Title: How to write winning project proposals for the European Commissions IST Program Asuman Dogac Softwar
1How to write winning project proposals for the
European Commissions IST Program?Asuman
DogacSoftware RD CenterMiddle East Technical
UniversityAnkara Turkey
2Outline of the Talk
- 1. Possible Funding Mechanisms for Turkish
paricipants, chances of success - 2. Types of participation
- 3. Types of projects
- 4. Work Programme 2002
- 5. The 6th Framework Program (2003-2006)
- 6. Key Actions I, II, III, IV
- 7. Building Consortia, roles of partners
3Outline of the Talk
- 8. Parts of a proposal
- 9. Proposal preparation steps
- 10. How to maximize success rate?
- 11. How the proposals are evaluated? Evaluation
criteria, scoring, weights and thresholds - 12. Useful links
- 13. Follow up meeting
- 14. You can do it, grab the opportunity!
4Funding Available for Turkish Participants
- TUBITAK funds are available for Turkish partners
in successful IST projects for the 5th Framework
program - Certain action lines and programs of the
Commission support Turkish participation - Even when Turkish participation is not supported
by the Commission, the Commission support is
available in exceptional cases
5Future Funding for Turkish Participants
- Turkey is planning to enter the 6th Framework
program by paying her dues of 350 million Euros
6METU-SRDC Funding from the European Commission
- METU-SRDC obtained 729.000 Euros directly from
the European Commission during the past 3 years - We received an additional 40.000 Euro from
TUBITAK for our participation in the LEVER
project
7METU-SRDC IST Projects
- INCO DC 97 2496 MARIFlow (RTD, completed in March
2001) - METUs share 204.000 Euro
- IST-1999-20216 LEVER (Take up measure, completed
in December 2001) - METUs share 40.000 Euro
- IST-2000-31050 Agent Academy (RTD, started in
November 2001) - METUs share 145.000 Euro
8METU-SRDC IST Projects
- IST-2000-31046 HUMANTEC (Thematic Network,
started in October 2001) - METUs share 20.000 Euro
- IST-2000-26429 HERMES (Accompanying Measure,
started in December 2001) - METUs share 135.000 Euro
- EUMEDIS Projects DEDALUS and MEDFORIST
- METUs share 225.000 Euro
9IST Budget 3.6 Billion Euro
10Chances of Success (An Example)
- For the call of Key Action II that closed on June
16, 1999 - 472 RTD proposals requested 892 million Euros
- 116 million Euros available and 82 RTD proposals
are selected and contracted - 21 Accompanying Measure proposals requested 48.3
million Euros and with available 7 million Euros
5 projects are selected and contracted
11Funding Mechanisms
- Depends on the project type
- Mostly 100 funding for the academic institutes
(called Shared Cost) - 50 funding plus overhead for partners from
industry (called Full Cost)
12Three Types of Participation
- Coordinator of the project (Difficult for first
timers) - Partner (If you prove to be a productive partner,
an excellent one, invitation to proposals are
guaranteed) - Subcontractor (I would not recommend!)
- I would recommend that you initiate the project
but be a partner in it!
13Initial Steps
- Understand overall process and mechanisms (The
first aim of this talk) - Decide on business reasons for participation
- Getting funding for your dream project
- Opening up your business to Europe
- Creating synergy with European Industry
- Getting complementary expertise,technology
transfer, etc. - Find out which Action Line you want to submit
your project (Study the Work Program)
14Initial Steps
- Find out types of projects supported by that
action line (Work Program) - Identify Call and timetable i.e. closing date(s)
- Try to build a consortia, i.e., find partners
from Europe (more on this later) - Research background i.e. current projects
- Contact the related Commission Project Officer
15Types of Projects in 5th Framework
- Research and Technological Development (RTD)
Projects developing new knowledge or technology
to improve products, processes or services and/or
to meet the needs of Community policies - Demonstration projects projects designed to
prove the viability of new technologies offering
potential economic advantage but which cannot be
commercialized directly
16Types of Projects in 5th Framework
- SME Co-operative research projects (CRAFT)
projects enabling at least three mutually
independent SMEs from at least two Member States
or one Member State and an Associated State to
jointly commission research carried out by a
third party - Thematic Networks and Networks of Excellence
Aims at bringing together e.g. manufacturers,
users, universities, research centres around a
given Science and Technology objective. These
include co-ordination networks between Community
funded projects
17Types of Projects in 5th Framework
- Concerted Actions Actions co-ordinating RTD
projects already in receipt of national funding,
for example to exchange experiences, to reach a
critical mass, to disseminate results etc. - Accompanying Measures Actions contributing to
the implementation of a Specific Programme or the
preparation of future activities of the Programme
18Types of Projects in 5th Framework
- Take-up activitiesThey help to transfer leading
edge as well as established but insufficiently
deployed methodologies and technologies to
industry and other organisations in order to
achieve greater efficiency, higher quality and
greater economy - Include
- Trials (for users and suppliers) aiming at the
adaptation and introduction of leading edge
technology (promising but not yet fully
established) in industrial/service applications
and its joint evaluation (by supplier and user).
19Take up activities (continued)
- Best Practice (for users) promote improvements
in the practices, processes and operations in
industry and services through the take-up of
well-founded, mature and established - but
insufficiently deployed - methods and
technologies, so as to achieve greater
efficiency, higher quality and greater economy
(in the user organisation). - Assessment actions (by users and suppliers)
promote the use of innovative equipment and
materials in industrial and service environments
through evaluation of innovative products against
user requirements and specifications
20Take up activities (continued)
- Access actions are designed to provide
co-ordinated access to advanced, emerging
technologies and services, knowledge and
competence - IMS Integration in Manufacturing Systems
21Work Programme 2002 and the 6th Framework
Programme
- 2002 is the last year of the 5th framework (not
much funding is left) therefore the WP 2002 is
not a typical WP - 6th Framework will start in 2003 Mechanisms are
changing (50 as usual, 50 following, more on
this later) - Integrated projects (10-50 Million Euro)
- Networks of Excellence
22Work Program 2002
- Key Action I - SYSTEMS AND SERVICES FOR THE
CITIZEN (18 of the IST Budget) - Key Action II - NEW METHODS OF WORK AND
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE (15) - Key Action III - MULTIMEDIA CONTENT AND TOOLS
(16 of the IST Budget) - Key Action IV - ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES AND
INFRASTRUCTURES (38 of the IST Budget) - CROSS-PROGRAMME THEMES
- FUTURE AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES (9)
- RESEARCH NETWORKING (4)
23FET
Workprogram Key Actions
IST
State of the art
Product development
Overall IT area
24Key Action I - SYSTEMS AND SERVICES FOR THE
CITIZEN
- IST 2002 - I.1.1 Intelligent systems for the
monitoring of health status - Objectives To improve early illness detection
and medical intervention by carrying out medium
to long term multidisciplinary research on IST
health application systems. - The aim is to foster closer collaboration between
research activities in areas such as health
telematics, biomedical engineering and advanced
communication technologies.
25Key Action I - SYSTEMS AND SERVICES FOR THE
CITIZEN
- IST2002 - I.1.2 Systems for health professionals
creating a "Health knowledge info-structure" - Objective To allow health professionals timely
interaction with heterogeneous,
distributed,medical and other health related
databases. - Work will consist of medium to long term research
on the development of more efficient and secure
"Health Knowledge Info-structure"
26Key Action I - SYSTEMS AND SERVICES FOR THE
CITIZEN
- IST2002 - I.2.1 Systems for independent living
- Objective To provide people with disabilities
and their carers, and the elderly, with systems
based on the ambient intelligence concept in
order to facilitate employment,education, and
full participation in society. - Work will include innovative applications and
services to facilitate citizens civic
involvement through enhanced remote access to
general interest services (such as e-health,
e-government, ).
27Key Action I - SYSTEMS AND SERVICES FOR THE
CITIZEN
- IST2002 - I.4.1 Intelligent systems and services
for civilian and environmental crises management - Objectives The objective is to assist public
administrations and emergency services in the
management of specific emergency scenarios by
funding research into intelligent decision
28Key Action II - NEW METHODS OF WORK AND
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
- IST2002 - II.1.3 Addressing eEurope and eEurope
objectives - Objective To support the broad adoption of IST
solutions for e-commerce and e-work, including
the security of on-line transactions, greater
flexibility in work organisation and better
access to e-work facilities for local and virtual
communities, and for SMEs, thus contributing to
the realisation of eEurope and eEurope
objectives.
29eEurope and eEurope
- The main objectives of eEurope are Bringing
every citizen, home and school, every business
and administration into the digital age and
online creating a digitally literate Europe,
supported by an entrepreneurial culture ready to
finance and develop new ideas ensuring the whole
process is socially inclusive, builds consumer
trust and strengthens social cohesion. - eEurope EU plus Accession and Pre-accession
countries (Turkey)
30Key Action II - NEW METHODS OF WORK AND
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
- Best practice actions for trust, security,
e-work, organisational knowledge management and
process improvement (private and public) - Demonstrations of cross-border interoperable
security solutions, contracting, invoicing,
taxation, dispute resolution, intellectual
property rights, on-line services, accounting and
privacy-enhancing applications - Helping SMEs to use Information Society
technologies (GoDigital) - Encouraging the participation of Accession States
(eEurope).
31Key Action III - MULTIMEDIA CONTENT AND TOOLS
- IST2002 - III.5.1 KA3 specific Support Measures
- Objective To consolidate and disseminate results
emerging from recent and ongoing research
activities established within the Fifth Framework
Programme.
32Key Action III - MULTIMEDIA CONTENT AND TOOLS
- IST2002 - III.5.2 Preparing for future research
activities - Objectives To prepare for future RTD activities
by developing research roadmaps and associated
implementation models and by mobilising and
bringing together all relevant actors. - IST2002 - III.5.3 KA3 pioneering research
- Objective To lay the foundations for the future
provision, access and management of knowledge and
to develop advanced systems to improve
multi-media digital content.
33Key Action IV - ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES AND
INFRASTRUCTURES
- IST2002 - IV.2.1 Cognitive vision systems
- IST2002 - IV.2.2 Advanced control systems
- IST2002 - IV.2.3 Networks and technologies for
distributed services and applications - IST2002 - IV.2.4 Computing, communications and
networks Take-up measures
34Key Action IV - ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES AND
INFRASTRUCTURES
- IST2002 - IV.3.1 Composability and dynamic
adaptability in software, systems and services - IST2002 - IV.4.1 Simulation and visualisation
technologies - IST2002 - IV.5.1 Towards technologies, systems
and networks beyond 3G - IST2002 - IV.5.2 Validation of wireless and
mobile systems and technologies
35Key Action IV - ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES AND
INFRASTRUCTURES
- IST2002 - IV.6.1 Networked audio-visual systems
and services - IST2002 - IV.7.1 Microsystems and miniaturised
subsystem modules for portable applications - IST2002 - IV.7.2 Integration of sensors and
actuators for increased intelligence, interaction
and networking
36Key Action IV - ESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES AND
INFRASTRUCTURES
- IST2002 - IV.8.1 Microelectronics design and IP
re-use - IST2002 - IV.8.2 Microelectronics technologies
processes, equipment and devices - IST2002 - IV.8.3 Optical and opto-electronic
technologies - IST2002 - IV.8.4 Industrial micro- and
opto-electronic technologies - take-up/assessment
actions
37Steps in preparing RTD (Research and
Technological Development) Proposals
- Produce a brief document covering the following -
- 1. Which Action Line is addressed?
- 2. What is the end result to be?
- 3. What is innovative?
- 4. How does it compare to current technology?
- 5. What is the market and route to market?
- 6. What are major activities required?
- 7. What skills and effort required for each?
- 8. What is profile of organisation needed for
each?
38Consortia
- In almost all of the projects partners from two
different EU countries is a must - 4 - 8 participants, 2 - 4 MEuro contribution 2 -
3 years duration - 3 - 6 participants, 1 - 2 MEuro contribution 1.5
- 2 years duration - More than half of the participants (some times
all) should be from industry
39More Steps
- 1. Clarification of outline
- 2. Validation with project officers in Brussels
- 3. Background information search
- 4. Identification of suitable partners
- (more on this later)
- 5. Validation of partners
- 6. Agreement with partners
- 7. Proposal format
- 8. Screening and completing
40Outline
- Produce a brief document covering the following
- 1. Which Action Line(s) are of interest?
- 2. What specifically do you want out of it?
- - in business and technical terms
- 3. What resources are you willing to invest?
- 4. What type or specific partners do you wish to
work with? - 5. What expertise are you willing to apply?
41Partner Search
- Most difficult point for new entrants - first
project is the most difficult - Sources
- Idealist quality but generally minor players
- CORDIS poor quality
- Info days/events best source
- Current projects excellent - major players
- Consultants some are very good
- NCPs some countries give good support
- Concertation events etc can be excellent
42Roles of Partners
- There must be players for the following roles
- Technology developer
- End user
- A partner with proven market access potential
- What is unique contribution of each partner?
- Do you have more than one technological
contributor? - Do you have an end user?
- Do you have a partner with proven market access
potential?
43Parts of a proposal (Parts B C)
- Scientific/technological quality innovation
- Community added value contribution to EC
policies - Contribution to Community social objectives
- Economic development and ST prospects
- Resources, partnership management
44Scientific/technological quality innovation
- This section, describes the scientific/
technological objectives of the proposal - They should be achievable within the project
45Innovation
- This section describes the innovative aspects of
the proposed project, detailing proposed advances
in the state of the art - Innovation can be in the form of novel
products/services/applications - It can range from the development of novel
techniques/systems/environments to the
integration of new generation technologies in
original ways
46Innovation
- It can include development of novel business
processes, new organisational practices or, more
generally, novel forms of interaction between
people and information, whether at work or in
daily life - Proposers should clearly identify the novelty of
their proposed results, for example by including
a comparison with the 'state of the art'
(world-wide)
47Project Workplan
- This section concisely describes the work planned
to achieve the objectives of the proposed project - An introduction should explain the structure of
the workplan and how the workplan will lead the
participants to achieve the objectives of the
proposal
48Project Workplan
- It should also identify significant risks and
contingency plans (?) - The workplan must be broken down into
workpackages (WPs) which include - management of the project and
- assessment of progress and results
49Community added value contribution to EC
policies
- This section describes how the proposed project
will contribute to the objectives of the
programme and/or Key Action - This can be done by describing how the proposal
meets the requirements of the Action Line, which
it addresses
50Contribution to Community social objectives
- This section should identify which issue at the
European level the proposal is addressing - It should also describe why the proposed project
should be carried out at European level instead
of at national level, for example if there is a
need to create a critical mass in human or
financial terms, or whether the project will
bring together complementary expertise existing
in different organisations
51Partnership management
- Project management This section, should describe
how - the proposed project will be managed,
- the decision making structures to be applied,
- the communication flow within the consortium and
- the quality assurance measures which will be
implemented, and - how legal and ethical obligations will be met
52Partnership management
- Description of the consortium Short description
of the consortium stating - who the participants are,
- what their roles and functions in the consortium
are, and - how they complement each other
53Partnership management
- Description of the participants Short
description of the participating organisations
including - The expertise and experience of the organisation
and short CVs of the key persons to be involved
indicating relevant experience, expertise and
involvement in other EC projects - Resources These are filled in A forms
54Economic development and ST prospects
- This section should describe plans for the
dissemination and/or exploitation of the results
for the consortium - as a whole and
- for the individual participants in concrete terms
55Economic development and ST prospects
- For example
- describe the dissemination and/or exploitation
strategies, - the user groups to be involved and how they will
be involved, - the tools and/or means to be used to disseminate
the results and - the strategic impact of the proposed project in
terms of improvement of competitiveness or
creation of market opportunities for the
participants
56Summary
- Check related existing projects
- Validate with NCP/Project Officer
- Write down a proposal Breakdown into
Workpackages/Tasks/Roles - Get partners written agreement to participate/A3
- Pre-register/install Protool/request certificate
- Split between partners and agree eachs work
- Validate resource estimates and costs/iterate
- Complete proposal draft and review
- Finalise and submit on time
57Protool
- For preparing Part A of a proposal which includes
action line, partner details, signatures of
partners (A3 form), budget, etc. - Install early on
- Even if you dont plan to submit electronically
use Protool - Once your project is accepted install Electra to
prepare the Contract
586th Framework Programme
- 1. Integrating European Research, Budget 13.57
billion Euro - 1.1 Priority thematic areas of research
- 1.1.1 Genomics and biotechnology for health,
Budget 2 billion Euro - 1.1.2 Information Society Technologies, Budget
3.6 billion Euro - 1.1.3 Nanotechnologies, intelligent materials and
new production processes, Budget 1.3 billion Euro
596th Framework Programme
- 1. Integrating European Research
- 1.1 Priority thematic areas of research
- 1.1.4 Aeronautics and space, Budget 1 billion
Euro - 1.1.5 Food safety and health risks, Budget 0.6
billion Euro - 1.1.6 Sustainable development and global change,
Budget 1.7 billion Euro - 1.1.7 Citizens and governance in the European
knowledge-based society, Budget 0.225 billion
Euro
606th Framework Programme
- 1.2 Anticipating the EUs Scientific and
Technological needs, Budget 2.345 billion Euro - 1.2.1 Activities carried out on the basis of
calls for proposals - 1.2.2 Joint Research Center Activities
616th Framework Programme
- Instruments to integrate research
- Networks of Excellence
- Integrated Projects
- Participation in national programmes carried out
jointly
626th Framework Programme
- The objective of Networks of Excellence is to
boost European excellence by putting together, in
a way that will last, research capacities present
in the various European regions in a series key
importance areas by helping research entities
come together to carry out common programmes of
activities - Lasting integration of excellence capacities
existing in universities, research centers and
industries in several Member States - Indicative budget several millions of euros per
annum
636th Framework Programme
- Designed as large scale activities and preferably
conducted as public/private partnership,
integrated projects will help will help mobilize
significant resources around precisely defined
objectives - Consortia involving intense university/industry
collaboration - Indicative budget Several tens of millions of
Euros
646th Framework Programme
- Structuring the European Research Area, Budget
3.05 billion Euro - 2.1 Research and innovation
- 2.2 Human resources and mobility
- 2.3 Research infrastructures
- 2.4 Science/society
- Strengthening the foundations of the European
Research Area, Budget 0.45 billion Euro - Support for coordination of activities
- Support for the coherent development of policies
65How to maximize the success rate?
- First timers should not try to coordinate
- Try to get into a proposal with a major player
- Make sure the proposal falls clearly into an
Action Line - Make sure that for RTD, innovation is shown
- Ensure you have key end users involved
- Ensure you have a major market player in
- Read the instructions and follow all of them
66How the Proposals are Evaluated?
- Sources of information
- Evaluation process RTD
- Evaluation criteria
- Scoring
- Weights Thresholds
- Scientific technical quality innovation
- Economic development ST prospects
- Financial evaluation
67Sources of information
- Proposers Guide - Parts 1 and 2
- Guidelines for Evaluators participating in the
evaluation of proposals of the IST Program - FP5 Evaluation Manual
- Workprogram
- Call for proposals
68Evaluation Process RTD
- Step 1 Opening, registration preparation
- Step 2 Eligibility check - (deadline, signature,
consortium eligibility, anonymity of Part B, in
scope of key action) - Step 3 Evaluation of Part B by three evaluators
- Step 4 Evaluation of Part C by same three
evaluators - Step 5 Consensus meeting among the evaluators
- Step 6 Ranking Panel (All the evaluators, project
officers, head of unit)
69Evaluation Criteria
70Scoring
- Evaluators score each criterion 0-5 with 0 being
low and 5 high - 0 - Unsatisfactory
- 1 - Poor
- 2 - Fair
- 3 - Good
- 4 - Very good
- 5 - Excellent
71Weights Thresholds
- Scores on each criterion is 0-5 with 5 best
- For RTD (Different thresholds for different
types)
72Scientific technical quality innovation
- Criterion 1 deals with Scientific technical
quality and innovation - The IST program can only fund 5 of EU investment
in IT RD - its effectiveness is maximised by - focusing in strategic technological areas
- funding innovation in those areas
73Criterion 1 Specifics
- The quality of the research proposed and its
contribution to addressing the key scientific and
technological issues for achieving the objectives
of the program and/or key action - The originality, degree of innovation and
progress beyond the state of the art, taking into
account the level of risk associated with the
project - The adequacy of the chosen approach, methodology
and work plan for achieving the scientific and
technological objectives
74Economic development ST prospects
- Second most important criterion
- Need to ensure that the results will be exploited
commercially - Need to ensure that people know about the work
i.e. dissemination - to aid in eventual exploitation
- political reasons, so IST activities are known
75Criterion 4 Specifics
- Usefulness and range of applications quality of
the exploitation plans, including the credibility
of the partners to carry out the exploitation
activities for the RTD results and the wider
economic impact - Strategic impact of the proposed project and its
potential to improve competitiveness
development of applications markets for the
partners and the users of the RTD results - Contribution to European technological progress
dissemination strategies for the expected
results, choice of target groups, etc
76Pointers for exploitation dissemination plans
- Treat as a business plan - would you invest in
this project? - Include Business Implementation Plan and Return
on Investment (ROI) - Must contain specifics e.g. accessible markets,
channels etc. - Must have an existing market player in the
consortium - The dissemination plan must also be specific
- Must list events, audiences, organisations etc
77Financial evaluation 1
- Evaluators should judge value for money and the
resources required - It is normal for Project Management not to exceed
10 of resource - Only the commission should judge the man rates -
it is not within competence of evaluators - Although not required have a financial item
justification as section C9
78Financial evaluation 2
- Less money is available later in the program
- Overall cost is a factor in final rankings
- It is against the rules for the Commission to
impose arbritary cuts - but some units do! - It is best to put in lowest cost initial proposal
- Larger proposals should be closely coordinated
with project officer before submitting
79Proposal Evaluation
- Proposal evaluation manual is publicly available
in the Web - If you check your proposal before submitting it
with the criteria in the evaluation manual, your
success rate will be improved
80For documentation and useful links
- http//www.srdc.metu.edu.tr/hermesProject/
- Follow the links
- Training Material includes
- a book by Myer Morron from ISERD on how to write
RTD proposals! - Useful links
- Call for Project proposal ideas (project market)
http//www.srdc.metu.edu.tr/hermesProject/market.h
tml
81Follow up meeting!
- IST-2000-26429 HERMES project workshop June
2002, METU, Ankara - Send papers shortly describing your project ideas
to hws_at_srdc.metu.edu.tr - I will try to bring matching partners to the
workshop from Europe for selected project ideas - There will be working groups in the workshop to
actually write down draft proposals!
82You can do it!
- Slightly modifying the famous saying of JFK
- Think not what European Union can do for you
think what you can do for the European Union - In other words be proactive create opportunities
both for your selves and for the European Union
83Grab the opportunity!
- In my opinion, when you have a project accepted,
you should see this as the ultimate opportunity
and do your very best to make the project a
smashing success! - The rest will follow!
84Thank you for your attention!