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With thousands of funding opportunities for research and innovation at the European, national, regional, and local levels, it is almost impossible for researchers and product developers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger companies (industry) to identify the best suitable funding schemes efficiently and effectively.

Some web platforms provide a large dataset of different types of funding opportunities ranging from research projects, prizes, fellowships, tenders, travel to conference support from all over Europe and beyond. As these databases can be quite exhaustive, users need time and a lot of patience to filter data until getting satisfactory search results. Moreover, most of these platforms use the terminology and language of the funding agencies, which does not often coincide with the more technical language of the scientist or other users. In addition to the web databases, there are also a variety of news alerts and countless newsletters that are designed to inform their subscribers about new funding opportunities. Although information is pushed to the user, their contents are often generic and not geared to the individual and rather specific interests of the subscriber.

Our Strategic Grant Planning (SGP) service provides personalised funding advice based on your research and innovation priorities and your schedule. Following an initial online meeting, we will create a long list of relevant funding opportunities and call for proposals at the European level, covering proposal submissions for up to the next two years. This list will include some call details such as deadlines, success rates, proposal page numbers, funding estimation and usual consortium size. We will then organise an online or face-to-face meeting at your premises to shortlist the most relevant opportunities and set up time plans to ensure efficient use of resources during the application process.

Success stories: Identifying the best suitable funding schemes

It was through this service that we at accelopment helped Cochlear Benelux NV, a large multinational specialised in hearing devices, identify a suitable opportunity to fund their research activities in the field of hearing implants. During an in-house workshop at Cochlear’s headquarters in August 2018, we suggested a European Industrial Doctorate (EID). In hindsight, this proved to be a wise decision. Today, Cochlear Benelux NV is coordinating the MOSAICS EID funded under Horizon 2020’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, in which future leaders in hearing research and innovation are trained together with the Radboud University Medical Centre. You are kindly invited to read an interview with the MOSAICS Coordinator Dr. Filiep Vanpoucke, Head of Algorithms and Application in the Advanced Innovation department at Cochlear Benelux NV.

Thanks to the SGP undertaken by one of our SGP experts, Prof. Ira Haraldsen, Coordinator of AI-Mind, learned about the Human Brain Project EBRAINS vouchers for which she applied in autumn 2020 – with success. Now, AI-Mind partners have access to the EBRAINS state-of-the-art digital research infrastructure which will enable them to develop a better algorithm model for effectively screening and predicting the risk of dementia in people affected by mild cognitive impairment.

These are just two of many examples, and with our broad knowledge of EU funding opportunities we would be happy to hear from researchers, research groups and institutes or entire University departments as well as from technology-driven innovative companies to implement an individualised SGP.