ReDS news: How to find partners for EU funding calls
EU money has become increasingly important to fund Research at UK Universities but EU applications are very competitive. Strong partnerships seem to be one of the main success factors for winning EU bids.[1] Academic staff who do not feel they have the right connections yet should start building relationships within the European Union.
With cuts in Research Council and HEIF funding over the last few years EU funds have become more important to Universities. Consequently every year the number of proposals the UEL is submitting to the EU has increased. While in 2011 we applied for 10 EU funding bids we have already submitted 17 EU applications in 2012 and a few more are still in the pipeline to be submitted by the end of the year.
Horizon 2020, the new EU funding programme will launch in autumn 2013 with an expected budget of €80 billion. Now is the right time to start building new relationships and a stronger foundation to winning more EU money in 2014.
There are two main possibilities to participate in EU funding applications; as lead or as partner. So far we have been asked to be a partner on applications and that means that we already have some good relationships with other European institutions. However the ReDS team have had several requests lately from researchers with great project ideas but who were unsure of how to build the necessary connections to become a partner. There are a number of ways to find the right partners within Europe:
- Building on existing networks within in the UEL
The advantage in using existing contact is that we already have a track record of working with those organisations and it will be easier to develop a strong proposal with them. Please contact ReDS@uel.ac.uk if you would like to know who participated in EU applications in your school.
- Attending EU network events
Please subscribe to the reds blog to receive regular updates about EU network events: https://uelresearch.wordpress.com/
- Website searches
There are several websites that offer the opportunity to search for currently ongoing proposals. They enables users to post an interest in participating in applications or search for organisations which are looking for partners.
a) Cordis offers a free partner search function https://cordis.europa.eu/partners/web/guest/home
b) Partners for ICT can be found here:
c) IGLO is an organisation who helps finding partners for free:
http://www.iglortd.org/services/partner.html this organisation has been recommended by the official UKRO representatives.
d) UKRO offers help in finding partners. The form for this can be found here:
http://www.ukro.ac.uk/subscriber/Documents/080212_partner_search.doc
- E-Community building websites
a) SINAPSE is a free web communication platform that offers the opportunity to link up with organisations with similar research interests: https://europa.eu/sinapse/sinapse/index.cfm?
But finding the partners is only the first step to increase the possibility of winning EU bids. We have to create strong consortiums. Building relationships with other institutions takes time and we should start the process as soon as possible to enable us to make the most of the upcoming EU funding opportunities.
If you would like to explore some of these opportunities contact the ReDS team on reds@uel.ac.uk.
UEL Research, Innovation and Impact 