Increase success chances in EUREKA Eurostars with a solid business case

16th May 2018 at 11:41 am

For the selection of Eurostars applications there are three major criteria which will decide over the fit of your proposal: Innovation, project implementation and the impact on your business. Since 2014 a total of 2,747 Eurostars proposals have been evaluated against this set of criteria. Of the submitted applications, 801 have been funded. The chances of success are higher compared to many other funding programmes. However, there are always ways to increase your chances of success. One way to make your project stand out and convince the evaluators is to describe your specific business case and the market potential of the project results.

A brief guide to “The Business Case” in Eurostars proposals

To help you get started, we’ve created a short but informative guide the “The Business Case” in Eurostars proposals. These seven steps, combined extracts from your already existing business plan, can help demonstrate what your proposal is trying to achieve:

• Current-state analysis: Your current-state analysis should include a market and competitor analysis.
• Competitor analysis: Take a close look at your competition.
• Market analysis: Describe the market you operate in and pin down the barriers for your business.
• Target costumers: Define your target customer segment and make a detailed outline on how you will reach them.
• Financial plan: Quantify what it will cost to bring your service or product to market within 24 months of the project’s completion.
• Roadmap for commercialisation: Consider what the expected results of your project will be and when you are ready to enter the market.
• Eligibility check: Ensure that your project is aligned with the formal requirements.

By the way, start-ups that do not have balance sheets from the past two financial years are required to submit their Business Plans as part of the project application anyway. A good way to show your business case in the application is to include a business model or other business-relevant elements attached to the proposal. This attachment is required to be a PDF document (up to 10 MB) that can be submitted with the completed application form.

Eurostars with accelopment

In our recently funded sus@pension Eurostars project, we also included a revenue forecast in the attachment covering the period of two years after project completion during which the project results are expected to be commercialised and even a five-year outlook to show the market and business potential in the mid-term.