The Grant

One of the key reasons for my motivation to build this podcast was because I could not find any podcasts on EU R&D funding back when I was working as private consultant. The rest is history and you are now listening to the result. However, as I have moved on I indeed have identified other podcast initiatives. And I am strongly supporting them. We need more sound.

Independent grants consultant Ilaria Rudisi, creator of the Italian-languaged podcast Dinamica Europa, and Innovation Hub Manager Tomas Pavlik, creator of the Slovak-languaged podcast Grant Up are running two of the most steady podcasts on EU R&D funding in Europe. To explain what moves us podcasters and hopefully inspire others to get going, I invited them into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about what is driving them forward and giving some advice to others who would like to get started.

It became a nice talk about how a big heart for EU funding and communicating via sound can shape beautiful new universes to move people in the real world.

Time codes:

00:01:54 Introduction

00:09:29 Fly in on available podcasts

00:16:11 Introduction Dinamica Europa and Grant Up podcasts

00:43:10 Podcast strategies

01:07:34 Inspiring others

01:17:18 The toughest challenge

In the last release of Shorts episodes I shared my time working for the Danish offshore renewable sector in Brussels. One of the key players I was supporting was Technical University of Denmark. And what an organisation to support!

This is a research organisation that from around 1980 started to give input to the European Commission on wind energy. When the framework programmes started in the early 1980’s they tapped early into them because the resources that were allocated to them from the Danish government was fairly limited. That formed the basis of the institute’s Brussels approach: 1) building capacities and experience in working with the Brussels eco-system to get their voice heard, 2) developing a more and more professional organisation around their proposal preparation and 3) running EU-projects making it possible for DTU Wind to constantly add more and more resources to their research. All this helped the institute becoming a world-leading research organisation on wind energy. Absolutely brilliant.

I managed to lure one of the European godfathers of wind energy, Chief Consultant and former Deputy Head of Wind Energy Department, Peter Hjuler Jensen, into the virtual podcast studio. We had a great talk about how they managed to build all this up in the early days and then he shares how the research institute professionally work now with the EU R&D funding.

Lots of inspiration for any research organisation on how to organize and approach the EU funding area.

Time codes:

00:02:27 Introduction

00:06:06 Fly in on DTU Wind and Energy Systems

00:14:31 A little bit of history

00:36:17 Two sides of the sword - how did you do it?

00:56:06 Influencing and lobbying

01:15:39 Synergies

01:27:24 Do's and don't's

01:30:06 The toughest challenge

The one thing that has the potential to fundamentally change the area of EU R&D funding for good is the development of Artificial Intelligence. ChatGPT broke through a year and a half ago and the development of this technology and available services – free as well as paid – are going at the speed of light.

In The Grant editor’s office I am of course following this closely. So, I have decided to makes a AI series where I dig into this in more detail. And of course I do this with some of the sharpest professionals on the topic: independent consultant and AI-Chat-guru Kristjan Zemljic and Senior Consultant and very pro-active AI-Chat-user Rita Gil Mata.

In this second episode my two distinguished guests share with us how to practically use the tools in your proposal preparation. This is good. This is VERY good. We take each step of the proposal phase: preparation, idea development, project concept development, partner value chain, proposal writing and, finally, submission. All spiced up with examples. Well….you’re welcome…

Time codes:

00:02:02 Introduction

00:05:49 Preparation for the writing phase

00:22:06 Idea development

00:44:23 Project concept

00:56:14 Partner value chain

01:05:13 Proposal writing

01:30:15 Submission

EARMA is the European Research Managers Association. Over the years it has grown immensely in size and significance. The association gathers the research managers from all over Europe in an effort to share knowledge, best practices and not least raise the recognition of the research manager as role in research organisations.

Since last year’s annual EARMA conference in Prague I have been wanting to get them into the virtual podcast studio. Simply because there are so many of my listeners that are involved in the organisation as members and participants at their events.

So, I managed just in time for this year’s annual conference in Odense, Denmark, to get Managing Director Nik Claesen into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about EARMA, the research manager role and of course a chat about the conference that kicks off tomorrow Tuesday 23 April 2024.

Time codes:

00:01:44 Introduction

00:05:00 EARMA in a nutshell

00:12:07 The research manager role

00:46:06 EARMA Annual Conference

01:08:07 The toughest challenge

This is the second release of episodes under my short format The Grant Shorts. This is the third out of the three episodes where I zoom in on my 2nd job within this sector: Funding Consultant at The Alliance for Offshore Renewables – an initiative to secure more EU funding for the Danish offshore renewable sector.

In this episode I carve another key challenge for many Brussels offices: How to maximize your impact with only one or two people in Brussels. I share my experience and give you some guidance on how you can approach it. I have divided this into four sections: 1) Empathizing planning and organizing, 2) Screen the opportunities, 3) Prioritize which ways you go and 4) Share, reflect and exchange in your team

This might give you some input and food for thought in how you set up your strategy towards the Brussels-ecosystem.

Time codes:

00:02:01 Introduction

00:03:19 Plan and organise

00:06:31 Screen

00:15:08 Prioritise

00:22:06 Share, reflect and exchange

This is the second release of episodes under my short format The Grant Shorts. This is the second out of the three episodes where I zoom in on my 2nd job within this sector: Funding Consultant at The Alliance for Offshore Renewables – an initiative to secure more EU funding for the Danish offshore renewable sector.

In this episode I have invited my colleague back from those days between 2010 and 2014 Project Manager Anders Bræstrup into the virtual podcast studio for a short talk about how we were hit by one of the complex issues when you establish a Brussels office: The distance.

It seems almost ridiculous before you stand in the situation that this should be one of trickiest elements, but it is. Why? Because when you lose the close daily connection it is so easy for communication to slide, for for annoyances to slip in, for tasks and responsibilities to become unclear and then you start to lose your target.

Anders and I give you an idea of the problems we faced and how we delt with them. Quick and nice inspiration for all you Brussels-office people out there.

Time codes:

00:02:11 Introduction

00:05:06 The problems with the distance

00:13:40 How did we solve it?

This week I present to you the second release of episodes under my short format The Grant Shorts. This is the first out of the three episodes where I zoom in on my 2nd job within this sector: Funding Consultant at The Alliance for Offshore Renewables – an initiative to secure more EU funding for the Danish offshore renewable sector.

In this episode I give an overview of the three core activities we were carrying out: 1) identify funding schemes and calls of interest, 2) search and identify strong proposals under preparation to facilitate stakeholders into and 3) influencing the Framework Programme work programmes.

The episode gives inspiration to any organisation operating within these spheres in Brussels as well as locally.

Time codes:

00:02:01 Introduction

00:03:13 Fly in on job #2

00:08:01 How we helped the sector

00:12:22 Strategies reaching companies

00:17:32 How to approach Brussels

00:19:41 The lobby part

Rural business support is a quite distinct exercise especially when it comes to attracting EU funding to the support organisation or members and stakeholders. These communities are notoriously low on resources to carry out more than the bare necessities. Simply because of the lack of tax payers and industry. There are an endless amount of municipalities and regions in Europe that have this as a baseline condition.

To be able to do more in the community some local business support units move their eyes towards the EU funding opportunities to leverage their activity with external funding.

Project Manager Mette Lerdorf is working for the local business support organisation, Stevns Business Council, in a rural region south of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is a good old contact and of course I have pushed for her to come by the virtual podcast studio to share the same struggle that many of you out there fight every day.

Mette shares with us how they work together with the local authorities in the municipality and what approach she is carrying out to attract the much needed external funding for their region.

The episodes offers insight on how to work with the EU funding area under conditions with few resources.

Time codes:

00:01:55 Introduction

00:03:14 Fly in on Stevns Business Council

00:14:15 Motivation to work with EU funding

00:41:47 Organisation

01:05:58 Practical examples

01:13:25 Do's and don't's

01:18:36 The toughest challenge

Innovation clusters play an important role in the European innovation system as facilitators. Not only do they secure a strong connection between industry, SMEs and academia, but they also help and support the stakeholders towards funding – national as well as European.

Smart Innovation Norway is one of the strongest clusters in Scandinavia and beside from the role as facilitator it also does research itself within smart technologies and offering lab and test facilities. One of my good old contacts from PNO, Elena Calzado Roldán, now works for Smart Innovation Norway as Innovation Management Expert. She supports the organisation and its members in attracting EU funding.

I managed to get her into the virtual podcast studio for at talk about the role of the cluster, how they are working with the EU funding and finally also for Elena to share an EU funding assessment tool that she developed to make it easier for stakeholders to approach the funding.

This episode offers insights on how clusters can help you towards funding – great content!

Time codes:

00:01:55 Introduction

00:09:16 Fly in on Smart Innovation Norway

00:16:09 How Smart Innovation Norway works as a cluster

00:30:31 How Smart Innovation Norway works with EU R&D funding

01:01:04 EU Readiness Assessment Tool

01:30:52 The toughest challenge