No. 95: How to win European Union grant money

Over the past 20 years I have been involved in numerous proposals to access EU grant money. Not once have I been successful. Not once. It is as if my involvement had a toxic influence. I now actively keep away from such ‘opportunities’. I have never understood what I was doing wrong. Until now, that is.

Today I met a firm who, as part of a consortium, is bidding for an Euro18M EU grant. The total amount of funding they need is Euro33M, so this grant will give them over 50% of the necessary capital. They are feeling very confident about their chances of success, and rightly so. The project is very worthy; it is a large scale demonstration of an innovative carbon capture scheme that has significant spin-off benefits for the water sector. As they talked I felt the hairs on the back of my neck bristle with excitement. The project is just the sort of thing we should be spending money on… but all the previous (failed) bids that I have been involved in have been equally worthy. Quality of the proposal is not the secret to a successful EU bid.  

Their proposal is for the construction of a large demonstration facility. It will be the biggest of its type in the world. However, there is a facility just a little smaller in Australia. Thus being innovative also doesn’t appear to be a criteria for success.

The company are not even European, they are from Australia. One can’t help but be impressed at their tenacity. By forming a consortium with other European companies they have qualified for EU funding that, one assumes, would normally be strictly for European businesses.

Don’t get me wrong, it has not been easy for them. When they initially bid they formed a consortium that included a big corporate whose core business hinged upon a competitive technology. The thesis was that this big corporate was getting involved so that they could embrace the new technology. However 24 hours before the Stage 2 presentation the big corporate pulled out, leaving the rest of the consortium with a dead bid and a damaged reputation. A cynic might conclude that this was a deliberate strategy by the big corporate to kill off the new technology, but my new Aussie friends refused to take this view. With true Aussie optimism they chose to see this as merely another little bump in the road.

With a confidence that beggars belief they had submitted their proposal twice, at two separate consecutive ‘Calls’. The second bid went in, identical to the first, while the first one was still in the initial review process. When their first bid ‘fell over’ at Stage 2 they simply re-shuffled their consortium and waited to see if their second submission got through. In a staggering demonstration of the disconnection within the EU proposal system this is exactly what happened. Jammy isn’t the word.

So what is the secret to success? Some might call it sheer pig-headedness - refusing to accept defeat. Others might say it was luck. I think it was that undefeatable Aussie spirit of optimism. My mantra for tomorrow: Be a bit more Aussie - optimism is so much better than anything else!