An interesting learning experience has come to an end when I gave my presentation to the committee evaluating applications for the Postdoc transition grant. The grant is a 1 year internal grant offered by the Vice-Deanery for Research at the faculty of Medicine in the UKE. It is intended to support young researchers in the final stages of their PhD in preparing for external funding opportunities, and support the publication of project results from their PhD after they submit their thesis.

The application process was supposed to give PhD students a taste of how a grant application works: drafting a research proposal, justifying the research in the context of the institute, and to submit a realistic plan to conduct the proposed research in an year. A proportion of these proposals were selected for a second round where the applicant was required to give a short presentation, and convince a panel of senior scientists and faculty to award the grant. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, and winning the grant is finally a cherry on top of the whole experience.

I will now continue working in the DonnerLab for one more year after I submit my thesis, investigating the neurobiological basis of Confirmation bias, based on the study we recently published. Special thanks to my colleagues in the lab for their encouragement and feedback, and for the unparalleled support I got from my supervisor, Tobias Donner, in the process.