Fiona Reid

I aim to help SLU’s researchers to write better grant proposals, and to increase the overall knowledge, skill and awareness of external funding at the university. I focus on proposals where SLU is the coordinator, and multiple partners are involved, particularly funding from the EU and strategic Swedish national funders. However, I can offer advice on many different types of applications, from various funding agencies.

When you are coordinating a proposal, I will work with you to:

• understand the background/scope of the topic and how to incorporate this into your concept and text
• consider which types of organisations you should partner with to show an effective multi-actor approach
• review and suggest edits to your draft text, highlighting any weaknesses or inconsistencies, and improving the tone, structure, and narrative
• act as a sounding board for any questions or concerns you have about your role as coordinator

In addition to supporting researchers with their proposals, I work proactively with my Grants Office colleagues to provide training and capacity building in proposal writing. I also spend part of my time on communication and outreach activities to increase awareness of and access to external funding resources at SLU.

I have a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh, and a PGDip in Library and Information Management from Manchester Metropolitan University. After starting my career as an Academic Librarian in my home city of Edinburgh, Scotland, I spent 5 years as a Grants Manager for a start-up company developing wave energy technology. The company relied heavily on external funding, and I prepared applications for national and international (including EU) research, demonstration, infrastructure, and organisational development grants. I also managed the financial and project administration of successfully funded projects.

In 2016, I began working as a self-employed Grant Funding Consultant, offering clients high-quality reviews of their funding proposals and writing several proposals for companies that lacked in-house expertise. I worked with various companies in the marine renewable energy and Scottish whisky sectors.

I moved to Sweden in late 2017 to take up the newly created position of Research Coordinator, here at SLU.

During my time at SLU, I have worked with many researchers across all four faculties on proposals for a range of funders. Below are a selection of successful proposals I've worked with:

Horizon Europe / Horizon 2020 - Pillar II

• NextGenCarbon: Next Generation Modelling of Terrestrial Carbon Cycle by assimilation of in-situ campaigns and Earth Observations (2025-2029)
• DETECTIVE: Detection of new genomic technique products to promote innovation in the EU (2024-2027)
• FORWARDS: The ForestWard Observatory to secure resilience of European forests (2022-2027)
• BroilerNet: Practice and science broiler production innovation network (2022-2026)
• EcoReFibre: Ecological solutions for the recovery of secondary raw materials from post-consumer fibreboards (2022-2026)
• GeneBEcon: Capturing the potential of Gene editing for a sustainable BioEconomy (2022-2025)
• BEPREP: Identification of best practices for biodiversity recovery and public health interventions to prevent future epidemics and pandemics (2022-2027)
• PATHWAYS: Pathways for transitions to sustainability in livestock husbandry and food systems (2021-2026)

Horizon Europe - Marie Curie Doctoral Networks

• BEYOND: Improving European flowing waters in an era of global change (2025-2028)

European Partnerships

• WoodTreat: Innovative integral approach for wood waste depollution and multi-sector valorization (CBE-JU, 2025-2029)
• GREENHANCEnbt: Growing Resilience by Exploring Methods to Enhance Urban Agriculture for Human Well-being, Community and Biodiversity Enrichment (Biodiversa+, 2025-2027)
• inSALSA: Increasing Sustainability of Agribiologicals by Living Labs in sub-Saharan Africa - Biodiversa+ (2025-2027)
• WildCrop: Optimal rewilding of crop-bodyguard interactions facilitating the green transformation of agriculture (Biodiversa+, 2025-2027)
• Wilding Grasslands: Wilding as nature-based opportunity for grassy ecosystems under diverse land tenure systems (Biodiversa+, 2025-2027)
• PlantCline: Adapting Plant genetic diversity to Climate change along a continental latitudinal gradient (Biodiversa, 2021-2024)
• MAD-tech-AMR: Management of animal diseases and antimicrobial use by information and communication technology to control AMR in East Africa (JPIAMR, 2020-2024)

Formas

• Restore4More: Scaling rangeland restoration in drylands through synergies in the biodiversity-water-climate nexus (2023-2027)
• AquaBioEx: How to protect what we do not know we have - Identifying, understanding and managing aquatic biodiversity in intensively managed forests and under an increasingly extreme climate (2023-2027)
• SIDWater: Sustainable innovative drinking water treatment solutions (2022-2026)

Others

• BioGlue: Competence centre for bio-based adhesives (Vinnova, 2023-2028)
• Trees For Me: Competence centre for sustainable forestry, materials, and energy (Energimyndigheten)
• Landscape Breeding: A new paradigm in forest tree management (SSF, 2022-2026)
• Rapid-Cycle Breeding (SSF, 2022-2026)
• Waterdrive: Water driven rural development in the Baltic Sea Region (Interreg Baltic Sea Region, 2019-2021)