Why should one include a business plan into a Horizon Europe proposal?
Do not underestimate the need to include a preliminary business plan into your Horizon Europe proposal. In this article we’ve collected the key points of such a business plan, as well as put together tips on how to present a solid and attractive profit and loss statement (P&L).
A major goal of business-related projects is to be profitable for the respective entity(-ies) that will bring it to the market. The same applies for the EU projects under the Horizon Europe programme (as well as the former Horizon 2020). Saying that, a solid and well-studied business plan in a Horizon Europe proposal is the key to reach this point. It is exactly this go-to-market strategy that the evaluators would like to see in the Impact Section , among other criteria, of your proposal to approve the project for EU funding. In this article, we will try to break down the various segments of a business plan, which will lead to the final output of such a financial analysis, the profit and loss statement (P&L).
How can we present a P&L analysis when we have not finalised the technical development yet?
Before we move into business and financial details, we need to brainstorm on this very simple, but very rational question. It is true that the need to include a business plan and a P&L statement significantly depends on the specific programme the applicant(s) will apply to and ask for EU funding. Is it also connected to the minimum required Technological Readiness Level (TRL).
In Horizon programmes, such as FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) where the starting TRL is from 1 to 3, it is quite obvious that as the technology has not even reached the prototype stage, projecting profits and losses that will take place even five years later is quite challenging. On contrary, for programmes such as the EIC Accelerator or the former FTI (Fast-Track-to-Innovation) where the applicants need to start from a TRL5-6 (prototype developed and demonstrated at least at a relevant environment), a well formed business plan, even preliminary, is crucial to include in the final proposal application. In programmes, like Thematic Priorities or the very recent Green Deal where the technology needs to start from a TRL4, such a financial analysis is a nice-to-have asset.
Proposal tip : Always try to include a preliminary go-to-market strategy. This will demonstrate that the applying entities are not focusing only on the technological development but they have already started working on the commercial impact of the project and its potential contribution to the companies’ scale-up(s). In any case, a preliminary business plan presented in an EU proposal is not committing and the evaluators are aware that this will be updated and adapted during the project’s execution.
Key points of a business plan in your Horizon Europe proposal
To be able to provide a P&L statement, the applicants need to first present all the necessary stages of the business plan that will potentially lead to sales, revenues, and profits. The most important ones are:
Business model
After defining who will be your potential customers, it is very important to define via which routes you will reach them. Although, this is highly dependent on the nature of each company and project try to be as clear as possible regarding the model that will be followed, namely:
- Direct sales : this is a quite common practise for targeting customers at a local level (national, adjacent countries) and with customers that you have already established commercial relationships e.g. for other business activities. Direct sales are also quite common for big enterprises that have an established pan-European or global commercial network
- Distribution network : smaller companies and SMEs usually follow this path aiming to expand in new markets (e.g. new regions and territories) where they have no contacts. In this case, a basic commission plan is good to be included
- Licensing : this is another way to reach multiple markets, via receiving a royalty for allowing third parties to commercially use your final offering. Nevertheless, the protection of the innovation (patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret) is a key asset to guarantee the protection of the intellectual property of the applicants
It is not necessary to follow only one of the aforementioned routes. A successful business model shall study each commercial opportunity and create specific multi-strategies, if necessary.
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Pricing strategy
Another very important part is the revenue model, namely the final market price of the project’s output. A preliminary pricing strategy is important to be presented in the proposal, as this (i) quite often constitutes a key differentiation point with the state-of-the-art solutions, that already exist in the market. To enhance the potential pricing advantage of your solution, you can include a brief but solid cost-benefit analysis with the dominant competing technology in the respective market; (ii) will lead to and justify the P&L statement.
Try to include as many information as possible regarding the pricing strategy, such as production costs, margin, potential commission to distributors, what the final selling price does include (e.g. technical support, installation, maintenance, etc.), as well as a potential evolution of the price in the next years after commercialisation. The latter is important as it shows to the evaluators that the applicant(s) understand the market and aim to strengthen their position in it. For instance, it is quite common to start in Y1 of commercialisation with a higher price that can become more competitive during the next years once the clientele and the production capacity (for physical final products) increase.
Supply chain
It is also important to demonstrate the value chain of your final product (especially regarding physical products). Disclosing names of your partners/suppliers and brief justification for the major ones will add value in the proposal. Although, it is quite common that the applicants have not decided the final supplier of a specific material, you can provide a list of potential suppliers you are considering collaborating with.
Proposal tip: Create a nice supply chain graph to replace bulk texts, adding arrows to show the transition from the first steps of development and production up to the moment it will reach the final customer. Add visual elements always helps the proposal, and a value chain graph is a great opportunity to have one.
Profit & Loss Statement
As mentioned above, the P&L demonstrates the commercial vision of the applicants and the expected business impact of the project. The more detailed the P&L the better, even though the evaluators know that these projections are quite preliminary (especially in low TRL or in big consortia projects). Nevertheless, a first financial forecast, at least of the key industrial members of each consortia always gives value to the applications.
The best way to present the P&L is through a table (in case that the applicants have a very extensive P&L statement, then you can include it in the Annex sections and extract the key information in the actual proposal), split in:
- Rows that can consist of sales volume (in units, kgr, m2 – depending on the final product), revenues, costs and EBITDA (in euros) and the final return on investment (ROI). These are the basic information to be included, although any additional data such as detailed costs (e.g. personnel, direct/indirect costs) are more than welcome.
- Columns, one per year after the end of the project. Although there is not a specific requirement from the EC template regarding the number of years, a 5-year projection period is the common practise. The reason is that 5 years is a period that the innovation shall prove its market potential, resulting not only in a full payback of the initial investment but also in a promising ROI. Nevertheless, in projects with non-physical final product (e.g. a mobile application), the market entrance shall be more rapid. This is mainly because of the nature of these products, as the development and innovation move at a much faster pace; thus, it is important to penetrate the market as fast as possible not to lose the first-mover advantage.
Proposal tip: A satisfactory payback time is within 2 to 3 years after the end of the project, whilst a promising ROI can be anything more than 4 or 5 at Y5 after commercialisation.
But, how do we calculate the ROI?
The official ROI equation is the following: ROI = (Cumulative profit – Investment) / Investment where cumulative profit is the EBITDA from Y1 after the end of the project and the Investment is the total funds used (including investment to reach the current stage of development before the EU grant, the EU grant itself and the own contribution of the applicants, if applicable). Yet, to present an even more impressive ROI, you can skip the investment made by the applicants before the start of the project and focus only on the EU project itself.
Furthermore, although not financially relevant, the applicants need to consider the growth of their teams during and after the project. As such, an estimation of the new jobs that will be created (i) during the EU project; and (ii) for the forecast period after its end are good to be included in the proposal, as well as a brief description of the nature of these jobs (e.g. R&D, production, technician, administrative, sales & marketing)
With the basic highlights above regarding presenting a detailed business plan in your Horizon Europe, we believe that you have the core basis to set up a solid commercialisation plan to attract the attention of the evaluators.
This article is written by Panos Antonopoulos , Innovation Consultant.
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6 steps to write a Successful Proposal for EU Funding
Proposal writing for EU funding is certainly high-profile job. But, at the same time it can be very demanding. . The majority of submitted do not usually manage to get funding. The odds are usually against it. There are so many important details to be taken into account that even if the proposal is close to perfect there is still the possibility of getting rejected.
Intense competition is one of the main reasons. There are so many proposals submitted every year and as a result, few of them will get the required funding. Depending on the programme, there are diverse criteria, and strict specifications for every call to action. That can make it even more difficult for a proposal writer to write and submit an EU Funding worthy project proposal.
However, all the above do not necessarily mean that writing a successful project proposal is a mission impossible. The proposal writer needs to be able to meet the specific EU criteria in order to write a successful proposal . There are professionals out there that can help the researchers and writers to significantly improve their chances of getting EU funding for their proposal.
According to some of the best professionals in the field of EU Funding and EU grants , there are several things you can do to improve your success rate , when it comes to getting the funding you need to implement your proposal.
Step 1
The first step that needs to be taken is to find the right research source . A quick search will show you that there are many different EU Programmes that fund a great number of projects. Which is the best programme for submitting your idea? That needs to be your top priority. If for example, you are focusing on a scientific project based on research, the Horizon 2020 or the ERC Grants might be your best option. If you want your project to focus on SMEs and the labor market you might want to consider Erasmus Plus, and so on. Make sure that you will find the right programme for your proposal .
Find the right call for proposal . Now, every project answers to one particular call. The calls are basically the different categories of each programme . Depending on the area you want to focus on, you may choose the appropriate call. Every call has its very own specifications and therefore the proposal must be planned and written accordingly.
Focus on being member of a highly experienced consortium . Your proposal should include anything you might deem worthy. You should have great documentation and arguments to support your ideas. Needless to say that If the consortium of partners is not able to support the project’s activities , the project is most likely to fail. You cannot add special activities towards entrepreneurship in a project and not have an entrepreneurship expert as part of your consortium .
Keep writing until you succeed . There is no doubt that the most important part when it comes to writing a successful project proposal , is experience . You cannot make an omelet if you do not break a few eggs. You must write many proposals, and experiment with different ideas to actually see what works for you and what your strengths and weaknesses are.
Revision is the key . There is no such thing as enough revision . You need to make sure that you will know everything there is to know about your proposal . Keep editing your proposal over and over again. Every time you will be able to improve something you may have missed before. There is no guarantee that you will be 100% satisfied with your result at the end but revision will certainly improve your proposal.
Evaluation could save your proposal . A different set of eyes is always much more helpful than what you may think. Make sure that you will have enough time before submitting your proposal , and have it evaluated by another professional. The evaluation of your proposal by an expert on the field of EU funding could be the reason why your proposal succeeded in getting the funding you are looking for.
There are various services that you can get, in order to be certain, your proposal will be approved for a grant before you actually submit it. There are professionals in the field of proposal writing and EU funding that can help you evaluate your proposal.
Organizations like the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development , are able to provide you with review and evaluation services . We have gained valuable experience afte many years of implementing EU Projects. Our research experts can provide you with accurate results that will guarantee the success of your proposal. We will be clear about the changes that will need to be made, to make the project appealing and, at the end, worthy of the funding
If you are in need of evaluation or project management services , or if you are just looking for consultancy on EU funding proposal , feel free to contact us here in the IED today . We can talk about your proposal and make sure that the funding you are asking for, will be yours!
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How to Write a Project Plan for European Funding
An economic impact how-to guide for organisations funded by esif.
This is your guide to writing a good project plan in anticipation of completing an application for European funding. A strong project plan will help you to write a good application and work effectively with other organisations.
Project planning takes time but is important. There is often a short turnaround between the launch of European funding calls and the closing date. By having a project plan ready to go you will be in a better position to write a strong application or an expression of interest (EOI) to potential lead providers.
Upcoming funding calls
We do not know when calls will be released or what will be in the specifications. However, we know which theme the calls will focus on from the European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) Strategy.
European Social Fund (ESF) programmes focus on helping those furthest away from the labour market, supporting them to overcome barriers to employment and progress into further education, training and employment.
We can also look at what has already been funded through ESF and identify gaps in provision that could be funded in the future. You can learn more about the different Investment Priorities in the ESIF Strategy and currently funded projects by:
- Attending an Economic Impact Network
- Receiving the Economic Impact Newsletter
- Asking for support from the Economic Impact team
- By creating a generic project plan that will help those furthest from the labour market, you should be able to adapt your activities to the relevant specifications when they come up.
Navigate the guide
1. What do we mean by ‘Project’ and ‘Project Plan’? 2. Be SMART 3. The Project Planning Cycle 4. The Six Parts of a Project Plan 5. Establishing Need 6. Methods of Demonstrating Need 7. Set Your Aims 8. Define Outcomes 9. Describe the Project’s Outputs 10. About Monitoring and Evaluation 11. Successful monitoring and evaluation 12. Resources and support
1. What do we mean by ‘Project’ and ‘Project Plan’?
In this guide, when we say ‘project’ we mean a series of activities that take place over a pre-arranged period of time to achieve a specified aim. A project will be planned from beginning to end and have set targets.
Organisations can run more than one project at any one time with each project working towards its own aims and objectives.
A project plan is an ongoing process to bring about positive change that has SMART objectives.
2. Be SMART
At the end of your project planning process, you should be able to account for all five requirements of SMART objectives. SMART objectives are defined as goals that are:
From gathering information about need to describing what you will achieve, you need to be specific about your project. You should always avoid generalisation.
For example, when stating need, “The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership’s ESIF Strategy has found that the youth unemployment rate in Leicester City is 5.3% compared to 5.1% nationally,” is better than saying “There are a lot of unemployed young people”.
You need to explain in your application how you are going to measure success.
For example, your project plan should not simply say “We will provide vocational courses to young people who are not in education or training” because that statement is difficult to measure.
Instead, you should include details such as how you’ll support young people, how many events you will hold and how many people you expect to attend such as:
“We will run 12 monthly IT courses for young people who are currently not in education and training or employment. Each course will be two 1 hour sessions a week for four weeks and we can take up to 10 students on each course”.
This makes your plan measurable.
Achievable and Realistic
Be sure to be consider honestly whether your plans are achievable and realistic. You should base this evaluation on your group’s past work and the resources you will have available.
All European funded projects have a specific date in which all project activities will end. Your project plan needs to be realistic about what you can achieve within this timeframe.
3. The Project Planning Cycle
Project planning is a continuous process starting with research and planning and ending with reviewing the project’s effectiveness.
4. The Six Parts of a Project Plan
A project plan has six parts.
- Need: Your plan should demonstrate how your project meets the identified needs of the target group you are aiming to help.
- Aims: Aims describe the overall changes and benefits that you want to achieve.
- Outcomes: Outcomes lay out the specific differences that you want to make.
- Outputs: Outputs describe the activities and services your project will deliver to achieve your outcomes.
- Inputs: Inputs describe what you need to deliver your project. This includes a budget.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Monitoring and evaluation describes what information you are going to collect throughout the project, how it will be collected and how it will be used to evaluate whether or not the project was a success.
The rest of this guide will help you develop all six parts of your project plan.
5. Establishing Need
All ESF projects are based on research in target areas and on the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP)’s ESIF Strategy.
It is important to read these papers to get an understanding of the needs that have been identified in the Leicester and Leicestershire area. You will then be able to shape your project to be able to identify those needs.
Barriers and areas of need
There may be other areas of need or barriers that have been identified, such as high levels of mental health problems in your target group, that your project may want to address.
You may have also picked up on other areas of need within the community from the work you are currently delivering which you may be able to feed in. For this you will need to provide evidence of the need in your application and project plan.
Consider collaboration
When looking at the need of your project, you may also want to consider who else needs to be involved to help address some of the issues identified.
By thinking about organisations that may complement the work that you do, or address an area that you cannot, you can identify organisations you may want to collaborate with.
6. Methods of Demonstrating Need
To provide a strong case that your project is needed and that you are the right organisation to deliver it, you should include feedback from consultations, evidence from research and your past delivery experience.
Consultation
Consultation involves gathering people’s views on the need you’re exploring. A consultation can be used to both identify problems that need to be addressed and to seek people’s ideas on the best solutions.
Questions you may want to ask during a consultation include:
- What is the need?
- What do you think is the solution?
- Is there a current service offering a solution, or is there a need for a new service?
- You should consult with both internal and external stakeholders during consultations, especially those who may be accessing your service. Your consultation can involve asking people to complete questionnaires or surveys, attend focus groups or attend workshops.
When the consultation is completed the findings need to be reviewed and used to shape your project.
You can also explore the need for your project through research. Your research should include up-to-date specific facts and figures, not generalisations. This is an important part of meeting SMART requirements.
Finding up-to-date research and statistics on the area you’re exploring could show the need for the project. Key data and statistics can be found on government and local authority websites. You should include a blend of national and local research wherever possible.
Your services will need to link to the ESIF strategy and any other research identified in the specification. You may also want to link your project to a need that another government or local authority has identified as a priority or that fits into local strategies in your area.
Part of your research can also be your own experience.
7. Set Your Aims
Aims should sum up the purpose of the project. You should use your research into establishing need to write your aims. Aims can be quite general and do not, in themselves, need to be SMART.
How to write your aims
To write your aims, start by considering what you want your project to achieve. Then use these phrases to begin sentences describing what you want your project to achieve:
- To improve…
- To increase…
- To maintain…
The number of aims depends entirely on what you want to achieve and the size of your project. For a small project, you may only have one or two aims.
8. Define Outcomes
While your aims describe your project’s overall purpose, outcomes describe the specific changes your project will achieve. These changes should help accomplish your larger aims.
Outcomes can be about tackling a current problem or about preventing something from happening. Your plan can include both short-term and long-term outcomes.
Be sure to consider the time frame on your outcomes. This will help ensure your outcomes meet SMART requirements.
Writing your Outcomes
To describe an outcome you would use words like:
- To improve…
- Less risk of…
- More confident in…
Outcomes can occur on different levels. These include:
- For an individual
- For the whole family
- For the community
- For the organisation
- For the environment
9. Describe the Project’s Outputs
Outputs describe the detail of activities that you will carry out or services you will deliver to achieve your outcomes.
For ESIF funding there are often set of outputs project must achieve such as:
- Number of participants engaged with
- Number of males engaged with
- Number of females engaged with
- Number of participants moved in to further education or training
- Number of participants moved into employment
Make sure you read the programme specification to know the outputs that the project must achieve. You may also want to add more of your own to be able to demonstrate the impact your project may have.
Linking outcomes, aims and outputs
When developing your aims and your outcomes, you must ensure that they are able to meet the outputs that have been outlined in the specification.
The specification may not have any designated outputs; in that case, you must make sure that your outputs are the most effective way to match your aims and outcomes.
You also need to make sure the focus of each output supports your outcomes. If they do not, you may need to question whether they are the right outputs for your project.
Remember that your outputs need to be SMART.
Draft your outputs
When describing outputs, you should consider questions such as:
- How many sessions or events do you want to deliver?
- If you want to produce literature, how many copies will you need to print?
- If you want to recruit volunteers, how many will you recruit?
10. About Monitoring and Evaluation
When delivering a European funded project, you will have to accept that there is a lot of monitoring involved and you are required to do an evaluation. Preparing for the monitoring requirements should make the process for submitting monitoring and claims more straightforward.
About monitoring
Monitoring refers to the process of regularly collecting data and checking to see if everything is on track. If the project isn’t on track, monitoring gives you the opportunity to take action to ensure you meet your outcomes.
You will be required to submit quarterly monitoring to show what you have already achieved along with claiming for the money you have spent. Make sure that you have paper and electronic copies of any invoices, participant information and staff timesheets ready to submit at the end of the quarter. You may want to create spreadsheets and folders to keep on top of the documents you will need to provide.
It is important to factor this in when writing your project plan as the process can be onerous and will require a large amount of staff time. By keeping on top of it throughout the quarter you can save a lot of time.
About evaluation
Evaluation takes place at the end of the project and involves an analysis of the project as a whole. This stage gives you the opportunity to consider whether or not your project met its aims.
European funded projects are no longer accepting a large amount of money to be spent on end of project evaluations. It may be wise to capture feedback and evaluation (especially from participants) throughout the lifetime of the project. This will make the process less time consuming and costly
The benefits of monitoring and evaluation
Strong monitoring and evaluation has many benefits including:
- The opportunity to learn lessons which may help you develop future projects.
- Providing all the information you need to record the impact of your project.
- The opportunity to review your work and identify areas where you could have done better.
- Being able to report back to the managing authority on the impacts of the money they gave. This will help you build a relationship with your funder and win support for future projects.
11. Successful monitoring and evaluation
You should decide what data you will need to capture and how you are going to record that information before you begin delivering services or carry out activities.
There may be forms that the managing authority want you to complete for monitoring purposes, so bear in mind you may have to complete multiple documents to collect the same data.
If your project aims to change something, you need to record a starting point against which you can measure your impact. You will need to do this regularly to demonstrate the impact on a quarterly basis.
Ways to collect and record data
Collecting accurate and relevant data is key to ESF monitoring and is a requirement of every project. You may need different ways of collecting data for each output.
Examples are:
- Participant forms
- Observations
- Case studies
- Attendance registers
- Tests/self-assessments
If you are engaging participants in EU funded projects, you must keep participant records and have proof they are eligible to receive your support.
For example, if you are supporting young people who are NEET you must have proof of age and that they are not in education or training. This could include copies of approved age identifications and any out of work benefits they may be claiming as proof of unemployment.
When submitting an application, make sure that you read all the outcomes/outputs the managing authority expects. You will need to have the means to capture the eligibility requirements record them.
12. Resources and support
You may find the following guides useful when planning your project:
- Our how-to guides on Budgeting a Direct Spend Programme and Monitoring a Direct Spend Programme
- ESF Future Open calls research
- Skills for the future
- The LLEP ESIF Strategy will help you identify needs in Leicester and Leicestershire as well as the types of work the LLEP is looking to fund
- The ESF Operational Programme Guidance will enable you to look at what the requirements for delivering European Funded Projects
If you need additional support with planning your project, you can contact James Smalley, Development Officer for Economic Impact team, directly at:
[email protected] 0116 2575025
You can also access the Economic Impact Project via:
- The e-newsletter, which will give you up-to-date information on new calls for applications, upcoming events and the occasional insightful blog. Sign up for our newsletters
- Quarterly Economic Impact Forums, which will give you the opportunity to learn new skills regarding EU funding, receive information from the LLEP and network with other voluntary groups, paving the way for collaborative bids. Find the next forum
- A Read & Review service of any European funding applications you are thinking of submitting. We can give you guidance and suggestions on how to improve your organisation’s bid. Contact us
How to prepare a Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation including Communication activities
20th april 2022 at 9:53 am.
Are you ready to learn what the Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation including Communication activities (PDEC) really means and why it is important to develop one for your Horizon Europe project? In a recent blog post, we explored the Grant Agreement preparation , with guidelines and tips to smoothly navigate through the process. Once that is under your belt, as much as it may seem that you reached the end of strategic planning, amid others, there is still a very important plan to be developed and delivered to the European Commission (EC) by the 6 th month of the project: The PDEC. This plan is a key document that lays out and steers the project’s approach to disseminating and exploiting the project’s results as well as communicating about the research with various audiences. Central definitions around which the plan builds are integral parts of the Grant Agreement and following the Horizon 2020 funding programme, these remain a legal obligation of all beneficiaries:
Communication starts at the outset of the project and continues throughout its lifespan with the aim to promote the action and inform about the results to multiple audiences. Communication as the broadest term means to reach out to society and explain the research in a way that is understood by non-specialists.
Dissemination is focused on making the action’s results public by any means and the process starts only after these become available. Dissemination aims to transfer and circulate knowledge to the ones who can make the best use of it and further build on the project’s results to maximise the impact.
Exploitation can only start once the research results are available. It focuses on making concrete use of research results for commercial, societal, and political purposes. Depending on the nature and scope of the project, there is a wide spectrum of results that may be recognised as exploitable, including policy recommendations or standartisation activities.
As much as communication remains a requirement under Horizon Europe, with this funding programme, the EC emphasises the importance of dissemination and exploitation as crucial to ensure impact on three levels: scientific, societal, and economic. Furthermore, continuous reporting of communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities towards the EC is required throughout the entire course of the project and for dissemination and exploitation activities, project consortia are also required to continue such reporting after the project has ended, informing the EC of potentially exploitable results within one year from the project’s end. Scientists and projects’ consortia must hence choose wisely the ways by which they plan to share the research results and engage with various audiences.
One of the lessons that the EC has learned from Horizon 2020 is that making the PDEC an inseparable part of the project design from the start is crucial. Do you recall, from the proposal preparation stage, a new key element to the impact section – the Impact Canvas or Summary section? This summarises all key elements planned to support achievening the project’s expected impact, and key contributions to this are the dissemination, exploitation, and communication measures proposed. The PDEC to be developed once the project is underway, should build on what was already included in the proposal while further considering the project from an external perspective and bringing it and its results in reach of all relevant stakeholders.
Build the plan for your Horizon Europe project
Are you now ready to start structuring the PDEC for your Horizon EU project? Excellent. Before you jump into the process though, bear in mind that there are a few key elements the plan must include: clear objectives and strategies, stakeholders, key messages, communication channels and tools, all planned communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities, a list of expected results that may be exploited with their description, ownership status, sector of application and protection measures as well as measures to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of performed activities.
Let’s step into this journey together and go through the main stations of the development process.
Station 1: Situation analysis
Where is your project now?
The first phase consists of setting out the situation analysis. Within this part, you should describe your project and the consortium expertise, including intellectual property (IP) relevant factors, such as background knowledge partners bring to the project, e.g. registered IP or not registered IP. Explain why the action is important and how it will generate an impact on different levels, including scientific, societal, and economic. If you have not done it at the proposal stage, it is worth performing a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, followed by an assessment of other factors influencing your project. These should include political, economic, societal, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) aspects. The situation analysis, including benchmarking to other relevant initiatives, will help you to better understand the needs of both the project and various target groups.
Station 2: Objectives
How do you want your project to make an impact?
In the second phase of the process, you should focus on the objectives that you wish to achieve through the implementation of communication, dissemination, and exploitation measures. When setting your goals, make sure that they are S.M.A.R.T.:
- S pecific – direct, detailed and meaningful. This part of the objective should try to answer the questions “what?” and “who?”.
- M easurable – quantifiable to track progress and success. This part of the objective should identify what will be measured to show progress, impact, or success.
- A chievable – realistic and you have the tools and/or resources to attain them. This part of the objective should consider any constrains or specific requirements to achieve the objective.
- R elevant – aligned to your long-term objectives, timely, and worthwhile pursuing. This part of the objective should consider how it will contribute to the project’s ultimate aim and who may be affected.
- T ime-bound – with a deadline and you have factored in time to work on them. This part of the objective is more tangible and relatively easy to determine by answering the question “when?”.
S.M.A.R.T. goal setting brings structure and tractability together and creates a verifiable trajectory towards clear milestones as well as providing an estimated timeline to attain the goals.
Station 3: Stakeholders and strategy
How will you meet your goals?
In the third phase, the focus is on the initially identified stakeholders, meaning individuals or organisations that are affected or affect your project and have an interest in it or its results. Conducting a stakeholder analysis is a great starting point to define where to focus your efforts. There are three steps to follow. First, identify who your stakeholders are. The main groups of stakeholders in EU funded projects include but are not limited to the scientific community including other EU-funded projects, relevant industry representatives, funding agencies, policymakers, end users, and the public at large. Further target groups will be project-specific and should be identified considering the nature of the project and its scope. Secondly, ensure that their needs towards the project are addressed, define their influence and interest. By mapping these on an influence vs. insterest matrix, you will get a clear view of which groups you should prioritise for different activities. Finally, develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders, including their preferred way of receiving information (platforms) and communication (language used, e.g. jargon, layman language). Knowing your target audiences and their expectations will allow you to better tailor key messages, which are based on the previously defined objectives, and define adequate measures to reach each of them in the most effective manner.
Station 4: Methods and activities
What do you need to do to reach your objectives?
In the fourth phase, we move towards implementation. With the strategies for dissemination, exploitation, and communication designed, it is time to describe the methods and actions through which you will roll out these strategies. Methods refer to channels and tools you will use to convey key messages to target audiences as well as to processes you put in place to facilitate the uptake of the research results. Processes should consider Open Science practices and obligations towards the EC, such as visibility of EU funding or responsibility of informing consortium members when disclosing research results. A key part of methods also lies in effectively managing the project’s resources. This includes the adequate contribution of all partners to the PDEC, defining roles and responsibilities as well as considering the management of IP and foreseen protection measures, such as patents, design rights, copyright, etc. and how they will be used to support the exploitation of the research results. With activities you should provide a catalogue of planned dissemination, exploitation, and communication measures tailored to different target audiences. It is also important to build on the partners’ expertise and existing networks to maximise the impact. For example, if you are involved in a health project, one of the groups you want to address may be patients. The best way to reach out to this group would be to involve any relevant patient organisation that is already a partner in the project and benefit from their expertise when designing activities that may be of interest to the considered audience.
Station 5: Control
How will you monitor and evaluate impact or your activities?
A key point to be considered in the development process of the PDEC is assessment. Over the time span of the action, project- or target group-related factors might change. Some activities will prove effective, others less so. Monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of communication, dissemination, and exploitation activities are thus important aspects and as such should be considered from the beginning. Moreover, as success can only be measured against defined objectives, the criteria measuring the achievement of these objectives, called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), must also be included in the plan with specific targets. Online and digital channels and media often offer integrated tools (analytics) to measure their impact over longer periods. While these are important and support quantitative assessment, the consideration of interlinkages/interdependencies of multiple activities is also important to consider for a more comprehensive assessment. For example, an increase in the number of visitors to the project website does not necessarily mean that the website is meeting its targets, it could be linked to a new publication, which increased interest and drew more visitors to the website. In this context, measuring these indicators regularly is important to understand if and how progress is being made or whether additional or different measures must be implemented. Continuous monitoring and evaluation not only provide the opportunities to learn from past experiences and to build upon more successful endeavors, but also help you to meet the contractual obligation of the Grant Agreement to regularly update the PDEC, including at the end of the project. If despite the best efforts, no uptake of the research results happens within 1 year after the end of the project, then exploitable results must be made available through the Horizon Results Platform .
Final destination – a comprehensive plan
Congratulations! You reached your final destination in setting up a PDEC. The next step is making things happen.
While developing a comprehensive Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation including Communication activities is a key element of your EU-funded project, there are more facets to consider when disseminating and exploiting your results. In the coming months, our experienced team will publish diverse blog posts offering guidance and tips for you to implement in the communication, dissemination, and exploitation of your own research or innovation.
Would you like to have us on board for your project? Contact our specialists for more information.
Joanna Plesniak Project Manager Communications
Julia Götz Project Manager Communications
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