This course is aimed at equipping individuals in organisations of all types and sizes (Universities, NGOs, SMEs, Cities, etc) – who have the responsibility for developing project proposals – with the necessary skills and know-how in order to produce engaging, high quality, successful bids. While, the material taught is useful for any type of proposal irrespective of funding stream, the course does have a special focus on R&D / innovation-style proposals for Horizon Europe and especially proposals for the funding streams:

• Global Challenges & Industrial Competitiveness, and
• Innovative Europe

which concentrate 67% of the funds under Horizon Europe.

The course offers a complete insight to writing and submitting competitive proposals in response to Horizon Europe calls with tips, guidelines and practice sessions. The combination of examples and hands-on online exercises will introduce you to all aspects that you need to know from identifying the right call for your project idea, to developing a convincing project concept, a carefully planned implementation and risk management plan, a powerful impact statement, and a well-constructed dissemination and exploitation plan: in essence, everything required to submit a competitive proposal, plus guidelines on how to evaluate and score your own proposal before submitting it.

With the new programming period 2021 – 2027, the EU budget envisages even more important investment focus on Research and Innovation, with a strengthened budget under framework Horizon Europe and many innovation funding opportunities under both the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and Next Generation EU (NGEU). We will discover together all these funding opportunities while exploring the different notions of innovation.

This is an “applied”/interactive course which concentrates on the most important elements evaluators look for in project proposals and systematically works with the participants to produce mastery of those elements. 

Participants of the 2-day training will learn:

• How to discover Funding streams under Innovation Policy for 2021-2027.
• How to differentiate between R&D and Innovation projects and explore where on the R&D-Innovation continuum their project lies.
• How to ensure the best fit between their project and an available funding stream in order to increase their chances for funding.
• Which proposal features are essential for convincing project evaluators and receiving the highest scores.
• How to write a well-constructed proposal with a clear intervention logic and use effective writing styles.
• How to develop a detailed work breakdown structure (WBS) and an effective project timeplan and how to identify and deal with project critical paths.
• How to develop a risk management and monitoring plan.
• How to identify impact pathways, how to approach quantification and documentation issues and how to strengthen impact through a sound dissemination and exploitation plan.

Day 1 – MATCHING PROJECTS TO FUNDING SOURCES

1 Overview of the Programming Period 2021-2027 funding opportunities.

2 Types of funding streams under Innovation Policy 2021-2027 and the small details under each funding stream that matter.

3 How to ensure the best fit between your project and an available funding stream/Call.

4 Exploring the different notions of innovation.

5 Questions/answers on funding streams and discussion.

Day 2 – ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF WINNING PROPOSALS

1 An overview of winning proposal essential features (precision & clarity, planning & research, realism, grasping text, documentation & data).

2 Developing the best project justification (vision, need, opportunity, goals & objectives, outcomes).

3 Demonstrating impact.

4 Pulling together the right assets (partners, experience, intellectual property, tangible & intangible resources).

5 Putting yourself in the role of the “evaluator”.

6 Workshop/exercise session (short proposal on “imaginary agreed project”: participants will work on justification and impact pathways).

• Become familiar with the current EU funding opportunities and rules under each programme
• Learn to write successful proposals
• Avoid mistakes that can compromise your project
• Improve the success rate of your proposals through good proposal structure and appropriate writing skills
• Increase your organisation’s ability to plan and implement projects successfully
• Benefit from practical workshops and exercises
• Learn from best practice examples
• Benefit from key insights and tips
• Receive tangible and actionable advice on your individual questions
• Network and exchange experience with peers and possible partners from across EU

Participation fee for the 2 days training:

In-class €1490 excl. VAT

Training package includes:

• Admission to the course

• Hard copies of training material

• European Academy’s delegate’s bag with supporting training material & memorabilia 

• Certification of “Proposal Writing for Research & Innovation Projects” training completion

• Certificate of attendance

• Complimentary coffee & snack breaks

• Complimentary networking lunch breaks

This course includes everything a good project planner and manager should know in order to first design successful and meaningful projects and then present them in a way that is both understandable by evaluators and convincing. Preparation is the most important tool for a winning project proposal, so it takes more than a few tips on writing skills and proposal structure in order to produce good project proposals. It requires a clear project vision and intervention logic, a sound framework of suitable and complementary project assets, and effective project management and control structures. It also requires critical skills that will help you review, evaluate and improve your proposal before submitting it.

This course covers all these skills but does a lot more: it encourages application through an interactive approach and workshop activities. Participants stand to benefit from good practice examples, continuous interaction with an experienced instructor (35 years of general professional experience, 20 years’ experience in the field of EU-funding) and practical in-class applications.

CHRISA PETRITSI

​The course is led by Chrisa Petritsi, professional development planner and evaluator with 35 years of experience in development planning at local, national and international level (providing management advisory services and operational/project support focusing on resource management and efficiency; in designing and evaluating regional and socio-economic development policy, in drafting technical reports, in working with businesses and other beneficiaries.

Working experience with programme beneficiaries, Managing Authorities/Intermediaries, Local/Regional Development Agencies, IFS, etc.; services to programme beneficiaries included: Financial and technical feasibility studies, Preparation of business-plans, Preparation and management of business clusters, Applications for EU-funding and TA during project/grant implementation. 

​Chrisa has worked for the University of Illinois from 1985 to 1989 where she taught to Master’s level students project planning and various other subjects around it such as project evaluation.

From 1989 to 1997 Ms. Petritsi worked for various levels of Government in the USA (Village of Rantoul, State of Wisconsin, City of Savannah), where she participated in the design of projects and taught problem-solving tools and methods and Total Quality principles.

From 1997 to 1999 she worked for an international mining company where she taught management-related courses such as team building, and performance management.

From 1999 and onwards, Chrisa has been working as a consultant for EU-related programmes (public and private investments) either in programme/project development or in programme/project evaluation. 

Her EU-related thematic experience includes infrastructure projects (mostly transport, public buildings, urban utilities and waste management), environmental projects, entrepreneurship projects (mostly private investments and entrepreneurship services), and various others (civil society, employment, etc). She has worked in Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia – Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Serbia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, USA. 

Chrisa’s experience in training includes: «Training on Monitoring and Evaluation», «Developing EU Structural Fund Programme Complements», «Programme Indicators: Development & Quantification», «The Structural Funds & the EU Planning Process», “Statistics & Regional Development”, “Regional & Local Support to SMEs”, “Problem Solving for Local Governments” «Economic Analysis of Public Plans & Policies», «Analytic Methods in Urban Planning»