The Grant

Networking is one of the most important elements of working within this field. The ability to navigate in this big ocean is vital for success with grants proposals. There are many layers to be aware of and to work with. In the autumn I reached out to Lara Valentín Carrera from FUNDITEC in Spain to get her involved in The Grant. We have known each other for a long time and our conversation moved into the issue of networking because that was how we met.

So, we carved out an episode digging into networking both from a practical perspective but even more important from a phycological and inter-human perspective. This is a strong episode. As usual it became a long talk and I have divided the recording into two. In the first half we are focusing on brokerage events and their nature.

For a long time I have been looking for a guest who would like to present a concrete project and tell about the practical implementation of the activities.

I managed to connect to Senior Grant Advisor Virag Zsar from the Hungarian private research organization HETFA. They initiated an ERASMUS+ proposal some years ago with the focus of building an EU project manager education sat university level. They got the funding and have implementet the project the last three years.

So, this episode is a nice practical piece with insights into what it entails to carry out an EU project. For good and bad.

It became too long for one episode so I divided it up into two episodes. In this second half we dig into how the communication and dissemination activities work in ERASMUS+ and how it went with deliverables and results. We also touch upon chemistry in the consortium and Virag shared how the exchange with the funding administrators works in ERASMUS+. Finally, we briefly talked any troubles they ran into along the way – like all projects do.

For a long time I have been looking for a guest who would like to present a concrete project and tell about the practical implementation of the activities.

I managed to connect to Senior Grant Advisor Virág Zsár from the Hungarian private research organization HETFA. They initiated an ERASMUS+ proposal some years ago with the focus of building an EU project manager education sat university level. They got the funding and have implementet the project the last three years.

So, this episode is a nice practical piece with insights into what it entails to carry out an EU project. For good and bad.

It became too long for one episode so I divided it up into two episodes. In this first half Virág presents the background of the proposal, shortly how the proposal process went and the core content elements of the project. Further, we moved into the concrete implementation of the activities and how they had to adjust some of the planning as they moved on.

Public waste handling organizations stand at the frontline of the transition to circular economy and a true sustainable society and the EU stands ready with lots of funding to boost and facilitate this dramatic shift. And getting involved in EU R&D proposals and projects as a local municipal organization can be a great way to fund these strategies since they are often costly and with a big element of risk. But how do you attack this big animal as a public entity with limited resources for both developing proposals yourself and paying private consultants to write the proposals for you? The answer is that many don’t

However, a segment of public waste handling organisations have cracked the code to get going with this. BOFA – Wastehandling organization of Bornholm, Denmark – is among them. I invited Project manager David Christensen from BOFA into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about how they are working with EU R&D funding - strategically and practically. As often happens in this podcast it became a long talk so I have divided it into two episodes.

In this second half we focus on what kind of strategy is sensible in order to be involved in as many proposals and projects as manageable, thoughts and recommendations in networking strategy, what effect projects can have on real life in terms of improved processes and, finally, one of the most significant challenges for EU project hunters in the public sector: lack of understanding of the added value of EU projects at the political level and from other departments in the organization.

Public waste handling organizations stand at the frontline of the transition to circular economy and a true sustainable society and the EU stands ready with lots of funding to boost and facilitate this dramatic shift. And getting involved in EU R&D proposals and projects as a local municipal organization can be a great way to fund these strategies since they are often costly and with a big element of risk. But how do you attack this big animal as a public entity with limited resources for both developing proposals yourself and paying private consultants to write the proposals for you?

The answer is that many don’t. However, a segment of public waste handling organisations have cracked the code to get going with this. BOFA – Waste handling organization of Bornholm, Denmark – is among them. I invited Project manager David Christensen from BOFA into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about how they are working with EU R&D funding - strategically and practically. As often happens in this podcast it became a long talk so I have divided it into two episodes. Here in the first half we cover how they got going with EU funding and how their EU funding strategy has developed.

The episode offers great strategic advices for other public entities on how to approach the EU funding system in a way that resonates with limited resources for these kind of expenses.  

I have reached the budget in my Timeline Series which is one of the last things to finish in the proposal process. To fill in the budget template you need to be aware of the terminologies, the different budget categories and the partner categories.

This I have actually done myself a couple of times, but to make sure that I get the explanations right, I have invited Horizon Europe budget specialist Jelena Kajganovic from Europa Media into the virtual podcast studio to take us all through the budget template, how to fill it in and what to be aware of.

It can be rather confusing especially the first couple of times you have to do it, so we tried to make it rather pedagogical running through the essentials.

Recruiting consultants in the private grants consultancy sector is rough. EU R&D grants consultancy is a low-fee consulting area which affects the salaries you can pay and the conditions you can offer. On top of this, the work that it entails to be a grants consultant is rough and tough on work-life-balance. That means you really have to stand out as a company if you want to attract the right people. Ayming is a French global HR and finance consultancy company that is also involved in grants consultancy. 

I invited their HR Business Partner Sara Arryn into the virtual podcast studio to a good talk about recruiting in this business. They, like everybody else within the sector, is twisting and turning to find a way to get the right people onboard. It became a long talk that resulted in two episodes. In this second part we zoom in specifically on a job dating concept Ayming has developed where all the normal recruiting procedures have been skipped and replaced by more relaxed procedures, but of course still with the focus to find the right candidates. 

The episodes offers concrete tools for grants consultancy managers and HR responsibles that can help to improve the results of the resources allocated for the recruitment efforts. 

Recruiting consultants in the private grants consultancy sector is rough. EU R&D grants consultancy is a low-fee consulting area which affects the salaries you can pay and the conditions you can offer. On top of this, the work that it entails to be a grants consultant is rough and tough on work-life-balance. That means you really have to stand out as a company if you want to attract the right people. 

Ayming is a French global HR and finance consultancy company that is also involved in grants consultancy. I invited their HR Business Partner Sara Arryn into the virtual podcast studio to a good talk about recruiting in this business. They, like everybody else within the sector is twisting and turning to find a way to get the right people onboard. It became a long talk that resulted in two episodes. 

In the first half we are digging into the conditions of recruiting in the grants application business and Sara shares core elements of Aymings recruiting strategy and the perception of the grant business from her point of view as human resource professional.

It’s Christmas and of course The Grant also serves you a Christmas Special. The season is wonderful – most people will agree - but for grants consultants and anyone forced to deal with proposals with deadlines in January it is a time with mixed feelings. And for many the focus on the celebrations and lovely time with the family and friends is lost in proposal anxiety and overwhelming amounts of work.

Back in autumn I invited founder and managing director of the Cypriotic boutique grants consultancy company GrantXpert Celia Hadjichristodoulou to have a Christmas Specia. She is Orthodox Christian and so is my wife – hence there is a basis for a lovely talk about Christmas, but also the difficult elements as grants consultant. We share anecdotes of horrible past proposal processes we experienced during Christmas and how it has formed our view on avoiding exactly this.

It became a talk about the vital importance of managers and their understanding of their employees and the importance of managers to be courages enough to turn down assignments that will damage the employees. 

So, the episode offers grants consultancy managers reflections on how to make sure the team is ok even though the employees are under heavy pressure.

All research organisations struggle with how to attract enough resources to develop the research activities that is strategically important. Using EU funds is one way to go, but can be trouble-some. 

VITO is one of the strongest private research organisations in Europe and they are continously at ranking in the top of research organisations collecting most EU R&D funding. I had a talk with Ludo Diels who has a long career in different research leading positions in VITO. He is now a professor emeritus and for VITO he is involved in Processes4Planet as Chairman of the Advisory and Programming Group.  

We digged into the Belgian-Flemish private research organization VITO and how they have used EU funding as a key tool to build up the organization over the years from the early framework programme in the 1980's and 1990's and to now with a coherent strong funding strategy that is vital for their work in the different research departments and business units. This conversation sheds light on the challenges that research organisations have in keeping up the flow of money to fund their research activities and how to work internally as well as externally to succeed with this.

This episode has very strong advice and insights from one of the most successful research organisations on Europe on how to work with EU funding as a research organisation.