This article presents the importance of proposal preparation and some useful tips for addressing the Horizon 2020 Calls effectively. Written by Ahmad Bilal, International Project Manager at LEITAT.
The project preparation task in competitive European Funding Programmes is quite challenging as it requires a significant amount of preparatory work. This includes collecting and processing the required information to build up the proposal (particularly important when the commercial aspect/impact of the research must be ascertained beforehand, as currently required in Horizon 2020). In «Research and Innovation Actions,» the innovative idea of research with impact becomes significantly important, requiring sound concept development, credibility of the approach adopted, detailed risk analysis, patent analysis, innovation potential of outcomes, and a clear progress beyond the state of the art in that particular technology and for that specific sector application.
In «Innovation Actions» and more industrial applied research projects, market research, technology evaluation, competitive analysis, feasibility and sustainability analysis, and IP due diligence must be done during the proposal phase. In addition, a lot of effort is spent on partners’ recruitment, communication, and project end-user negotiation and agreements. To emphasize how top-ranked organizations take the proposal preparation task seriously, a good example from the Fraunhofer research portfolio is the PharmaPlanta project in FP6 on plant-derived pharmaceutical proteins. Fraunhofer invested over one million euros in state-of-the-art greenhouses to breed genetically modified plants, but this investment was required upfront, external to project funding from the EU, in order for the proposal to remain viable. Although this was a high-risk strategy that could have left Fraunhofer with a «white elephant,» they ultimately acquired the project.
Enough said to emphasize the fact that Horizon 2020 Proposal Preparation is a serious job for organizations that really want to seek funding for realizing their innovative projects. Below are some useful tips to consider. These points are generally applicable in most cases; however, they may vary according to the topic and theme of the call.
- Millions are decided on a piece of document: All decisions and evaluations of funding millions of Euros for projects are made based on a document. The size can vary from 10-70 pages, so paying attention to minor details in all aspects of the project proposal is evidently quite important. That document becomes a project and reality once funded. (No change or negotiations).
- Proposals are evaluated as they are written: There are no assumptions or hypotheses considered. No matter if you submit a proposal about the breakthrough design of the next generation of aircraft as the leading aircraft company in the world, nothing will be assumed. You must demonstrate and write everything required by the call and proposal to be successful.
- Ideas with Impact: There is no room for unrealistic ideas. Only ideas that are innovative, relevant, and bound to have a positive impact on a particular industry and society will be considered in the competition.
- Proposals have to encompass the entire value chain: Beginning from the technology creator up to the end user, sometimes proposals need to incorporate and illustrate the participation and effect on the entire value chain. Even policymaking organizations and companies benefiting from the project’s development need to be mentioned in certain cases, as required by the project. In short, you need to think about every detail of your project and only then begin to write the proposal.
- Competitive and feasible project: Proposals need to be competitive in the technological area where projects are being developed and also feasible. A complete risk analysis and measures to tackle them must be done in the project.
- Multinational Teams and Multidisciplinary Approach: One needs to consider multinational teams and adopt a multidisciplinary approach to address Horizon 2020 calls effectively.
- Competition consideration: On average, the success rate in Horizon 2020 is 14%, and in some calls, it is as low as 4%. Understanding the competition and deploying your resources in an area where you hold a strategic competitive advantage is an important aspect to consider.
The most important of all:
- Value Creation: The project should create different kinds of value (for markets, society, sectors, etc.) and knowledge for Europe and, in some cases, globally (where competitiveness is concerned). If you fail to create value and capture benefits derived from that value in your project, you fail to complete the project value chain required in Horizon 2020. Your focus should be on creating value and exploiting the benefits of that value in your project, not just designing a project for the sake of funding. If you focus on creating value, funding will follow. (Best of luck with that!)
If you are a newcomer based in Europe, as an eligible participant, you can be the one obtaining grants from the 80 billion Euros funding scheme. All policy documents, background, EU priorities and challenges, technology roadmaps, call information, proposal templates, and instructions are available at the European Commission’s website and portals. All you need is to read them carefully, understand the importance of different criteria, process information intelligently, and you can be successful in securing funds for your value and impact-oriented innovative research projects.
If you are still not confident, try working with experienced partners and organizations like LEITAT, an applied research organization where we have been successful in all sorts of funding programs and developing value-oriented, highly innovative research projects complementing our research and technological competencies as a valuable research partner for European and International Collaborative Projects.
This article was first published on LinkedIn.