The Grant

This podcast episode is a collaboration between the AIRinVET project and The Grant. Getting applied research stronger integrated into vocational education is of key importance in moving education and industry closer and develop a stronger understanding between them. The Erasmus+ project AIRinVET has through its two-year duration focused on transforming vocational education through applied research. The project has developed tools and frameworks that equip Vocational Education and Training centers to collaborate effectively with SMEs, bridging gaps between education and industry while driving innovation and competitiveness. In the virtual podcast studio, I have three of the core partners: Barbara van Ginneken from Katapult, the Netherlands, Maëla Barçon from Hanse-Parlament, Germany and Iñigo Mujika from Tknika, Basque Country, Spain. We have a conversation about the challenges that the project addresses and dig into the tools and results that have come out of the efforts. Time codes: 00:01:58 Introduction 00:05:04 Fly in on the AIRinVET project 00:08:34 Setting the scene: why applied research in VET? 00:12:42 The project in a nutshell 00:19:40 Diving deeper: challenges and innovations 00:42:31 What's next? 00:45:59 Hard learnings and positive surprises

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 is vital to create a strong narrative around your research idea. Marianna Rutin is a Life Science Consultant at Enspire Science. Especially the life science area is fitting the ERC programme and therefore she has a lot of experience in creating captivating and solid narratives for proposals towards this funding scheme. In this great podcast episode she shares with you and me the key elements to be aware of in order to create a strong narrative – whether you already have a project idea or would like to shape one from your research. Time codes: 00:01:49 Introduction 00:08:09 Fly in on ERC 00:12:15 Starting point 00:55:22 What elements should it include 01:14:20 Visual effects 01:22:34 Advice

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 secures more freedom in how to spend the allocated funding and less demanding financial reporting practices. However, the devil is - as we all know - in the detail and some of the regulation in relation to the lump sum principle might create some unforeseen challenges both for the beneficiaries and the funding administrators in the European Commission. Managing Director in Enspire Science Yoram Bar-Zeev is an expert in financial principles of the framework programmes. We teamed up for him to share with you and me the main principles of the lump sum approach and sharing some reflections on the positive elements and the implications we might run into. Episode page Time codes: 00:01:58 Introduction 00:05:07 Fly in on Lump sum 00:27:50 Business as usual 00:32:59 How does it work? 01:14:34 News and updates

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 of having the final say and you lift your organisation up into the higher spheres of R&D and innovation area that you are working in. However, coordinating a proposal and a project is also a very intense work with a cacophony of responsibilities and tasks. Administratively your organisations has to be up to it to lift the work also under pressure. You are the one everybody is looking at, so you have to be ready to not only lead the logistics and processes, but also in relation to the content-related matters you need to follow the work that goes on throughout the full project – not just the ones that you have knowledge about yourself. Andrea Ratkošová - Horizon Europe Grants Consultant and Project Manager at Enspire Science - has coordinated a large amount of proposal preparations and projects. We teamed up for a talk about what to be aware before talking the decision to coordinate a proposal or a project. Time codes: 00:02:14 Introduction 00:11:24 To coordinate or not 00:15:02 The coordinator role 00:43:16 Responsibilities 00:58:32 Advantages and challenges 01:13:41 Do's and don't's

The complexity of the overwhelmingly large EU funding system is massive. In spite of standardization measures over the years and efforts to make funding more accessible from the EU Commission, the system has grown so big that it has proven almost impossible to make a make it simpler to apply for funding. It seems when one big measure from the EU Commission to simplify and standardize has been implemented, another bureaucratic or practical issue grows larger and makes the overall experience from the beneficiaries more or less the same – complex and challenging to approach. The issues are manyfold: Rules for application, budget rules, submission systems, the lingo, the problems of identifying the right funding box, the unspoken rules that you need to know and of course the often absolute necessity for paying an external consultant in order to deal with all this. This is a big topic to chew down – even in a long podcast format like The Grant. Maxence Viallon, Grant Finance Officer at EIT Urban Mobility, has an opinion about this subject and makes an effort through his blog ‘EU funds – Simply explained’ to grow awareness within the EU Commission and among the beneficiaries. I invited him in for a talk about this fundamental issue of the whole EU funding system and it ended up being a great conversation about shared frustrations, the big challenges within the system and what the EU Commission is actually doing to minimize the effects of the complexity.

The research manager is a title that is becoming more and more common in the university world. In short, a research manager is the supportive and facilitating function in the university administration that supports the researchers and research teams towards public funding. And with this of course also EU funding. The increasing importance of EU funding to universities throughout Europe has raised the importance and numbers of research managers. However, the role is still falling somewhat in-between several chairs in the traditionally conservative world of universities and recognition of the importance of the role is still lacking behind. More and more posts on the topic of Research Managers pops up in my LinkedIn feed and, hence, I decided to reach out to one of my contacts to explain about the role and share with you all and me about the importance of the work that is carried out. Alice Barbaglio is a Research Advisor and project manager at European Institute of Oncology and has been working as a research manager for several years. She is actively sharing her views about the research manager role on LinkedIn and she is an ambassador in the Horizon Europe funded project RM Roadmap that has focus on the research manager role This episode offers insights on the crucial core elements of the research manager role and inspiration on how to navigate in this role. It is recommended to both new and experienced research managers.

For many many years there has been an imbalance between all the funding for projects and efforts carried out in these projects versus the actual utilization of the project results after the projects end. The EU Commission has over many years tried to deal with this fundamental and critical imbalance in the whole funding-based system. I was reminded of this when I saw a post on LinkedIn by Catherine Collins, freelance science journalist, writing for among several Horizon Magazine, Science Business, Science Calling and EU Observer. The post was pushing an article she had written on a new concept that The EU Commission has initiated to utilize results from funded projects – a hackathon where anyone with an interest and capacity to work with the data where invited to make their bid on how to utilize data from former concrete EU projects. I therefore invited Catherine into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about her article and about this paradox that has been prevailing for decades in the EU funding system – lots of funding, but many results never being used. But also on all the things that the EU Commission has actively done to overcome the paradox.

Digging into specific sectors and how they work with EU funding is also part of what I intent to unfold in this podcast. It is through examples from the stakeholders out there that the importance of EU funding really becomes clear. The Technological Platform of Wine (or PTV) from Spain is an association that facilitates innovation and development for the wine producing sector in Spain. The organisation has in recent years started to engage itself and its members in regionally funded and EU funded projects. The sector is, like agriculture in general, facing many challenges due to climate change and to a growing push for circularity and sustainability in its agricultural praxises. I invited Andrea Casquete Bureba, Project Manager at Technological Platform of Wine (PTV), into the virtual podcast studio for a talk about the innovation challenges of the wine sector, how PTV helps its members and how they are using the EU funded projects to help solving these challenges. A wonderful talk that gives similar organisations an idea of how to approach EU funding, which strategies to follow and how to involve members and stakeholders in proposals, projects and lobbying.

The Horizon Europe framework programme for R&D funding is a bush with many flowers. I have troughout the last year built up content on particular Horizon Europe Pillar II which is focused on collaboration projects solving socio-economic challenges. Now it is time to have a look at one of the other flowers in the bush: The ERC programme for researchers. The programme is THE most important funding programme for the research community broadly speaking. It has a quite different structure and characteristic than the Pillar II part of Horizon Europe. Focus is here to support the individual researchers with the in-depth investigation of their research area giving them the resources that all researchers per se is needing to go ever further into unveiling yet unknown revelations to advance European research in all corners. Added to this, the ERC is a bottom-up programme with no strategic calls. I have never worked with this funding scheme so to get it right I invited in Yoram Bar-Zeev, Managing Director of Enspire Science, into the virtual podcast studio to give us all a thorough introduction to this fundamental funding source for the European research community. In this second half we are digging deeply into the evaluation regime of the ERC programme and Yoram shares how you should approach the different implicit and explicit evaluation criteria. And of course Yoram gives us an overview of the main pitfalls that most stumble down in when preparing proposals for ERC.

The Horizon Europe framework programme for R&D funding is a bush with many flowers. I have troughout the last year built up content on particular Horizon Europe Pillar II which is focused on collaboration projects solving socio-economic challenges. Now it is time to have a look at one of the other flowers in the bush: The ERC programme for researchers. The programme is THE most important funding programme for the research community broadly speaking. It has a quite different structure and characteristic than the Pillar II part of Horizon Europe. Focus is here to support the individual researchers with the in-depth investigation of their research area giving them the resources that all researchers per se is needing to go ever further into unveiling yet unknown revelations to advance European research in all corners. Added to this, the ERC is a bottom-up programme with no strategic calls. I have never worked with this funding scheme so to get it right I invited in Yoram Bar-Zeev, Managing Director of Enspire Science, into the virtual podcast studio to give us all a thorough introduction to this fundamental funding source for the European research community.

Large energy companies are very popular in the EU funding eco-system. If you manage to get one of these babies onboard your EU energy proposal then you know that you have just made your chance bigger to access funding. Even better if it is from one of the continents big capitals! I happen to be so lucky that The Grant has a regular listener from exactly such an organisation. Amy Radlberger is EU Funding Expert in Wiener Stadtwerke which is the energy company of Vienna. I reached out to invite her in for a talk about how they work with EU funding and luckily for me she happily accepted the invitation. So, we recorded a strong episode with focus on the key innovation areas for such a large organisation, a talk about their innovation strategy and how they calibrate that vis-à-vis EU funding. This is a very strong episode with insights into how the energy company of one of the largest cities in Europe work with EU funding. A real treat for you out there. Time codes: 00:13:57 Key areas of innovation for Wiener Stadtwerke 00:21:00 Innovation strategy 00:40:00 EU funding as a tool 01:13:20 The toughest challenge

Lately the Erasmus+ programme has opened up to me. I have gained nice contacts that work with the programme regularly and through them of course I am becoming aware of the large dedicated community working with this funding scheme. So, I decided to open up The Grant for this area and start giving the stakeholders a voice. Given the nature of Erasmus+, funding education in all aspects, you also have a lot of NGOs, non-profit organisations and generally organisations with few resources. And many of them are power houses of energy and dedication to the subject they are working with. They wear their hearts outside their shirts. But how do you manage to build and run an NGO that more or less only runs on EU funding? My curiousity was awaken by Daiana Huber, Chief Operations Officer @ CPIP – Center for promotion of life-long learning. Her presence on LinkedIn gave me a hunch that she would have something to share. And she didn’t disappoint me. Or you for that sake. CPIP living out of EU funding and in particular Erasmus+ funding. This means that they are submitting proposals almost at an industrial scale. So, I was interested in opening up her world and let her share with all of you out there in the same boat how they are successfully doing this and sharing insights on do’s and don’t’s. Great content.

The gender aspect in the EU R&D framework programmes has long lived a life as sections of the R&D proposals that was not really taken serious. Standard generic 10-lines paragraphs, rolling eyes, frowns and in general being ridiculed as absolutely irrelevant. Those times are slowly fading away. The EU Commission keeps pushing for real gender-related reflections and input both in specific sections and organically in for example the Excellence section. And the Commission has here shown itself a head of time. Most people acknowledges - at least – that it is a subject you need to have an opinion about as a consortium. And if not, you wont be in that last 5% toptier that brings you the funding. It is that simple. The barrier has moved. I brought in two experts on gender and diversity in EU R&D proposals to the virtual podcast studio. Lachlan Smith and Jakob Feldtfos Christensen, owners of DiversiUNIty that is a company supporting research organisations on diversity in research – they also run the podcast Diversity in Research. Here we go through where in the Horizon Europe proposal you need to keep an eye on the gender aspect and they give tips and hints on how to approach it.

In the beginning of the year ChatGPT blew to world away – and continues to do so. The level of complexity of the feedback from ChatGPT made it clear for all that here we are dealing with a ground-breaking technology that will have a major impact on development of society. Very quickly after the launch of ChatGPT the number of posts on the impact on grants proposal writing exploded In my LinkedIn feed. Because indeed this technology will have a huge impact on the proposa-based funding system and whoever is employed and involved in it. A couple of my LinkedIn contacts started digging into the technology, shared their findings and discussed the implications for the whole system. So, I decided that it is time for a debate panel in The Grant to discuss the technology, the implications and the possibilities for grants proposal writing and the whole EU funding system. I invited the two independent consultants Kristjan Zemljic and Georg Melzer-Venturi and Director of Innovation at EIT Urban Mobility Gareth Macnaugton into the virtual podcast studio to have a discussion about this extremely hot topic. First, Kristjan shares with us how CHatGPT works and what he has done to work WITH the technology and use all the good things of it and turn it into his advantage. Then we move into a discussion about the implicaTIONS for proposal writing. How will this affect the huge grants consultancy business and does it even matter anymore if ChatGPT does a better job? And finally we will dig into how this will influence the whole proposal-based funding system and reflections on how the EU Commission might deal with this new technology in their future calls and evaluation system design.

I have slowly moved into including other funding schemes than Horizon Europe. The Grant is thought to cover broadly the main European funding schemes. Not long ago I had a double-episode presenting an Erasmus+ project, so the natural step for me was move to Erasmus+ next. Therefore, this episode is an introduction to the Erasmus+ programme. Or Erasmus+ the EU programme for education, training, youth and sports as it is officially named. I have little experience with this funding scheme. So I have invited one of my good old contacts Ulla-Alexandra Mattl, Project director at the consultancy company Eurakom and external evaluator, into the virtual podcast studio to guide me through the Erasmus+ programme. Making a solid introduction to a funding scheme takes a little time, so this became a double episode. In this second half we will go through How to apply, Evaluation, What happens when funding is received and Do's and don't's. Excellent for any Erasmus+ applicant or would-be applicant.

I have slowly moved into including other funding schemes than Horizon Europe. The Grant is thought to cover broadly the main European funding schemes. Not long ago I had a double-episode presenting an Erasmus+ project, so the natural step for me was move to Erasmus+ next. Therefore, this episode is an introduction to the Erasmus+ programme. Or Erasmus+ the EU programme for education, training, youth and sports as it is officially named. I have little experience with this funding scheme. So I have invited one of my good old contacts Ulla-Alexandra Mattl, Project director at the consultancy company Eurakom and external evaluator, into the virtual podcast studio to guide me through the Erasmus+ programme. Making a solid introduction to a funding scheme takes a little time, so this became a double episode. In this first half we start off looking at the EUs purpose with the funding scheme, the structure of the programme and the target groups. Excellent for any Erasmus+ applicant or would-be applicant.

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 that you INDEED knew you had to pay attention to… I have invited Miguel Gallardo Linacero from the Spanish grants consultancy company Sustainable Innovations into the virtual podcast studio to help me run through the cacophony of things you need to be aware of when you are submitting a proposal. On top of that we also share with you our experience on the process and give you a reality check in relation to what you can expect of chaos and stress. It became a long talk as you can imagine, so I have divided the episode into two episodes. In this second half we continue going through the rest of the proposal forms including ethics and security, before ending up with the validation check and the actually pressing the red submission button. You need to listen to this episode if you are submitting proposals!

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 programme with 18 calls available for the deadlines in 2023. Their Info Day is coming up. 20 April 450 people will gather in the heart of the European area in Brussels for a day dedicated to the circular biobased industry calls. The info days are designed to secure that the stakeholders get information on the open calls, advice on how to develop the proposals, technically how to apply for the calls and not least networking and brokerage activities for people to connect for the many consortia to be settled. I connected with one of my old contacts, Maria Andrielou, Communication Strategist and owner of the communication company Clean Stories specialized on exactly the biobased sector. We agreed to record an episode about the Circular Bio-based Europe Info Day and how it is to participate in such events. And we managed to get Dieter Brigitta, Programme Officer & Call Coordinator from Circular Biobased Europe, into the virtual podcast studio to help us shed light on the organisation and how they run their info days. This is a great The Grant special that gives you an idea of what these events are and how you can benefit from participating.

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 sectors – however then it tends to water out with too many dead and inactive profiles. Michael Browne, founder of the platform Crowdhelix, has given it a try. With a background in research he developed a private fee-based platform that is giving it a shot to cover sectors broadly in the networking for EU R&D funding. I invited him into the virtual podcast studio to dig into the concept, how he managed to built it up and finally having a talk in general on privately developed networking tools for EU R&D funding. This is a wonderful talk that sheds light on how a long experience on research can generate an idea that can suddenly help a lot of people.

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 partners and all in all dealing with inconsistencies in communication and difficult budget fights in-between in the partners. I invited my old colleague and friend Jonas Hansen who is Senior Funding Manager in the Danish ICT cluster Digitallead to go through all the little and big things that makes finalizing the budget a big challenge for anyone – no matter the organizational talent. It became a double episode. In this second part we are sharing the experience of the strategic jerk partners  that will dileberately try to cheat or blackmail themselves to higher budget and then we are digging into the horror of budget negotiations and re-negotiations that can take the air out of any proposal writer. We share with you all our combined experience from years of working practically with this which will give you an excellent idea of what you can expect when preparing the budget in the final phase.