The Grant

Episode page The series I start they never really stop - there will always be something to add as I move along. This week’s release is adding another episode to The Timeline Series. The visual element in proposals is much underestimated. Or at least for my part when I was preparing proposals, I considered it a luxury to actually have the time to make nice graphics and layouts. Many of you out ther...

Episode site Finally, after 120 episodes of this initiative I managed to get a Programme Committee representative into the virtual podcast studio. And why is that important? Because the Programme Committees are core parts of the formal structure in relation to the EU framework programmes for research and development. Or Horizon2020, Horizon Europe and FP10 as they are more commonly known. The Prog...

Episode site It is time for yet another introduction to a funding scheme in The Grant. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions is a very popular funding scheme among the European research community. The funding scheme focus is on exchange of researchers and it offers fairly accessible funding for the research activities to do abroad as well as covering cost of transferring and living. Of course The Gra...

The relationship between the R&D funding system and the research community is a paradox. The funding system has been established to support the research community and the research community is a happy receiver of the funding. However, the research community is often struggling to approach the funding. Why? Because it is complex, because it requires investing time in understanding procedures, b...

The consortium agreement is one of the first things you need to deal with when you receive the best email in the world from the EU Commission announcing that your proposal has been granted funding. Here in the second episode in The Implementation Series The Grant zooms in on how what on earth the consortium agreement actually is and how to approach the development of it. I have again aligned mysel...

Test and demonstration facilities plays a vital role in the green transition of our society. Simply because before new technical solutions and innovation processes can be implemented in production and industry there is a need to understand in a safe isolated environment how they function in real life. The EU Commission funds a lot of research and innovation projects that pushes the boundaries of t...

This podcast episode is part of a collaboration between Enspire Science and The Grant. Creating a strong narrative for your EU project can be quite a challenge. The ERC funding scheme targeted towards research is one of the most popular funding schemes for the European research community and, hence, it is also challenging to get the funding. In other words, to stand out against other proposals it...

We are halfway through the Horizon Europe framework programme period and slowly the game is on for the next framework programme – labelled FP10. Over the last months governments and stakeholder interest organisations have been releasing their position papers as they are called. In other words, ‘this is how we would like the future funding landscape to look like’ This process naturally attracts a l...

Last year one of the close collaboration partners of the organisation I work for, invited us into an Erasmus+ proposal. Regulars will know that I normally hesitate due to the intense work pressure of proposal preparation, but here the effort from our side was minimal and the focus of the proposal fitted hand-in-glove with our core missions. Hence, we accepted to join. Luckily, it was a well-conduc...

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 t...

This podcast episode is part of a collaboration between Enspire Science and The Grant. The introduction of the lump sum budget principle in Horizon Europe is one of the biggest changes in the EU framework programme for research and development for a decade. The principle has been introduced to secure more simplicity and less bureaucracy in the project implementation. In short, the principle secure...

The National Contact Point institution is probably the most important support function in connection with EU funding schemes. It provides free local support and advice in all countries connected to the EU Framework Programme for Research and Development. With the big enlargement in 2004 lifting EU to be a fully European Union marking the practical end of The Cold War, a large number of countries h...

There are lots of possibilities for municipalities and local public authorities in the EU funding system to attract external funding for local initiatives and activities. However, many municipalities shy away from getting engaged and getting involved. And it’s not like you can’t understand why: the system seems immense to dig into, the rules are different and often more complex from national fundi...

It is time to finally make a continuation series that follows up on The Timeline Series. The Timeline Series breaks down the proposal preparation process into every single step towards submitting an EU R&D funding proposal. Now, it is time to look at what happens after submission. Welcome to The Implementation Series where I together with guests will zoom in on all aspects and elements of the...

This podcast episode is part of a collaboration between Enspire Science and The Grant. Whether or not to coordinate a proposal and a project is the question many orginisations ask themselves especially in the beginning of a proposal preparation process. There are many advantages attached to the role: you are in control of the narrative, you are in contact with all partners, you get the advantage o...

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...

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 earl...

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 t...

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 t...

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 w...

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 2...

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 maxi...

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 ba...

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 rese...

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 t...