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YOUR EUROPEAN PARTNERS IN A GLOBAL MARKET

Horizon 2020 for ICT and

education

Guide for a competitive proposal

2

Overview of funding opportunities for IT & Education under Horizon 2020

Do’s and don'ts's to draft a competitive proposal

Identify partners

Better present your project ideas to the European Commission

Understand which are the sources of information and where to find them

Objectives

Do you have experience in EU funded projects? In which kind of projects have you participated?

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation who? 7. Submit your proposal

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation who? 7. Submit your proposal

Annual work progr. 2014/2015

ready

2014-15 Calls

published

Call Closure

Evaluation Negotiations Project starts

Identify your call!

You are still on time!

December 2013 April 2014

5 months after the final date for submission

Maximum 3 months from the date of informing

applicants

Dec 2014

Consortium setting

Drafting application

A single programme for research activities • Strong focus on societal challenges • Reaching out to non-traditional actors

Indicative!

Types of actions supported by grants

Research and innovation actions: • research • testing small-scale prototype in a laboratory Innovation actions: • prototyping, testing… • large-scale product validation & market

replication Coordination and support actions: • standardisation • awareness-raising and communication • networking • coordination or support services • policy dialogues..

Up to 100%

Up to 70% (non-profit entities up to 100%)

Up to 100%

Identify relevant open calls:

1. Find a suitable call

Key dates for calls 2014: • Opening first calls: 11 December 2013

• Call closure: April 2014 (calls may have different deadlines)

Key dates for calls 2015 (only indicative):

• Opening first calls: July 2014 • Call closure: 20 January 2015

A guide to ICT-related activities in WP2014-15

SC6 - Inclusive, innovative and

reflective societies

1.3 BEUR

Digital inclusion; social innovation

platforms; e-government services; e-

skills and e-learning; e-culture

1. Find a suitable call

ICT 2014 - INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES •ICT-02-2014: Smart System Integration •ICT-05-2014: Smart Networks and novel Internet Architectures •ICT-07-2014: Advanced Cloud Infrastructures and Services •ICT-09-2014: Tools and Methods for Software Development •ICT-13-2014: Web Entrepreneurship •ICT-15-2014: Big data and Open Data Innovation and take-up •ICT-18-2014: Support the growth of ICT innovative Creative Industries SMEs •ICT-21-2014: Advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies •ICT-32-2014: Cybersecurity, Trustworthy ICT •ICT-35-2014: Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support

a. ICT business idea contests in Universities and High schools b. ICT Entrepreneurship Summer Academy c. ….

1. Find a suitable call

ICT-35-2014: Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support a) ICT business idea contests in Universities and High schools b) ICT Entrepreneurship Summer Academy and c) ICT Entrepreneurship Labs d)… e)…

Deadline for application is next 23rd April 2014. The EC could reimburse 100% of the total cost of the project.

•There is a total budget of 4 MEUR available under this call for the 3 different strands. •The EC expects to finance 1 project per strand with a grant between 0.5 and 2 MEUR. •One part of the budget should be allocated to cover the costs of the prizes. •Both universities and private academies can be part of the competition. •The participating students must have the nationality of either an EU member state or one of the associated countries •Max length of proposal is 70 pages

Success factors specific to Call ICT-35-2014: •Consortium quality •Involve the eco-system •Students from at least 10 MS or associated countries to participate •European coverage •Usage of an existing ICT platform •Focus on dissemination and communication

Horizon2020 Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies Young 1 - 2014: Early Job insecurity and labour market exclusion Young 2 - 2014: Youth mobility: opportunities, impacts, policies Young 3 - 2014: Adult education: better polices for growth and inclusion in Europe Young 4 - 2014: The young as a driver of socio-ecological transition INSO 6 - 2014: Platform for ICT for Learning and Inclusion INSO 4 –2015: Innovative schemes for open innovation and science 2.0 Widening participation: Science with and for Society SEAC.1. 2014 - Innovative ways to make science education and scientific careers attractive to young people SEAC.1. 2015 - Innovative ways to make science education and scientific careers attractive to young people SEAC-2. 2014: Responsible Research and Innovation in Higher Education Curricula GERI-1-2014: Innovative approach to communication encouraging girls to study science

1. Find a suitable call

Have you identified already the call of your interest? You are more interested: •In the social dimension of the calls •In the ICT dimension of the calls

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation 7. Submit your proposal

2. Formulate a project concept

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1. Outline the project background and overall objectives

2. Check eligibility

3. Your project concept must be in line with the overall EU political priorities (e.g. 2020

objectives and the flagship initiative Innovation Union) as well as with the objectives of Horizon 2020 (Annual work programs and project fiches)

4. Make your project concept fits to the EU objectives…not the other way around

5. Discuss project internally: the core team must have a common understanding of the detailed work programme and the preliminary budget.

6. Get “buy-in” from key stakeholders

2. Formulate a project concept

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation who? 7. Submit your proposal

Check

eligibility criteria country eligibility

Map suitable partners for your consortium:

• Adding value (technical, linguistic, geographical experience, financial strength)

• « if you can’t beat them, join them »: Select front runners

CONSORTIUM AGREEMENT

a) The internal organisation of the consortium

b) The distribution of the financial contribution

c) The settlement of internal disputes

3. Find partners

Others: • Cordis - FP7 repository

Others per topic:

• Net4society

At least, 3 legal entities,

each established in different

MS/AC

Reality: 5 - 15

Recommended by the Commission:

• National Contact Points (NCP)

• Enterprise Europe Network special focus on SMEs.

• B2Match networking project ideas and participant

profiles

• Ideal-IST partner search facility

• Partner Search Services partner search facility

3. Find partners

• Participation in events Link 1 or Link 2

• Review of previous successful bidders (FP7, FP6)

• Online fora (e.g. LinkedIn groups (Horizon 2020), Facebook groups)

• Direct contact with EC officials

• Schuman Associates Network of Evaluators – ExPERT

3. Find partners

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation 7. Submit your proposal

Register your organization &

Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system

1. Create an account on the portal

2. Register your organisation and get you PIC

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation 7. Submit your proposal

Review and alignment meeting –

• Feedback on first drafts • Financial proposal • Alignment with the WP • Incorporate expert evaluator

feedback • Informal pre-screening European

Commission

Assigning Roles and Responsibilities:

Identify a project proposal manager • Prepare a plan for bid:

Define deadlines Define tools and templates Allocate the necessary team

resources • Coordinate technical proposal

inputs Identify the project proposal writer

Only start writing when plan for bid

preparation is clear

Fine-tune proposal

• Final pre-check of proposal • Budget part refinement

Validate the application

Submission before

Deadline!

5. Plan proposal drafting process

Manage the proposal writing

like a project in its own

Timeline Responsible Deadline

Key Bid Plan Dates

Kick Off Meeting

Review Bid Documents and assess challenges

Agree resource requirements

First Draft

Review meeting

Final Draft

Printing and binding

Deadline

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1. Looking for financial resources to continue regular activities of the organisation/company rather than having a project concept (problem & solution; beginning & end)

2. Too ambitious: raising too high expectations which in the end they cannot live up to

3. Co-operation in networks: building and maintaining partnerships

4. No/little experience in project management

5. No/little experience in budgeting a project and sound financial management

6. Are there enough financial resources within your company and all partner organisations to cover at least 6 months of project work before getting paid by the EU

Pitfalls for (first-time) applicants

5. Plan proposal drafting process

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation 7. Submit your proposal

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Selection Criteria Financial capacity: No verification for public bodies , entities guaranteed by MS or AC and higher and secondary education establishments

Operational capacity: sufficient experience of project management sufficient technical expertise have sufficient capacity to implement

Award criteria

Excellence Clarity and pertinence of the objectives Credibility of the proposed approach Including trans-disciplinary considerations Extent that proposed work is ambitious, has innovation potential, and is beyond the state of the art

Impact (* 1.5) How project will contribute to the expected impacts listed in the work programme at the European and/or International level

Quality and efficiency of the implementation Coherence and effectiveness of the work plan, including appropriateness of the allocation of tasks and resources Complementarity of the participants within the consortium Appropriateness of the management structures and procedures, including risk and innovation management Any other environmental and socially important impacts Effectiveness of the actions to:

• disseminate the project results (including management of IPR), • to communicate the project • to manage research data where relevant.

6. Pre evaluation

Important note on IPR: • mandatory open access to research publications!

Divide your effort over the evaluation criteria

Think of the finishing touches which signal quality work to a busy evaluator: • clear language • well-organised contents • no obvious paste-ins

Make it easy for the evaluators to give you high marks! • Make sure you submit the latest, complete version of your proposal • Don’t write too little: cover what is requested • Don’t write too much: Simpler but tough page limits:

• 70 pages for RIA and IA • 50 pages for CSA

• EU terminology and key words • Don’t leave them to figure out why it’s good, tell them why it’s good • Evaluators might not be experts in your core business

Don’t make last minute revisions; they generate:

• typos, inconsistencies, numbers which don’t add up, missing diagrams, missing pages……

Some tips

6. Pre evaluation

Make a guess! when selecting between two proposals rated equally the Commission will take into consideration the following factor: • The final number of beneficiaries? • The gender approach? • The number of countries represented in the consortium?

What should I do?

1. Find a suitable call 2. Formulate a project concept 3. Find partners 4. Register your organization & Create an account in Horizon 2020 call delivery system 5. Proposal drafting process 6. Pre evaluation 7. Submit your proposal

Wo

rklo

ad

Receipt Submission

Normal Workload Distribution

Day 1 Day 45/90

Submission failure rate = + 1% Only reason for failure: waiting till the last minute • Technical problems • Panic-induced errors (uploading

the wrong proposal) • Too late starting upload, run out

of time

7. Submit your proposal

Proposal template available online

Objectives

The golden

rule

Problems

Where? Who?

Solutions Stakeholders

YOU

More detailed info:

Participant Portal

H2020 Online Manual

List of relevant documents

Examples of previous projects in ICT & learning

Thank you!

Isane Aparicio

Irati Herrero

Brussels · Bucharest · Dublin · Madrid · Milan · Sofia Schuman Associates scrl. Rue Archimède 5, bte 12 B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

T: +32 (0) 2 230 7439 E: isane@schumanassociates.com