Understand and secure Horizon Europe funding

A call for proposals is a grant opportunity and includes all relevant information to submit a proposal to get funded. The call defines the scope, objectives, outcomes, eligibility criteria and evaluation criteria. 

By reading the call text with utter attention, you can define if your organization's objectives and activities match with what the funding call is asking for. The more matching your proposal to the funding call, the more likely it is that you can get funded.

To find all open calls, you can use the official EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Your country will most likely have a national contact point or a trade organization that handle the EU funding locally as well, such as Business Finland in Finland.

Alternatively, you can use commercial search engine which are built for optimal search and utilized AI engine to match your project description with most relevant calls across many EU funding programmes. This option is best for beginners and newcomers to EU funding because the AI engine can recommend relevant calls for you instantly without you needing to spend hours to research all 42 EU funding programmes and their respective calls. Spinbase is one of the best commercial EU funding search tools out there.

Check out our EU Funding Playbook below for some tips on main points and tips for reading calls for proposals.

Based on the scope, expected outcomes and other details in the call for proposals, you can define which contributions and partner types are necessary.

• Consider your product/service value chain and engage with your most relevant stakeholders
• Check with your network or related communities or industry associations
• Utilize partner search tool if you need: CORDIS and Spinbase are a few to help.

Found your matching partners? Start engaging with them and discussing key issues such as budget shares and IPR.

The official way to submit your proposal is through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. Upon registration, you will receive a Participant Identification Code (PIC) that is used during the application process. 

Registration goes similar with other digital services: Go to EU Funding and Tenders Portal and click "Register".

The call for proposals should be your bible when it comes to preparing the proposal. The applications usually also include multiple required annexes on top of the main document. Though varying in size and requirement depending on what the call is asking for, 3 key areas are to be expected:

1. Excellence
   How innovative and sound your proposed project and concept is. 
   
   
2. Impact
   How does your project contribute to the call's expected outcomes and society as a whole.
   
   
3. Implementation
   The quality of your implementation methods and plan and the quality of the project team and consortium.

This is a good place to remind that there is help should you need it. You're not alone in this process and experts are out there, happy to guide you. 

1. Quality check before submitting your proposal.
   Get an expert who is not involved in creating the proposal to give your their objective opinions.
   Spinverse has 70+ experts who can help you with quality-check your proposals.
   
   
2. Provide your arguments in a clear and concise manner, with plenty of evidence to back it up. 
   This is quite a no-brainer when it comes to writing any kind of application. But it is extremely important in EU funding because the evaluators usually have a very limited time to assess very technical projects. 
   
   
3. Paint the big picture: your project has a scope and objective but where does it fit in? It is good to highlight the context and the big picture and how your RDI project fits in.
   
   
4. Have enough time: preparing an EU proposal is no joke. It can take 6-9 months to gather all inputs from all consortium partners and build a strong proposal. Reserve enough time for you and your team to work on this. 

It's a great achievements to receive funding from the European Commission! Congratulations!

The first step is to sign the grant agreement with the EC. You can also revisit the submitted proposals and agreements with the consortium to revive your memory before starting the project. 

Assigning a Project Manager can also ensure leadership and ownership of the process. A contact person and Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR) are 2 other key personnel needed for the formalities. 

Your project might have ambitious objectives and scope. So sometimes, it's better to break it down to achievable phases and work packages.

Reporting is another important element in the project implementation. This is how the EU audit and reimburse your costs. Reporting requirements are usually provided and you should familiarize and ensure to follow the instructions or ask questions if something is not clear.

But above all, this is your great achievement! Your innovative projects has been properly investigated by public authorities and entrusted with large funding. Make sure to communicate this achievement to the outside world, you can gain credibility, new connections and opportunities through this!