The Grant

When calls are about to open for submission the European Commission and the different European Partnerships arrange infodays on the different thematic sections in the work programmes. Circular Biobased Europe is the European Partnership covering the circular biobased industries that are growing significantly these years. The partnership has its own dedicated section in the Horizon Europe work prog...

I have reached the end of the line. The Timeline, that is, naturally. And it is of course the submission episode that you are about to listen to. Submitting the Horizon Europe proposal is the last intense stretch in a marathon that has lasted for months. And it IS intense. And there are many things you need to deal with that you didn’t realize you had to pay attention to. Together with the things...

Facilitating networking within EU R&D funding is an animal with many heads. It is quite complex to structure the internet interface or platform. The best solutions are often sector specific which secures that the facilitator can zoom in on the stakeholders and the community within that specific sector. The EU Commission is the only organization that has made a broad platform covering all secto...

I am moving slowly towards the end of The Timeline Series. In the last episode in theseries we went through the budget template itself and how to fill it in. However, when preparing the budget the smallest part of it is knowing the budget categories and terms – the biggest part of the work is related to collecting the information, correcting this information, negotiating the budget levels for the...

I am moving slowly towards the end of The Timeline Series. In the last episode in the series we went through the budget template itself and how to fill it in. However, when preparing the budget the smallest part of it is knowing the budget categories and terms – the biggest part of the work is related to collecting the information, correcting this information, negotiating the budget levels for the...

Back in the summer of 2022 I had one of my first guests on the show, Marie Latour, who gave us all a broad introduction to the European Partnerships. An immediate realization was that I wanted to explore these partnerships in more detail to give you, dear listeners, an idea of what these organisations do, what role they play in the whole EU R&D funding programme framework and how they interact...

Back in the summer of 2022 I had one of my first guests on the show, Marie Latour, who gave us all a broad introduction to the European Partnerships. An immediate realization was that I wanted to explore these partnerships in more detail to give you, dear listeners, an idea of what these organisations do, what role they play in the whole EU R&D funding programme framework and how they interact...

I am myself an old private grants consultant and it is a sector and people I care about. That’s why I have allocated a specific corner of The Grant to this sector under the label Consultants Corner. Here, I give the sector a voice and dig into all kinds of issues relevant for this shadow sector like business models, the work as a grants consultant, how they develop business concepts, how they deal...

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 in...

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 in...

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....

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....

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 ele...

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 ele...

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...

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...

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...

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 wo...

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 wit...

Some time ago I noticed a nice post from a guy called Sean Jones that posted a video interview called Thought Leaders as part of the communication strategy of an EU project. It was quite different communication approach than I am used to so I reached out to Sean for an interview. It showed that Sean is an enthusiastic guy focused on doing communication and dissemination activities with a big focus...

Founder and Director of the Israeli grants consultancy company Enspire – Yoram Bar-Zeev - asked if he could join the show and share his knowledge on how to fold out the research input for the Excellence section. Of course he received a big YES from me and I am happy he reached out because this conversation became a very nice talk about how to develop the Excellence section from scratch and . The k...

This is a Timeline Series episode. I have reached to the Implementation section and have already shared with you all the guest episode with Georg Melzer-Venturi on the work package descriptions. We didn’t manage to cover the remaining part of the Implementation section 3 which mainly consists of a large handful of tables and diagrammes. I have decided to make a solo episode on this. Mainly because...

I have now reached to the Implementation section 3. Or more precisely: Section 3 Quality and efficiency of the implementation. This is where you describe how you will actually in all practicality carry out the activities to reach the projects targets and it is also here you will have to share the organization between the work packages, detailed timeline and so on. This is the second half of a doub...

Recently I have been running through the actual proposal sections, bit by bit, and have now reached to the Implementation section 3. Or more precisely: Section 3 Quality and efficiency of the implementation. This is where you describe how you will actually in all practicality carry out the activities to reach the projects targets and it is also here you will have to share the organization between...

In this episode I am exploring the idea development for EIC Accelerator proposals. Through LinkedIn I got in contact with Sandra Anic who is a Business development manager in the Croation grants consultancy company Aestus Consulting. In this exchange Sandra shares with me how to unfold the technology concept that you have developed into a full proposal concept. How to understand lab test concept,...