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Since Russia initiated its full-scale attack war on Ukraine the European Commission has changed its discourse 180 degrees on funding defence and security industries. It already started with the annexation of Crimea in 2014 where the Commission started up the European Defence Fund, but with the full-scale war the Commission has ripped off the plaster fully from the realization that we need to be able to protect ourselfes. The EU as a peace project has to be able to defend itself.

Terma is a Danish 800 employee large company focused on aerospace, defense, and security specialized in in advanced technologies and solutions for global defense, space, and security markets. It provides high-tech systems such as radar, self-protection equipment, mission systems, and software for military, civilian, and industrial use. I invited their man on Brussels, Severin Schnepp, into the virtual podcast studio to fold out the changing conditions for the defence sector in EU funding, the available funding schemes and not least how Terma is using their Brussels office.

Time codes:

00:02:05 Introduction

00:04:50 Fly in

00:14:52 A bit of history

00:23:21 Funding schemes

00:35:33 Funding strategy

00:51:10 Boots on the ground in Brussels

01:18:30 The toughest challenge

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Digging into the Brussels bubble is an important part of this podcast initiative. Simply: I want to fold out to the community across Europe how different organisations work within the Brussels eco-system and fold out why it can be beneficial to be present in Brussels

INESC is a large Portuguese private research organisation. It has been present in Brussels for a few years and is quite ambitious in relation to connecting their research teams to the Brussels plug. Ricardo Migueis is the Head of Office at their INESC Brussels Hub and he is one of these persons that have been in Brussels for ages and know the in’s and out’s of how to work the city.

Of course I had to take him into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about how INESC is approaching Brussels. And when you put to old Brussels rats together there is a lot to talk about. In other words this is a double episode and in the first half we dug into the reason why they have a Brussels office, how it functions and the important connection back home. Here in the second half we move into lobbying and project

Time codes:

00:02:07 Lobbying

00:16:22 Project facilitation

00:19:01 The Insider Podcast

00:28:33 The toughest challenge

Episode site

Digging into the Brussels bubble is an important part of this podcast initiative. Simply: I want to fold out to the community across Europe how different organisations work within the Brussels eco-system and fold out why it can be beneficial to be present in Brussels

INESC is a large Portuguese private research organisation. It has been present in Brussels for a few years and is quite ambitious in relation to connecting their research teams to the Brussels plug. Ricardo Migueis is the Head of Office at their INESC Brussels Hub and he is one of these persons that have been in Brussels for ages and know the in’s and out’s of how to work the city.

Of course I had to take him into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about how INESC is approaching Brussels. And when you put to old Brussels rats together there is a lot to talk about. In other words this is a double episode and in the first half we are digging the reason why they have a Brussels office, how it functions and the important connection back home.

Time codes:

00:01:49 Introduction

00:07:16 Fly in on INESC

00:16:35 Functions and organisation

00:42:43 The connection home

Casper Ravnsted-Larsen is an old contact from Brussels. He is a journalist and has been working on a generic communication strategy outline for organisations. We decided to build a podcast series rolling out this strategy in short and concise episodes with concrete examples.

With this I also want to get closer to you, dear listener. We want to get your feedback and for you to share your experience and insights on the topics we discuss because it adds depth and reflection to the benefit for all. So, what will I do?

Maybe you noticed my LinkedIn post with a mug? You can win that mug. The next five months we will release episodes in this series. And every month we choose the best comment or question posted on LinkedIn to win an exclusive The Grant mug. You can’t buy this mug – you can only win it.

And even better! By the end of the series we will make a listener panel episode where all five winners of the mug will be invited for a podcast recording where we discuss and exchange on communication strategy within EU R&D funding.

Now, lets get going. In the first three episodes we focus on building the strategy. You have just listened to the first two episode where we looked into defining objectives, defining audience, creating key messages and choosing communication channels. In this third and final episode in this batch of episodes we zoom in on importance of measuring and evaluating the effectiveness, importance of adapting and iterating and finally some focus on training your team.

If you want to follow our script while listening, you can find that on the episode site. You find the link in the episode notes where you listen to your podcast

Time codes:

00:02:53 Introduction: Measure, learn and adapt

00:05:38 Measure and evaluate effectiveness

00:12:35 Adapt and iterate

00:20:08 Train your team

Casper Ravnsted-Larsen is an old contact from Brussels. He is a journalist and has been working on a generic communication strategy outline for organisations. We decided to build a podcast series rolling out this strategy in short and concise episodes with concrete examples.

With this I also want to get closer to you, dear listener. We want to get your feedback and for you to share your experience and insights on the topics we discuss because it adds depth and reflection to the benefit for all. So, what will I do?

Maybe you noticed my LinkedIn post with a mug? You can win that mug. The next five months we will release episodes in this series. And every month we choose the best comment or question posted on LinkedIn to win an exclusive The Grant mug. You can’t buy this mug – you can only win it.

And even better! By the end of the series we will make a listener panel episode where all five winners of the mug will be invited for a podcast recording where we discuss and exchange on communication strategy within EU R&D funding.

Now, lets get going. In the first three episodes we focus on building the strategy. You have just listened to first episode in this batch of three on how to define objectives, identify your target audience and doing a SWAT analysis. In this second episode we zoom in on creating key messages, communication channels, content calendar and two-way communication.

If you want to follow our script while listening, you can find that on the episode site. You find the link in the episode notes where you listen to your podcast

Time codes:

00:02:54 Introduction

00:04:04 Create key messages

00:11:34 Choose communication channels wisely

00:16:00 Develop a content calendar

00:22:38 Engage in two-way communication

Episode site

When you podcast you sometimes need to shake things up and try to do things differently. I have launched a short format some time ago, but it needed some rethinking. So here it is: my first shot at serving you vibrant short podcast episodes with strong engagement.

Casper Ravnsted-Larsen is an old contact from Brussels. He is a journalist and has been working on a generic communication strategy outline for organisations. We decided to build a podcast series rolling out this strategy in short and concise episodes with concrete examples.

With this I also want to get closer to you, dear listener. We want to get your feedback and for you to share your experience and insights on the topics we discuss because it adds depth and reflection to the benefit for all. So, what will I do?

Maybe you noticed my LinkedIn post with a mug? You can win that mug. The next five months we will release episodes in this series. And every month we choose the best comment or question posted on LinkedIn to win an exclusive The Grant mug. You can’t buy this mug – you can only win it.

And even better! By the end of the series we will make a listener panel episode where all five winners of the mug will be invited for a podcast recording where we discuss and exchange on communication strategy within EU R&D funding.

Now, lets get going. In the first three episodes we focus on building the strategy. Here in the first out of three we run through defining objectives, identifying target audience and doing a SWAT analysis. On the episode site you will find our script so that can follow our discussion. You find the link in the episode notes where you listen to your podcast

Time codes:

00:02:36 Introduction of the series

00:10:02 Building a communication strategy

00:11:30 Define clear objectives

00:17:39 Identify your target audience

00:29:30 Conduct a SWOT analysis

This podcast episode is a collaboration between the AIRinVET project and The Grant.

Getting applied research stronger integrated into vocational education is of key importance in moving education and industry closer and develop a stronger understanding between them.

The Erasmus+ project AIRinVET has through its two-year duration focused on transforming vocational education through applied research. The project has developed tools and frameworks that equip Vocational Education and Training centers to collaborate effectively with SMEs, bridging gaps between education and industry while driving innovation and competitiveness.

In the virtual podcast studio, I have three of the core partners: Barbara van Ginneken from Katapult, the Netherlands, Maëla Barçon from Hanse-Parlament, Germany and Iñigo Mujika from Tknika, Basque Country, Spain. We have a conversation about the challenges that the project addresses and dig into the tools and results that have come out of the efforts.

Time codes:

00:01:58 Introduction

00:05:04 Fly in on the AIRinVET project

00:08:34 Setting the scene: why applied research in VET?

00:12:42 The project in a nutshell

00:19:40 Diving deeper: challenges and innovations

00:42:31 What's next?

00:45:59 Hard learnings and positive surprises

Episode site

The AI Series is a popular initiative. Of course, because many of you are sponges that want to get as much information, guidance and critical mass on how to use the Large Language Models. In the first five episodes in the series my dear guests Rita and Kristjan have been taking us through different corners of this new technology and in the last round we had a double episode focusing on the critical points of the chatbots.

Now, finally, it is time for the perspective of the funding administrator. Rosie Afia-Ford is Senior Innovation Fund Manager in Caribou Digital which is running the Mastercard Strive programme. She wrote a blogpost on exactly the topic of how the chatbots are changing the world for funding administrators. Of course, Rita, Kristjan and I had to get her into the virtual podcast studio.

It became a wonderful conversation about new opportunities for beneficiaries, the responsibilities of funding administrators and the challenges they are facing with these new technologies.

Time codes:

00:01:48 Introduction

00:10:45 Fly in

00:13:02 Funding administrators' perspective on AI

01:06:06 Balancing innovation and fairness

01:25:13 Rethinking funding mechanisms

Episode site

The Grant are many things. I try to help with advice, insights, how-to’s, don’t’-do’s and generally give a voice to the community. But The Grant is also opening up on practicalities. How are actual projects working when they are running. And this week is a peak into an Erasmus+ project

Through my daytime-work I am involved in an Erasmus+ project called WIN4SMES focused on securing enough heads and hands in the future for manufacturing SMEs. And of course I am instrumentalizing The Grant in the project: I recorded an episode when we had the kick-off meeting in April in Hamburg and we will be recording an episode everytime we have a partner meeting.

In October we met for a partner meeting and a train-the-trainer session. The programme was arranged as an internal partner course with guidelines on how to set up and run a local collaboration between vocational training schools, industry and universities. Hence, the focus of this project podcast episode is on the train-the-trainer as a concept. This became a nice conversation about how to set this up and the complexity of carrying it out.

Time codes:

00:01:57 Introduction

00:03:04 Project in a nutshell

00:08:32 Train-the-trainer - role in the project concept

00:25:43 Train-the-Trainer and COVE

00:38:42 Practical examples

00:43:50 The toughest challenge

Episode site

Opening up the Brussels bubble is always fascinating. Especially when looking into the section of the bubble that is close linked to shaping and forming work programme content - short and long-term.

EFFRA – or European Factories of the Future Research Association – is one of the European Partnerships. This means that the organisation is feeding input into the Horizon Europe work programmes and have their own section – Made in Europe.

Chris Decubber is one of my contacts that goes way back. Probably 15 years. He has been an advisor for EFFRA since it was inaugurated in 2009 which of course means he has an extremely solid knowledge about how to facilitate strategic positions for the manufacturing industries vis-à-vis the EU R&D Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. Hence, he has been on my list of preferred guests for a while.

So here it is. We have an interesting conversation about the work EFFRA does, their role in the eco-system and how they work with the input for the work programmes. Great content!

Time codes:

00:01:49 Introduction

00:05:58 Fly in on EFFRA

00:16:29 Mission and structure

00:34:05 EFFRA in the EU funding system

00:52:01 Consultation between EU Commission and members

01:16:44 Membership involvement

01:27:07 The toughest challenge