Introduction to European Collaboration

Collaboration in major European programmes: how does it work? And what's in it for you? CLICKNL sorted it out for you. Below, you can read where to start, and how it works. Is your question not listed or do you have additions or corrections? Send an email to johanneke@clicknl.nl

Where do I start?

Study previously awarded projects to get a feel for the type of projects that are funded, their size, which parties are involved and what role these parties play. This can be done via Cordis.
Study the topics on the agenda. Often, two-year work programmes are used and the concepts of these work programmes can be viewed well before the publication date. It is useful to study these beforehand so that you know what is coming and are aware of the context. Note: topics are often only scheduled once.
Study the preconditions of the various programmes: each European programme has its own rules and within large programmes such as Horizon Europe, different rules sometimes apply per programme. Most programmes have a fixed rhythm of publication and deadlines, it is useful to respond to that.
If you want to respond to an application, you almost always do so together with a consortium of, for example, knowledge institutions, (semi) governments and companies. Take a good look at the requirements for the composition of the consortium. See also the tips on the composition of the consortium under the question 'How do I ensure that my application has the best possible chance?'
To get in touch with a consortium, it is important that you have a good international network. Building up a good network takes years rather than months and often starts before it is clear which call the consortium is participating in. See also: 'How do I get an international consortium?'
Please note that it is only possible to join a consortium if your expertise is essential to the project. Also ask yourself how you want to contribute to the project: the projects often last three years and have a long start-up period: do you want to keep yourself occupied with that subject for that long?

What is the lead time and time spent on an application?

The application period roughly consists of two phases:
Elaborate ideas (12 - 6 months before deadline)
Writing (last 4 months)
The lead time depends on your role (see also next point) in the consortium:
As a coordinator of an application, it is not surprising to take into account a lead time of one year.
As a partner, you can in principle be added to the consortium at any time in the process. That is what the consortium itself is all about.
Depending on experience and ambition, take into account in terms of time investment a few hours a week in the beginning to a few days a week shortly before the deadline.

What roles are there in a consortium and how is the division of tasks?

The 'Project Coordinator' is the formal coordinator of the consortium.
The rest of the participants are formal project partners. Often, however, work package leaders are also appointed and there are sometimes task leaders or technical coordinators.
In particular, the core group coordinator and the work package leaders play a major role in the development of the proposal. This leading role often lies with knowledge institutions or R&D departments of large companies.

For SMEs and startups, the role of participant or possibly task leader is more obvious because it involves a smaller investment of time. * But such a role still has a lot to do and requires the necessary prior knowledge; if you have no experience with this, first try to join an existing consortium.

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How do I get an international consortium?

Consortium formation is a strategic process. Moreover, experienced parties often already have a network. It's not always easy to get in. It therefore works best to search in your own network and in the network of your own network.
Search the database of previously funded projects for people you know. Or maybe you can make sure you get to know these people?
The European Commission often places a link to a partner search platform with the calls.
Matchmaking events are often organised by the European Commission and RVO around the launch of new calls.
The annual European Research and Innovation Days can also be a good starting point.
Join networks and open discussions.
Create a one pager (example of Almende) about your interests and expertise. You can share this with potential partners, so that they can more easily decide if you fit.

What do I get for how much subsidy?

Often, a certain percentage of the direct costs is reimbursed. This means that salary costs (and not your hourly rate) for the hours you work on the project will be reimbursed. The percentage varies per call and per type of action and usually varies from 50% to 100%. For non-profits, it is more often 100%.
There is also often a surcharge for overhead costs.
It is often also determined how large your role in the project should be.

How do I ensure that my application has the best possible chance?

European applications have a relatively low success rate: around 10%. To ensure that you have the best chance of being awarded funding, it is important to fully meet the requirements of the programme. In any case, pay attention to:

Content

Look carefully at the purpose of the programme. Horizon Europe's calls, for example, are top-down. This means that the EU largely prescribes what the project should be about. This requires specific partners and specific competencies that work together in a consortium on groundbreaking developments (impact) for citizens. It therefore makes no sense to come up with your own idea and is therefore not intended to take your own products or services a step further.
The 'expected outcomes' are not a choice list; your proposal must meet all these 'outcomes'.
Underline the impact of the project by collecting support letters.
Account for the origin/objective of the call. You have to dig for that because call texts are often very general. To find out which policy goals must be achieved, you can look at the following points:
1: Which of the European Commission's six strategic goals are linked to this?
2: Which Directorate-General is the sender? And what are their policy objectives?
3: How does the call relate to the overall objectives of the program? At Horizon Europe, for example, these are expressed in four Key Strategic Orientations (KSOs). These are programme objectives within the EU's policy priorities where research and innovation can be expected to make a difference.
4: 'Impact Areas' hang under each KSO. These describe the expected effects of the most important transformations that should enable research and innovation.
5: These effects are then further elaborated in "Destinations". These are socio-economic challenges that need to be addressed through research and innovation.
6: Each 'Destination' consists of one or more topics (the actual calls) that describe the expected results (Expected Outcomes) that research and innovation must deliver.
7: The calls therefore describe the effects that the EU wants to achieve. The application must convince that the project contributes to this effect.

Consortium

The consortium must be complementary: each participant makes an essential contribution to part of the 'outcomes'
All knowledge and expertise needed to realize the project must be represented in the consortium.
Preferably (part of) the consortium already has a track record in European consortia.
It is determined for each scheme how many European countries must be represented in the consortium.

I have a concrete project proposal for a European call. Who can help me further?

If you have a concrete proposal, contact RVO . They can give you more information about the background of the call and help with further coordination. They can also read along with your proposal without obligation and provide it with feedback.

What is meant by…

Joint programming? National overlapping programmes (and national funds) are linked together, creating a European project without funding from the European Commission.
Research Innovation Actions (RIA)? These are projects with a high research content (low TRL). Universities are often in the lead in these sports programmes. SMEs join for substantive knowledge (expert role) or as an end user.
Innovation Actions (IA)? These are projects that are closer to the market. It concerns the development and testing of prototypes (higher Technology Readiness Level). It goes without saying that the business community has a greater role in these types of programmes than in RIA projects.
Coordination and Support Actions (CSA)? These are projects that revolve around the use and dissemination of knowledge.
Technology Readiness Levels? The Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) indicate the degree of development of a technology, where TRL 1 stands for technology at the beginning of development and TRL 9 for technology that is technically and commercially ready. European subsidy programmes use this system to stimulate specific phases. The 9 levels are sometimes grouped into four overarching phases, namely:

The Discovery phase (TRL 1,2 & 3)
The Development phase (TRL 4,5 and 6)
The Demonstration phase (TRL 7 & 8)
The Deployment phase (TRL 9)

Destinations? call? Topics? Various Destinations have been named within the clusters in the second pillar of Horizon Europe. Each destination is then determined from calls (you can see these as annual programmes) with various topics below. A topic is a concrete need of the EU that you can fulfill with your proposal.