University of Oulu

Preparing a successful proposal: Experience of a Coordinator

Info Session on Horizon 2020 ICT Calls (including eHealth),

Oulu, 8 Feb 2018

Ulrico Celentano (BISG, ITEE, UOULU)

University of Oulu

Who am I?Why I am here?

‒ Researcher at Biomimetics and Intelligent

Systems (BISG) research unit, Faculty of

Information Technology and Electrical

Engineering (ITEE)

- http://www.oulu.fi/bisg

- http://www.oulu.fi/itee/

- http://www.oulu.fi/university/researcher/ulrico-celentano

‒ Participated at ITEE to FP5, FP6, FP7 and

Horizon 2020 projects

‒ Technical Coordinator for HYFLIERS

project

- UOULU (Prof. Juha Röning) is the coordinator

- HYbrid FLying-rollIng with-snakE-aRm robot for contact

inspection

- 3,9M€ (~0,8M€ UOULU)

- http://www.oulu.fi/bisg/hyfliers

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 2

University of Oulu

Why bother to be a coordinator (and not just a partner of a consortium)?

‒ Responsibility

‒ Control of the

project

‒ Visibility!

- The coordinator is the

one approached by

media, etc.

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 3

Image: Perhelion, Balanced scale of Justice, wikipedia. CC

‒ Lots of overhead

‒ Administration already at

preparation time

- Setting up the proposal, gather all

the details from partners, get the

partners respond to action points,

etc.)

‒ Coordination already at

preparation time

- Compromises, negotiations,

adjustments

University of Oulu

What is needed to start with?‒ Idea (the ”what”)

- Cross-disciplinary (either demanded or appreciated)

- Impact

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 4

‒ Consortium (the ”how”)

- See more later

University of Oulu

How to write a (hopefully) successful proposal?

‒ Read the call text carefully

- Address the items deemed or implied as mandatory

‒ Select an idea that is ambitious (novel

and innovative) but feasible

- Novel enough, realisable and with realistic impact

‒ Write a clean and well thought proposal

- Highlight the collaboration (see also on the consortium)

- Highlight the impact

‒ Show that the project is (will be) well

managed

- Management procedures

- Risk management

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 5

University of Oulu

What is deemed a good proposal?

‒ Ranking, evaluation items

‒ Excellence (min 3 out of 5)

- Objectives: clarity and pertinence.

- Concept: sound and credible.

- Novelty and innovation potential.

- Interdisciplinarity.

‒ Impact (min 3 out of 5)

- Market opportunities. Strengthen competitiveness and growth of companies.

- Benefits for society. Exploitation and dissemination (incl. IPR).

‒ Quality and efficiency of the implementation (min 3/5)

- Quality and effectiveness of project implementation vs. objectives (resources, tasks).

- Management structure. risk management.

- Consortium (expertise, complementarity).

‒ Total (min 10 out of 15)

‒ But in practice even 12 could be too little (tough competition).

- Score

- 0 = Fail (incomplete). 1 = Poor (serious weaknesses). 2 = Fair (weaknesses).- 3 = Good (some shortcomings). 4 = Very good (few shortcomings). 5 =

Excellent (only minor shortcomings).

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 6

University of Oulu

‒ All necessary partners (to address

call/proposal topic), but no more than

that

- Not necessarily all your best friends

‒ Some overlapping, but complementarity

in interests or approach

- Some overlapping allows collaboration

- Too much overlapping makes unclear why either one is

actually needed

‒ Real collaboration, no conflicting

objectives

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 7

What is a good consortium?

Image: 3dman_eu, Pixabay. CC0

University of Oulu

How to build a consortium?

‒ Collaborators in previous research and

projects

- But…

‒ Networking at various events

- Conferences, etc.

‒ Social media

- e.g. LinkedIn groups

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 8

University of Oulu

What if it does not get through?

‒ Use the feedback in the evaluation report

to improve your further attempt

‒ Resubmission of a rejected proposal is

possible, but must be declared

- Dedicated checkbox in the forms

- Hence you must address these comments in this case

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 9

University of Oulu

Questions?

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 10

University of Oulu

Good luck!

8 Feb 2018 U. Celentano: Preparing a successful proposal – Experience of a coordinator 11