchers with the following project services:
- Project administration and coordination of larger partner projects (e.g. EU/Real Dania/DANIDA/Erasmus+/Interreg)
- Data collection, interviews, coding etc.
- Plan, organize and run project meetings, workshops and conferences for PIs
The project service is provided in return for payment within the project budget, but we can always take a first talk about the possibilities and the needs of your project.
Project Management and coordination in larger partner projects
Are you a researcher coordinating a large and complex partner project? e.g. EU/Real Dania/DANIDA/Erasmus+/Interreg) and do you need support for the administration of the project?
Our project managers offer full support for partner projects from the grant agreement starting date to its completion incl. the reporting deadlines after the project financing runs out.
We offer dedicated support in planning and organizing the research projects lifecycle and its resources in collaboration with you and your local department post-award finance officer. The team can assist in relation to the following tasks:
- Contract, cooperation agreements and amendments
- Scientific, management reporting with project deliverables
- Day to day communication within the consortium and with the grant provider
- Guidance to the project leads and partners
- Dissemination of project activities and results
- Organizing project Kick-off’s, workshops, conferences, steering committee meeting and similar events
The team are focused on all aspects of admin project management to save researcher’s time and have experience within collaboration in large consortia incl. various types of stakeholders and different cultures.
We work closely with the local finance function in your department and FSØ on monitoring budget and expenses and can also work at the department’s premises in assignment.
For your planning - A standard for project management of large EU projects is 6-person month per year financed by the project´s administration budget, corresponding to the price of full support. Smaller EU projects may require only 4 person months per year and specific tasks can also be arrange with a minor percentage.
Support for data collection, coding, interviews etc. can be arranged for specific tasks too.
Please contact Head of BSS Research Support Team Helen Korsgaard helko@sam.sdu.dk
We offer dedicated support in planning and organizing the research projects lifecycle and its resources. Responsible for the administration of the faculty's various post-award support activities in safeguarding positive project outcomes, and best use of resources across institutions and administration.
- The team can assistance in relation to the following tasks:
- Contract, cooperation agreements and amendments
- Scientific, management reporting with project deliverables
- Guidance to the project leads and partners
- Dissemination of project activities and results
- Organizing project Kick-off’s, workshops, conferences, steering committee meeting and similar events
- Research Unit Economic support
To receive advice and help with the post-award stage of your project (e.g., general project management, budgeting, finances, travels, hiring processes, conferences and communication), contact your department secretariat:
- Department of Culture and Language: institut1oekonomi@sdu.dk
- Department of Design, Media and Educational Science: institut2oekonomi@sdu.dk
When you received the grant, the External Relations team at Science helps researchers with:
- Project administration of large (trained project manager), complex projects (e.g. EU/DNRF/NFF)
- Plan, organize and run conferences for PIs
The Research Data Management (RDM) support team at the University of Southern Denmark assists researchers with the organization, management, and curation of research data to enhance its preservation and access now and into the future.
Proper research data management
is very important to SDU, which is why it is highlighted in the SDU Open Science Policy (internal link to RDM Open Science Policy page). The following are some of the components necessary for solid data management practices. Visit the linked pages for detailed information that will help you keep your data well-organized.
- Data Management Plan (DMP)
- Use descriptive and informative file names.
- Choose file formats that will ensure long-term access.
- Track different versions of your documents.
- Create metadata for every experiment or analysis you run.
- Find helpful tools for analyzing your data.
- Handle sensitive data in an appropriate manner.
Data Management Plan (DMP)
A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate during the course of a research project, how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data, and what mechanisms you will use at the end of your project to share and preserve your data.
Continue reading at the support page, or if you have any questions you can email us any time at rdm-support@bib.sdu.dk.
Project Management in larger EU Projects
Are you a researcher coordinating a large and complex EU research and innovation project?
The EU project managers based in SDU RIO offer high-quality services in different types of EU projects.
Read more about what we offer.
Last Updated 09.01.2026