The Grant

Episode site

Reporting to the EU Commission in a funded project is an art in itself. From the face of it, it looks like a fairly simple part of implementing a project, but of course it is not. The complexity of implementing the projects combined with the number of partners and being on top of regulation and formalities all adds to this task being something that anybody should prepare solidly for.

Thanks God you all got The Grant to give a helping hand! In The Implementation Series I am doing everything I can – together with guest experts - to give everybody input, information and critical mass on how to carry out an EU funded project. I managed to get the wonderful Serena Cogoni, Horizon Europe Expert, into the virtual podcast studio to take us all through the in’s and out’s of periodic reporting.

This is a double episode and last week we kicked off zooming in on what is exactly the requirements of periodic reporting, how to prepare yourself and your administrative systems and the first periodic reporting itself. In this second half we dig into the elements of the final reporting including the relationship to the project officer, the online reporting submission system, strategies to develop a compelling final report and not least some tips and do’s and don’t’s.

Time codes:

00:02:05 Final reporting

00:16:50 The online submission system

00:25:04 Strategies for a compelling final report

00:40:11 Learnings and do's and don't's

00:41:28 The toughest challenge

Episode site

Reporting to the EU Commission in a funded project is an art in itself. From the face of it, it looks like a fairly simple part of implementing a project, but of course it is not. The complexity of implementing the projects combined with the number of partners and being on top of regulation and formalities all adds to this task being something that anybody should prepare solidly for.

Thanks God you all got The Grant to give a helping hand! In The Implementation Series I am doing everything I can – together with guest experts - to give everybody input, information and critical mass on how to carry out an EU funded project. This week and the next the wonderful Serena Cogoni, Horizon Europe Expert, takes us all through the in’s and out’s of periodic reporting.

In the first half of the double episode we zoom in on what is exactly the requirements of periodic reporting, how to prepare yourself and your administrative systems and finally Serena runs through the first periodic reporting itself. Exactly what you need if you are implementing an EU project!

Time codes:

00:01:50 Introduction

00:07:33 Fly in

00:12:22 Understanding Horizon Europe reporting requirements

00:25:26 Preparing your systems

00:45:43 The Interim reporting

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. And the first three episodes in the series have been showered in enthusiasm since my dear guests Rita and Kristjan have very actively incorporated the tools in their workflow as proposals preparers.

Now, we need some critical voices on this series and we agreed in the last episode to try to get a proposal evaluator and an outspoken critic about the LLMs. So, here it is: independent consultant and Horizon Europe evaluator Maria Daniela Angione and Erasmus+ proposal and project expert Daiana Huber shares their concerns and critical points-of-view in a very nice discussion about the Chatbot-regime.

Last week in the first part of the double episode Maria Daniela gave an insight into the evaluator perspective on this development. In this second half criticism rams up with Erasmus+ expert Daiana Huber sharing why she considers the LLMs a mirage and why she thinks it makes proposals and projects less worth. And then we have a lovely discussion about it! This is fantastic!

Time codes:

00:02:06 Five critical points on AI

00:16:34 Discussion

01:06:37 Final words

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. And the first three episodes in the series have been showered in enthusiasm since my dear guests Rita and Kristjan have very actively incorporated the tools in their workflow as proposals preparers.

Now, we need some critical voices on this series and we agreed in the last episode to try to get a proposal evaluator and an outspoken critic about the LLMs. So, here it is: independent consultant and Horizon Europe evaluator Maria Daniela Angione and Erasmus+ proposal and project expert Daiana Huber shares their concerns and critical points-of-view in a very nice discussion about the Chatbot-regime.

In the first part of the double episode Maria Daniela is giving an insight into the evaluator perspective on this development and Rita and I had a chance to ask into how the evaluators navigate this new landscape.

Time codes:

00:01:49 Introduction

00:08:17 AI and critic fly in

00:18:37 The Evaluator

Episode site

Proposals become like little babies for the proposal coordinators. There is no end to the number of times guests on The Grant have referred to their submitted proposals and projects as their babies. However, many of these babies get rejected before they come to live.

Rejections are an essential part of submitting EU proposals - whoever has been even the slightest involved in EU R&D funding proposals have received rejections. But it is for the proposal coordinator that the rejections can be a real mental challenge. And why is? That’s because the proposal coordinator often also is the one who develops the idea from scratch, involves key partners, make a solid effort to sell the idea and making it even stronger, deals with whatever challenges arise during the preparation of leaving partners, rough budget discussions, text developing issues and so on and so on. There is no end to how much a proposal developer invests of her or him self in this process which in the end results in a sort of symbiosis with the proposal.

All this of course means that when the Evaluation Summary Report arrives and the email text start out with the sentence: ‘Sorry to inform you that your project has not been granted funding’, it can hit hard.

My good old colleague from PNO - Elena Calzado Roldan, Innovation Management Expert in Smart Innovation Norway asked me if we could do an episode about the roughness of receiving these rejections for your little babies. We discuss why this is difficult and how to cope with it. Indeed this is an episode that should interest a lot of you out there.

Time codes:

00:02:30 Introduction

00:07:55 Fly in on rejections

00:13:13 The baby syndrome

00:23:00 The baby dies - Managing rejections

00:35:01 Organizational and personal impacts of rejections

00:55:17 CPI for baby?

01:18:30 The toughest challenge

Episode site

Startups are the organisations that are the most in need of finance. They almost literally spend all waking hours figuring out how to acquire the financial means to realize their wonderful ideas. However, the funding system as well as the venture capital area are both quite rough on them.

Niloufar Gharavi is a startup’er herself. But she also had a good idea a couple of years ago: why not try to establish an ecosystem where startups are in the same community as the organisations that they need to collaborate with to realize their ideas – companies, research, governments and so on?

She founded the Euro Nordic Funding Alliance, put her hand in fire and scrabbed together enough money to do a kick off meeting last year inviting exactly that – startups, companies, venture capitalist and funding scheme administrators – to build a project facilitating community where the raising of capital is on the full solution/project and not just the individual startup. Making everything stronger and making the startups less vulnerable.

Naturally, I had to bring Niloufar into the virtual podcast studio to share how on earth she did this out of thin air and how it works in all practicality. This is great stuff!

Time codes:

00:02:06 Introduction

00:04:08 Fly in on Euro Nordic Funding Alliance

00:08:23 Understanding Euro Nordic Funding Alliance

00:28:36 How ENFA works with funding

00:59:49 Venture capital and funding

01:17:51 Practical examples

01:20:44 Future perspectives

01:25:58 The toughest challenge

Episode site

The project officer is the key person for any project. It is the person that is the EU representative towards the project and in this respect their core responsibilities include securing well-run projects, deliverables on time, financial accountability and all-in-all that the projects are living up to the grant agreement signed with the EU Commission. There are of course many layers to these formal elements in the day-to-day work as a project officer.

In my Implementation Series I have reached the introductory episode about the project officers. And I managed to get a former project officer onboard. Sergio Ferreira – now Senior Innovation Advisor in Norway Health Tech - was an EU Commission project officer for six years. Hence, he has years of experience in the role.

Last week we started off this double episode where Sergio introduced to us all to the key roles of the project officers. In this second half of the double episode we will dig into how the connection with the project consortia works both formally and informally. And then of course he offers a piece of advice. This is pure gold!

Time codes:

00:01:50 The connection to the project coordinators

00:29:19 Throughout the project period

01:04:35 A piece of advice

01:07:38 The toughest challenge

Episode site

The project officer is the key person for any project. It is the person that is the EU representative towards the project and in this respect their core responsibilities include securing well-run projects, deliverables on time, financial accountability and all-in-all that the projects are living up to the grant agreement signed with the EU Commission. There are of course many layers to these formal elements in the day-to-day work as a project officer.

In other words in my Implementation Series I have reached the introductory episode about the project officers. It is not often that I am able to get the point-of-view from the side of the EU Commission and I didn’t manage either for this episode, but I managed to get a former project officer onboard. Sergio Ferreira – now Senior Innovation Advisor in Norway Health Tech - was a EU Commission project officer for six years. Hence, he has years of experience in the role.

He introduces to us all the key aspects of the role and shares the different layers of formalities and social skills that is embedded in the role. Indeed interesting for many of you out there!

Time codes:

00:01:49 Introduction

00:11:16 Fly in on the project officer

00:13:30 The EU Commission's role as funding owner

00:31:40 The project officer - their side of the table

Episode site

The EU Commission is committed to supporting municipalities and towns throughout the continent and not just the big cities. Smaller communities a little off the track are relying quite a lot on the complex of funding schemes focused on their issues and challenges.

Gata de Gorgos is a town between Valencia and Alicante on the eastern coast of Spain. Through LinkedIn I got in contact with the great Leticia Monfort-Peiro Barth who is the Deputy Mayor of the municipality. She is a one-woman-army for the town in their efforts to approach funding for developing activities. I invited her into the virtual podcast studio to have a talk about how on earth she manages this with practically no resources.

It became a wonderful conversation about conditions in small communities and the challenges that especially climate change brings to especially the agricultural sector in the Mediterranean region.

Time codes:

00:01:41 Introduction

00:05:32 Fly in

00:13:16 The challenges Gata de Gorgos

00:29:01 Strategies and EU funding

01:11:57 The toughest challenge

Episode site

Coordinating a funded EU project is quite a task to pick up. Everybody who has done knows the truth of that statement. The complexity and the many layers of the responsibilities are exhaustive and on top of that you also need to have an impressive stamina as a people person dealing with the positive and challenging elements of human interactions…conflicts, that is.

In other words, it is time for another episode in the Implementation Series and to have a look at the coordinator role. For that I have invited the experienced Andrea Motola, Consultant at Enspire Science, into the virtual podcast studio to share with us approaches, views, reflections, tips and tricks to handle the coordination of a funded project.

This episode is for both new to-be coordinators and experienced coordinators.

Time codes:

00:01:49 Introduction

00:05:28 Fly in

00:06:49 Proposal coordination vs project coordination

00:13:47 The first things to do

00:30:07 As the project rolls - Responsibilities

00:37:01 As the project rolls - Informal

00:50:02 Advantages and challenges

01:08:03 Do's and don't's

01:12:33 The toughest challenge