European Commission’s Research Grant Programs

Presentation at the Cairns Institute for the Tropical Leaders, 20 August 2013

Dr. Albert SCHRAMVice-Chancellor

Papua New Guinea University of TechnologyOn Twitter: @albertschram

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Contents

Goal: understand how to develop a successful research funding strategy, making international project based research financing structural.

1- Structure of the 7th Framework (from 2014 Horizon 2020) & the Life Long Learning Programs

2- The People Program “Marie Curie Actions”

3- Keys for Success

Before you begin writing..

• What drives you to submit a grant proposal?

• What is your goal?

• Are you eligible for a grant? (nationality, residence, marital status, mobility etc.)

• Is this the right time for you to submit a proposal?

• What are your department’s goals?

• What are the funders policy priorities?

• What is the success rate of past proposals?

• How much is the funding? Average size of project (budget and duration)?

10 QuestionsContent (included in proposal)

1. What is the problem the project tries to solve?

2. What is the solution and who are the beneficiaries?

3. What is most innovative about the proposal?

4. What is the value added of the project compared to other solutions?

5. Why is this researcher/team/ consortium the best to execute the project?

6. What is the impact of the project?

Non-Content

7.Why do the you/partners want to do it? Why now? Why here?

8.Why can you beat your competitors?

9.How does this project fit into the priorities/policies of the grant giver?

10.Practical matters: what is the success rate of past proposals? Who is in charge for preparing the proposal? What is the estimated time to produce it? What are the available resources for preparation?

1- Structure of 7th Framework Program (2007-2013) : design trade-offs

ScientificExcellence

PolicyObjectives

Top-DownThematic

Bottom-UpResearcher Initiated

FP7Research

Excellence

ImpactS&T Excellence; Management

Career development &Mobility

Structure, coherence, critical mass

European Commission Framework Programme 7 (2007-2013)

http://cordis.europa.eu or http://europa.eu

€32.410M

€4.750M

€7.510M

€4.100M

CapacitiesResearch Capacity

IdeasFrontier Research ERC

CooperationCollaborative Research

PeopleHuman Potential

Marie Curie Fellowships

2-People Program

People Program

Timetable and process

Timetable 2014

Publication of call March 2014

Deadline Third week of August 2014

Evaluation Summary Report December 2014

Negotiation Phase December-May 2015

Signing Grant Agreement June 2015

Project begin July 2015

Outline of the Process

Call Published

ProposalSubmitted

Evaluation Process

Notification of Results

Contract (or“Grant

Agreement”)negotiation

Contractsigned

Project Starts

Try again!

Periodical and final reports

3- Key Factors for Success

Goal: make your proposal excellent, have it accepted for evaluation, obtain funding and carry out the project successfully.

Should you write you proposal alone?Get an example proposal from a previous round

Get help with editing of necessary

Ask for support in writing, depending on each section:

Science and Technology Excellence (100% academics)Training (50-50 academic – Research Funding Advisor)Management & Implementation (50/50)Impact (50/50)Budget (50/50)

How to prepare a successful proposal?

Read the work programme and MC website in order to understand the policy objectives of the MC activities and the “spirit” of the call, or underlying policy goals.

You are responsible for checking whether your are eligible.

Identify the evaluation criteria, thresholds and weightings for the relevant MC action at the end of the Work Programme

Key Factors Success: Evaluation Criteria

Summary Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criterion Weighting ThresholdS&T Quality 25% 3Training 15% 4Researcher 25% 3Implementation 15% naImpact 20% naTotal 100%

Bringing it all togetherGet proposal writing and project management training for

your academic staff.

Monitor National Contact Point and information days in Brussels on new calls

Make a project for the development of the project proposals:

Division of tasks

Timing and sequencing

Language checking

Use academic and other conferences to share experiences and meet potential hosts.

Keep in mind

Need to address all of the issues in order to maximise scores

Evaluation by competent evaluators (3) but no experts. Language needs to be non-technical.

Some areas require a minimum score (threshold)

The science scores has only 25% of the weight!

You must focus on the objectives of the activity to be successful

Questions & Answers

Speech and powerpoint at

Feel free to drop me a line:

Dr. Albert Schramalbertschram@gmail.comTwitter: @albertschram

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