1. European Commission’s
Research Grant Programs
Presentation at the Cairns Institute for the Tropical
Leaders, 20 August 2013
Dr. Albert SCHRAM
Vice-Chancellor
Papua New Guinea University of Technology
On Twitter: @albertschram
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2. 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

3. 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)?

4. 10 Questions
Content (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?

5. 1- Structure of 7th
Framework Program
(2007-2013) : design trade-offs
Scientific
Excellence
Policy
Objectives
Top-Down
Thematic
Bottom-Up
Researcher Initiated
FP7
Research
Excellence
ImpactS&T
Excellence;
Management
Career development &
Mobility
Structure, coherence, critical mass

6. European Commission
Framework Programme 7 (2007-2013)
http://cordis.europa.eu or http://europa.eu
€32.410M
€4.750M
€7.510M
€4.100M
Capacities
Research Capacity
Ideas
Frontier Research ERC
Cooperation
Collaborative Research
People
Human Potential
Marie Curie Fellowships

7. 2-People Program

8. People Program

9. 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

10. Outline of the Process
Call
Published
Proposal
Submitted
Evaluation
Process
Notification of
Results
Contract (or
“Grant
Agreement”)
negotiation
Contract
signed
Project
Starts
Try again!
Periodical and
final reports

11. 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)

12. 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

13. Key Factors Success: Evaluation Criteria

14. Summary Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criterion Weighting Threshold
S&T Quality 25% 3
Training 15% 4
Researcher 25% 3
Implementation 15% na
Impact 20% na
Total 100%

15. Bringing it all together
Get 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.

16. 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

17. Questions & Answers
Speech and powerpoint at
Feel free to drop me a line:
Dr. Albert Schram
albertschram@gmail.com
Twitter: @albertschram
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