The Grant

I have reached to the actual proposal writing and now it is time to dig into the Impact section. The last two weeks I covered 2.1 Project’s pathways towards impact and now the next two weeks it is time for chapter 2.2 Measures to maximize impact. This is where you describe how you will spread your results, communicate to different segments about your great project and exploit the results for the benefit of your organization, the sector and society.

I have invited Director of Europa Media, Gabriella Lovasz onboard sharing her career-long experience working with exactly this for clients – communication, dissemination and exploitation. Both in writing proposals and implementing. Further, Europa Media is one of the leading providers of trainings and courses on EU R&D funding.

In the first episode we dig into the EU Commissions outline and directions in the official Horizon Europe proposal template and discuss and reflect the background for the directions and how to interpret them. 

Time codes:

00:00: Introduction and thoughts on the Impact 2.2 section

10:45: Background of template design

18:00: Communication, dissemination and exploitation

40:50: Strategy and target groups

50:35: Summary table

I have reached to the writing phase in The Timeline Series and will now dig into the Impact section. The Impact section has two distinct sections: one on results and impact (2.1) and one on how to share results and spread them (2.2). I have therefore decided to record two episodes covering 2.1 Project’s pathways towards impact and two episodes covering 2.2 Measures to maximize impact.

I have written a handful of Impact sections myself, but to get critical mass on the guidance I have invited Team Lead of Research Support at the IT University in Copenhagen Melanie Büscher and Danish NCP and Chief Consultant in The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science Barbara Spano – both Advisory Board members of The Grant. They both have more than a decade of experience in facilitating roles as NCPs and university project support offices which means they have evaluated countless proposals. They helped me digging into Impact section 2.1.

This is the second part of the double episode on Impact section 2.1 Project’s pathways towards impact. Here we reflect and discuss how to best structure the input for the section when putting pen to paper and how to get the best out of the partners that often find it hard to deal with this specific  - but crucial - chapter. 

This episode contains advice, tips and tricks needed when you start to write this section. Anyone who is writing or is about to write an Impact section is recommended to listen to this episode.

Get the grant!

Time codes:

00:00 Challenges to gather info and develop section 

21:35 Tables vs. text

28:54 Space optimization

33:20 Scale and significance

I have reached to the writing phase in The Timeline Series and will now dig into the Impact section. The Impact section has two distinct sections: one on results and impact (2.1) and one on how to share results and spread them (2.2). I have therefore decided to record two episodes covering 2.1 Project’s pathways towards impact and two episodes covering 2.2 Measures to maximize impact.

I have written a handful of Impact sections myself, but to get critical mass on the guidance I have invited Team Lead of Research Support at the IT University in Copenhagen Melanie Büscher and Danish NCP and Chief Consultant in The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science Barbara Spano – both Advisory Board members of The Grant. They both have more than a decade of experience in facilitating roles as NCPs and university project support offices which means they have evaluated countless proposals. They helped me digging into Impact section 2.1. 

This is the first part of the double episode on Impact section 2.1 Project’s pathways towards impact. Here we go through how the background of the Impact section guidance as provided by the EU Commission in the Horizon Europe proposal template. Further, we go through main sections in the template and fold out how to interpret the text.

This episode contains solid advice and background information needed before putting pen to paper writing this section. Anyone who is writing or is about to write an Impact section is recommended to listen to this episode.

Get the grant!

Time codes:

00:00 Introduction and thoughts on the Impact section

12:35 Background of template design

25:45 Contribution of results

42:20 Scale and significance

49:40 Barries

In my Timeline Series I have reached to the actual writing phase and start of course with the Excellence section. Even though I have written some Excellence sections myself this is not my core expertise and therefor I have invited one of my Advisory Board members onboard to make sure that I cover it right. Private consultant Marie Prouteau has 13 years of experience working with EU funding incl.  EU R&D policies support, EU project implementation, EU R&D grants consultancy with strong capacities in especially proposal development and evaluation. She is also an EU project Expert Evaluator on Horizon Europe for the EU Commission.

This is the second part of a double episode. In the first episode we go through how to approach sub-section by sub-section in the Excellence chapter including the crucial first page, the objectives, state-of-the-art through to layout and overall approach to the writing process.  

The episode is packed with tons of advice, tips, tricks, recommendations, "do's" and lots of "don't's" on how you can approach the writing of the section improving your chances significantly on getting the high scores from evaluators and getting the grant in the end. 

Time codes:

02:40: The first page

08:50: Objectives

16:40: State-of-the-art

29:20: Methodology

34:20: Link with research activities

37:50: Interdisciplinary approach

41:00: Open science   

45:50: Gender

50:10: Graphs and layout

54:30: Overall advices to the full proposal writing

In my Timeline Series I have reached to the actual writing phase and start of course with the Excellence section. Even though I have written some Excellence sections myself this is not my core expertise and therefor I have invited one of my Advisory Board members onboard to make sure that I cover it right. Private consultant Marie Prouteau has 13 years of experience working with EU funding incl.  EU R&D policies support, EU project implementation, EU R&D grants consultancy with strong capacities in especially proposal development and evaluation. She is also an EU project Expert Evaluator on Horizon Europe for the EU Commission. 

This is a double episode where we in this first part go through the official Horizon Europe proposal template. The template is where it all starts and the EU Commission is giving quite detailed directions and instructions on what information is expected to be considered for funding. Together with the call text instructions this is what you are measured against from the evaluators side. However, the instructions can be complex to decipher especially if you haven't done this a lot. 

Therefore, Marie and I go through the template, section by section, bit by bit, and explain the thoughts behind from the EU Commission and how you should percieve the different subsections and logic behind it. We also explain meaning behind some key funding language words that the EU Commission uses since it is important to understand before you start to write. 

The episode is packed with explanations and crucial background information for anybody who is writing or is going to write an Excellence section.      

In this episode I have invited Advisory Board member Marie Latour in to give an introduction to the European Partnerships in Horizon Europe. Marie Latour is the Secretary General for the European Association of Innovation Consultants  She has 20 years of experience working within the EU Brussels community  both in relation to funding and policy. 

Marie takes me through the historical background of the European Partnerships and the importance they have the framework of R&D funding and influencing the content of the work programmes. It is a vast and complex framework that requires a little bit of attention and focus to understand how it works. In our talk here we open up the framework for the listeners and explain what each partnership category offers, how to get involved and what purpose they have. 

The episode run through what the partnerships are incl. Institutionalized Partnerships (e.g. Clean Hydrogen and Circular Bio-based Europe), the EITs (e.g. EIT  FOOD and EIT HEALTH), the Co-programmed (e.g. Processes4Planet and Build4People) and the Co-funded (e.g. Clean Energy Transition and Water4All).  

The episode is providing an overview and explanations for the partnerships and giving directions to where you can find more information. Also it gives advice on how you can get involved in influencing the work programmes through membership of these initiatives.  

In this episode I have invited Advisory Board member Casper Ravnsted-Larsen onboard to have a talk about the challenging task to do communication on EU R&D funding. Casper is a journalist currently working for the Danish Trade Union for Social Sciences, Business and Law as a journalist for the membership publication, communicating on research and innovation. He has 8 years past experience from Brussels as a journalist in the Danish regional EU R&D funding support eco-system.

I have invited him in for a talk about how to maximize impact of the communication efforts on EU R&D funding as a communication officer. We focus on two elements: 1) How he approached the task communicating as a journalist about EU R&D funding to stakeholders and a broader public and 2) A solid session with tips and advice on what strategy to embark on as a Brussels representation communication officer if you want the best chances for success in getting attention from the audience and, not least, get your employer/management board to REALLY appreciate the work you do.

The episode is heavy packed with experience-based advice on getting success as a communication officer in any organization dealing with EU R&D funding. This episode might even improve your career path significantly! :o)

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In this episode I have invited my third Advisory Board member Katarzyna Kowalska into the virtual podcast studio where we dig into the work of innovation clusters and the role they play in the Eastern European context. Katarzyna is President and co-founder of the UNIMOS Alliance which is a Polish independent agro business innovation cluster for specifically SMEs in the agro-bio-economy sector. Further, she is also an Assistant at the International Management and Marketing Institute at the Warsaw School of Economics. She has more than 18 years experience working with the EU R&D funding programmes. 

In this episode Katarzyna share how she built the cluster from scratch in framework conditions with little financial support moving onto how the cluster works and supports their members in relation to EU R&D funding and European network. Here she shares with the listeners how she strategically involves the innovation cluster as partners in flagship Horizon proposals with long-term-relationship partners and in this way opens up proposal participation for core SME members of the cluster. In the last part of the episode we discuss the relatively low participation of Eastern European SMEs in EU projects, the possible reasons and how local clusters like Unimos Alliance works to overcome these challenges.         

The episode has lots of insights into how innovation clusters work and the added value for especially SMEs to be involved. There are tips, tricks and advice on how to grow your network as a cluster representative and how to practically engage yourself into the networks available and grow your chance of succesfully attract EU R&D funding for your cluster and your members.   

I have my second Advisory Board member Jonas Hansen onboard for this episode where we dig into SMEs and Horizon Europe. Jonas is project manager in the Danish national innovation cluster for ICT where he facilitates R&D and innovation in especially SMEs in the ICT sector. He has more than 12 years experience working with the EU R&D funding programmes.

Jonas has also recently been working for a SME which results in an excellent talk about what it actually entails for SMEs to embark on EU proposals and how to implement the winning projects. We discuss why it is important for SMEs and then we dig into why SMEs are often hesitating to join proposals. The episode has lots of practical examples.

The episode has advice on how to support SMEs before entering a proposal (for facilitators), how it is to implement a EIC Accelerator project for SMEs and how to secure spin-off business and added value from the proposal process even if you don’t win the funding.

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In this episode I look at the important things to be aware of before you enter the writing phase in the proposal preparation.

The writing process itself is quite complicated and complex and therefore it is vital that you prepare yourself as good as you can before the train is rolling. It can spare you many problems and save valuable time. I go through a handful of things to be aware of including your own planning, the set-up in your internal writing-team, work package group meetings preparations, gathering input for excellence-section and first budget expectation exercise.

The episode include lots of practical tips and tricks for this part of the process. 

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