INTRODUCTION Richard Wheeler Background in education teacher in
INTRODUCTION Richard Wheeler • Background in education – teacher in mainland China for five years • Post-graduate work at the University of Edinburgh in Artificial Intelligence • Artificial intelligence and adaptive disease control systems for the World Health Organisation in Geneva • Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, Edinburgh • Starlab Research, Brussels • Public Voice Labs in Vienna, Austria • Business Development Executive for the School of Informatics, Uo. E • Edinburgh Scientific • Under long-term contract to the European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance in Graz, The Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, and BILSP in Bulgaria Success With EU Proposals ECML, Skopje, September 2017
This Presentation Why me? • • Have been a reviewer, Vice. Chair, and Chair on the main EU calls for the last twelve years (ITN, IF, many others…) Technical Manager or Project Manager on 6+ big EU projects under the last three frameworks Now helping big consortiums write big proposals ~€ 15 M in funding a year What if someone inside the review process could tell you the secrets to success? • • 90 Minutes – feel free to ask questions at any time Not an introduction to EU funding, but an overview of the EU proposal writing process, focusing on tips and tricks not in the Guide For Applicants What really goes on at an EU review? Why did your proposal fail? How do idiots get funding? Triple your chances of succeeding Ongoing discussion Information dense, reference source, lots of examples… Please do not distribute, it contains confidential information! Please no photos, if you are bored, go have a beer instead. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Horizon 2020 EU funding has tracks for almost every sector. Horizon 2020 is mostly for big universities and businesses working together. Horizon 2020 • Four main tracks: Co-operation, Ideas, Capacities, and People (plus Euratom for nuclear science) • Funding usually between 75% (businesses) and 100% (universities) of eligible costs Co-operation Calls are usually topicspecific (“top-down”) big projects between large groups of international partners. Keywords: competitiveness, co-operation. People Calls are aimed at developing Europe’s human resources. Keyword: training. Capacities Calls encourage the growth of the knowledge-based economy, often through SMEs. Keyword: infrastructure. Ideas Calls are usually small blue sky science projects and are “bottom up”. Keyword: innovation. Almost all EU funding calls share common proposal sections, and succeed or fail for the same reasons. This presentation is about those reasons. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Horizon 2020 The biggest research funding pool in history. Most proposals now succeed or fail by only a range of about ten points. This presentation can easily add ten points onto your evaluation score. More than 60% of the overall Horizon 2020 budget is dedicated to renewal and sustainable energy. Consider going for some of the big (15 M Euro+) calls. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Horizon 2020: Why Participate? For Academia: • • For Business: Funding your research Prestige Network of contacts Funding path dependency National support Good for career Exposure to other sectors Complementary skills development • Funding for innovations further from market • Tax breaks • Personnel development • Prestige • Network of contacts • Funding path dependency • Exposure to academia • Government and international buy-in ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Getting Started It all starts with the call. Some calls have rolling deadlines (FET-Open), while others have yearly deadlines (IF), and some only occur once (“top down” calls). All are here for H 2020: http: //ec. europa. eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h 2 020/search_topics. html I check this about once a month and read every entry… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Getting Started You are most likely to be applying to a bottom-up call (FETOpen, IF), ITN, because unless you work in one of a few fields being funded top-down, there will not be many calls open in exactly your field. For more senior researchers, your best chances to find funding are to identify calls where the research you want to do is a small part of a high-funding top-down call, and build a new consortium. Example: you work in machine learning and optimization: “Develop quieter turbines…” + machine learning = work package in modeling and genetic algorithms for turbofan design and optimization… …now you need partners in turbine engineering and testing. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Getting Started Once you identify the call you want to target, read all the call materials, including the Guide for Applicants, and any other documents. Ask around your department to see if anyone has succeeded in this call and can give advice or let you see their successful proposal. Download the templates and look into what is involved. Is it 10 pages? 100 pages? One stage, two stage? Look into eligibility requirements. 1 partner, 3 partners, 10+? Do you need to have an SME or industry? Ask your head of department if they will support your application and whom else you should talk to. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Getting Started Begin formulating your idea such that it matches the call. Understand the unique impact point for each call, and build your story, your “narrative” around that. Story for FET-Open: my idea is so advanced that if it succeeds it will create a new field of science in the EU. Story for IF: I am such a good scientist that an IF fellowship will make me one of the best in the world, and this requires mobility. Story for a top-down call: we are going to build a super quiet turbine by… …and match the expected outcomes by… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Ideas… Is your idea innovative? If you describe the problem to an expert in your field and ask them to think of five ways to overcome it, they should not be able to describe your method. My advice: take your good idea to the smartest people you know and discuss it openly and ask for input. Stand next to geniuses. Seriously, this works. Find a genius you are afraid of, and then bug them constantly over coffee. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Ideas… Having innovative ideas is usually about immersion in your field, and exposure to other fields and ideas unrelated to yours. Even in fundamental science, great ideas are usually rooted in a problem to solve, so investigate problems that seem unrelated to your expertise (“why are turbines noisy? - what makes them inefficient? ”). Up your game. Find people much smarter than yourself; find the best people in Europe and visit them. Be passionate, be excited, have high standards. No, higher than that. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Ideas… Truly innovative ideas propose more questions than they answer. This is what leads to the seeding of a new field. Example: photographing a black hole…raises…lots of new questions. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Proposal Writing: Impact Be specific. Describe why. Like photographing a grapefruit on the surface of the moon. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Unfolding a Black Hole But also, light will be severely bent around the event horizon; in fact, you will be seeing light that had come from many directions before skipping around the black hole’s edge. You are seeing multiple viewpoints at once and will need to unfold the image. Obviously, optics, physics, signal sensin astronomy, and mathematics will be involved. But how do you see things from multiple viewpoints at once? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Unfolding a Black Hole; Cubism? ECML, Skopje, September 2017 Brother Picasso
Unfolding a Black Hole; Rayism? Ivan Kliun ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Unfolding a Black Hole; Condenses and Goes Flat Natalia Goncharova ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Unfolding a Black Hole; Collapsed to Idea John Dodgson ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Unfolding a Black Hole; Complex Topologies ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Unfolding a Black Hole; Minimal Knot Energy Is there an optimal way to tie a knot in space, or to embed a more general submanifold? And is there a natural way to evolve any knot to an optimal equivalent one, so that we could detect whether two knots are really the same? One approach to such questions is to associate to any geometric knot an energy, and look for minimizers or critical points of this energy. If the energy is infinite for immersions which are not embeddings, then presumably its gradient flow will prevent self-crossings and preserve knot type. One way to get an energy with such an infinite barrier against self-crossings is to think of spreading charge along the knot and then consider the electrostatic potential. Such an energy for knots was introduced by Ohara and studied by Freedman, He and Wang, who proved it was invariant under conformal (Möbius) transformations of the ambient space. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Photographing a Black Hole Should we be looking to art, or mathematics, or engineering, physics, chemistry, information theory? So many new questions. These questions seed new fields of scientific endeavour. That’s why it is innovative. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Innovation I know this sounds impossibly difficult, and in some ways it is, but you probably have a very innovative idea in you somewhere. Buy it beer, bring it flowers. Say you’re sorry for neglecting it all these years. I have worked on three FET-Open proposals that have succeeded, and three that did not. It is the idea that sells an FET-Open, not the details. If you know what you will find in your research, it is not research, it is application. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Positioning… When applying, you need to think about how your proposal will stand out in the field, how you will position your proposal to be exciting and different… An example of how to approach positioning… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Positioning… The Personalised Medicine Calls are among the most difficult in all of H 2020 to get funding for. I was asked to help with a proposal for the call SC 1 -PM-15 -2017, with an emphasis on assisted automated living systems for the aging: Proposals should develop a proof of concept of radically new solutions for a personalised "virtual coach", building upon intelligent ICT environments, access to relevant physiological and behavioural data, new forms of accessible interaction based on tangible user interaction concepts, open platforms and emotional computing. Usability and ease of user interaction should be essential design elements of the "coach". ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Positioning and Psychology… The consortium was anchored by BILSP and the Bulgarian Red Cross, and had no technical or research background. Instead of trying to think only of the consortium’s strengths, which there were not many, I thought of the competition’s weaknesses. What’s the weakness of the field? ICT systems for healthy ageing mostly rely on avatars and shitty robots. All of their systems and proposals look like this (real photos from articles about coaching systems for the aged)… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Meanwhile, in Bulgaria… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Meet Radoslava… Fantastic mother, grandmother! Amazing cook! Try her shkembe! Still active! Gardens, walks… Lives on € 182/month. Can’t use a mobile phone. Son in the city worries she will fall. People at church try to help. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
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Come, my Radoslava. Let me coach you. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
What devices do the elderly have now that they say have significantly improved their quality of life? Skype. Because they want to see the other person’s face when they are talking. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Older people don’t want a giant robot, or an animated talking dog speaking to them like they are children. Yes, they know they forgot to take their pills and to go for a walk. And they don’t care. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
This is the state of the art’s weakness, it’s utter impracticality and inappropriateness for the purpose it intends. In the call we guessed that the first two proposals funded would go to teams with robots and avatars who lead the field. For us to stand any chance, we had to make the case for an entirely new type of support system based on real world needs. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
How can we build an inexpensive system that older people would actually want and use? What would actually improve their quality of life? Ambient sensing (mobile phone or bracelet, or smart meter) plus social circles coaching… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Of 187 proposals, we got a nearly perfect score, and finished probably first or second in the call. We got € 4 M, starting October, 2017. We had correct positioning. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Getting Started Everyone will have a different way of working according to your circumstances, personality, lifestyle. You will need to find your own way of working, and with other people. Immerse yourself. I am often asked to help with big proposals (€ 5 M+, 150 pages, 30 partners) outside of my own field. To do this, I spend two or three weeks studying every aspect of the field and making notes and references to use later. Maybe, 300 pages a day, sometimes of hundreds of articles. Then I visit the partners and pretend I am going to start working in a similar job, doing what they do. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Why is Narrative So Hard? Good proposals have an easy to understand narrative that tells the story of why the work and the way you will do it all makes perfect sense. This narrative forms the perfect abstract. A good proposal is like a story for children: Hansel and Gretel were good but mischievous children, and were also very ambitious material scientists interested in optical spintronics at the quantum level. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Waiting for the Narrative After lots of studying, there comes a moment where the entire story of the proposal, the narrative, pops out of its own accord. If you are having trouble formulating the proposal, it is because you have not stirred things up enough for the narrative to emerge by itself. For the Bulgarian Red Cross proposal, I might have read 1000 pages and articles. And then I saw this image, and the narrative wrote itself… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
The Start Then there comes a moment where the entire story of the proposal, the narrative, pops out of its own accord. If you are having trouble formulating the proposal, it is because you have not stirred things up enough for the narrative to emerge by itself. What does she want? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
The Start Then there comes a moment where the entire story of the proposal, the narrative, pops out of its own accord. If you are having trouble formulating the proposal, it is because you have not stirred things up enough for the narrative to emerge by itself. Not a robot that shouts about her pills. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
The Start Then there comes a moment where the entire story of the proposal, the narrative, pops out of its own accord. If you are having trouble formulating the proposal, it is because you have not stirred things up enough for the narrative to emerge by itself. Not a cartoon dog that demands attention. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
The Start Then there comes a moment where the entire story of the proposal, the narrative, pops out of its own accord. If you are having trouble formulating the proposal, it is because you have not stirred things up enough for the narrative to emerge by itself. Something invisible that helps her keep her dignity. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Narrative: Five Minutes ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Planning: Consortiums Most proposals have two or more industry partners and three or more universities working in a consortium or network. For industry and academia to work well together, they need: • Strong, committed anchor persons who already have a relationship of trust • Challenging research on all organisations’ critical paths that all partners are excited about • Clearly declared goals and success conditions for each partner • Buy-in from the top of each organisation • Each partner must have a clearly defined role ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Consortiums Things reviewers of proposals will be looking for: • The proposal presents a clear problem that will be addressed (scientific, economic, or structural), and a clear statement about why each participant in the consortium is necessary and is highly qualified to participate. • The consortium partners have good relations, and have sufficient infrastructure to reliably undertake the work proposed. • The consortium partners have complementarity, that is, they each have a necessary part to play in solving the problem addressed, and have synergy between them in the context of the proposal. • Each partner has an active, engaged staff member whose background is a good fit for their role in the consortium and who will take charge of the partner's contribution. • A lead partner who has proven experience in managing and successfully completing projects. • The consortium seems likely to continue their work and collaboration well beyond the length of the funded project. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Consortiums Tips and Tricks • A good consortium should have partners in different EU regions – many partners from a single city or region signal to the EU that it is a “buddy network” that might be a poor funding value. · If applicable, a good consortium should have partners from different sectors of the triple helix of innovation, each assigned to a task fitting their profile. · It helps a proposal if the project or work proposed is situated along each organisation’s critical path. · It helps if the consortium is presented as the only good combination of partners for addressing the project requirements. · The EU has a “partner finder service” on their web site, but you are likely going to need to rely on your network of friends and professional contacts. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Consortiums: Practical • • • Consortium Maps: • • • Cluster Sector Domain-specific Geographic … Knowledge, knowledge transfer, need… Sharp, Simple Graphics. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Consortiums: Why They Fail • Academia was unrealistic about the role and engagement of the industrial partners (project not on the partners’ critical path) • Poor communication about requirements and time commitments in the proposal writing process • Poor organization • Choosing partners to fulfill a profile rather than a necessary role • SMEs in consortium only for the cash • Industrial partners often unrealistically believe their organizations will give them sufficient time for the project • Personnel changes and lack of buy-in; speed at which industry can change their priorities • Partners sign on thinking someone else, usually the coordinator, will do all the work. • I have a consortium awarded 6 M Euro that has fallen apart in the 45 days between notification and acceptance ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Questions? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Why Proposals Fail Applying for EU funding is primarily a writing exercise. Proposals fail because they are not written properly. Believe it or not, proposal writing can be partially engineered. Think of this presentation as engineering instructions. Here are some tips about how to succeed. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
The Review Process Generally the review process is very fair, but human nature being what it is… • Three to five people express a preference for reviewing your proposal based on the abstract. Of the three, one will be an expert (CBR), one will be in your general field (AI), and one will be unrelated and possibly drafted in from another field (chemical engineering). One will speak and read English well, one not very well, and one maybe poorly. • These reviewers read the proposal at home, often in pieces, and fill out a web form guided by specific criteria. Often they are tired and working late at night and cannot remember specifics, and so may review the proposal again or search it for keywords (“gender issues”). • Statistics show a reviewer decides on the score and quality of your proposal within the first two pages; make them good. Reviewers often only remember the first sentence of a paragraph, so stick to thesis style. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Proposal Writing Though some proposals are built around poor consortiums or ideas (more later), most fail because they are not written clearly. Tips and Tricks • • • Keep it simple and make certain all assertions are clearly supported in plain language. Write for two levels of audience: an expert in the domain, and an intelligent layman. The more specific your field, the less likely that the reviewers will be experts. Reviewers read English as a second language. Address all criteria by name required by the call text. Develop a common proposal narrative and link all sections to it. Do not recycle parts of old proposals or published papers – many reviewers now do web searches for key phrases to see if they appear on the web. Write in thesis style and strive for absolute clarity in your writing. Keep sentences short, English clear, and try to use the active voice. Have a native English speaker review and edit your proposal for clarity and run spell-checking and grammar checking utilities. Do not misrepresent anything in your proposal; even the most minor untruths can disqualify a proposal. Do not confuse sections of the proposal; cleanly divide the sections by their description and do not blend them together or allow them to overlap. Carefully check the electronic filing requirements of the proposal call and work to them to avoid difficulties at submission time. Use the language and terms specified in the call, but do not rephrase passages from the EU ECML, Skopje, September 2017 texts.
Important: Thesis Style In the narrative style of writing, you describe the situation and then reach a conclusion: “Background. Discussion. Ideas. New work. Results. Conclusion. ” In thesis style, you start with the conclusion: “Conclusion. Background. Discussion. Ideas. New work. Results. ” You need to write proposals in thesis style, because most people will only remember the first sentence of every paragraph. THESIS. (support support). THESIS. (support ECML, Skopje, September 2017 support).
Thesis Style, Example Little Red Riding Hood. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Thesis Style, Example Narrative style (story, conclusion): Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest. Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood. One morning… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Thesis Style, Example Thesis style (conclusion, story): A wolf tried to trick a little girl into thinking he was her grandmother, but the girl was too smart for him. Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest. . . ECML, Skopje, September 2017
An Example: Abstract This abstract for a € 5 M proposal got a perfect score, and is an example of clear, concise writing. It also creates a proposal narrative that the whole proposal is built around. THE PROBLEM EU COMPONENT SOLUTION GOALS IMPACT TEAM ECML, Skopje, September 2017
What, How, Who, Why. S&T Section: What Management & Implementation: How Team: Who Impact: Why These sections have to follow a common narrative and do not overlap each other. They need to follow thesis style. A paragraph starts with a thesis and then supports it. Pretend reviewers will only read the first sentence of every paragraph. Many will. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Getting Started 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Download all call materials and templates. Write a call briefing note and distribute it. Register with ECAS and create an entry for the proposal in SEP. Start with the budget and reverse engineer. Find a good spreadsheet. Try MS Project. Try sitting down with all partners for two days and brainstorm: • Outline a good concept. • Outline a good WP structure. • Assign lead roles for WPs. • Break down WPs into tasks. • Assign resources to tasks and balance the draft budget. Do the finances first, including overheads. Each partner goes away and writes the section they are responsible for. One person always has control of the master copy. Prepare for last minute disaster. Run sample renderings in greyscale, check your PDF writer. Pay attention to formatting. Have your numbers checked five times. Part A must match Part B. How many PART B versions on submission day? 30. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Time The coordinator must be prepared to put 30 person days into the writing and preparation of the proposal. All other partners must be prepared to put in 10 person days each. Tell your partners this. Many only spend a few hours. The coordinator must be prepared to do any work that the other partners do not. The coordinator must be ready to drop partners when they jeopardize the proposal by not working as they should. If they don’t work at the proposal phase, they will not work if the project is funded. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Time How common is this problem? I have a form letter email. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
What It Looks Like: XLS ECML, Skopje, September 2017
What It Looks Like: Part A ECML, Skopje, September 2017
What It Looks Like: Part B ECML, Skopje, September 2017
What It Looks Like: PPT ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Questions? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Science and Technology Amazingly, most proposals fail the S&T section, which should be the easiest to write. Why Proposals Succeed on S&T Quality • · · · Clear introduction and abstract Clear state of the art that links to the research proposed Research is situated in the field and its importance clearly stated Research methodology is well described Research outcomes are specified Includes descriptions for both experts and laymen Why Proposals Fail on S&T Quality • · · · A problem is specified without presenting the solutions to be explored and tested Applicants have taken texts from research papers State of the art unclear or not properly referenced Research outcomes not well specified Methodology is not well described Too much background knowledge is assumed of the reviewers ECML, Skopje, September 2017
S&T Writing: Example EU NEED THESIS SUPPORT RESULT THESIS SUPPORT ECML, Skopje, September 2017
S&T Writing: Innovation and originality are common criteria that receive low marks! Tips and Tricks • The state of the art section must clearly describe current work in the field, and the limitations of current approaches. • An innovation statement needs to clearly describe how your research will advance the field, the possible outcomes, and what the scientific impact might be. • An originality statement needs to explain why your approach has not yet been tried, why it is not obvious to others, and why your consortium are the only ones to take it forward. • Be clear: “The proposal is innovative because it will advance the state of the art by…”, “The proposal is original because…” “ROMEO is innovative. It will significantly advance the state of the art useful across industries by exploring breakthrough ideas and developing innovative technologies and alternative materials that will enable Europe to regain a leading position in the permanent-magnet market, a revitalised market that will no longer be artificially distorted by a lack of easily available REs and especially HREs. To achieve these…” … “ROMEO is original. It will be the first consortium to apply the emerging techniques of…” ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Questions? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Knowledge Transfer Knowledge transfer is now a required part of most proposals, and in some programmes, constitutes the declared goal. Depending upon the EU funding scheme, a To. K programme might be: • A fellow spending a year in another EU country to gain missing skills in an important field • A fellow spending a year in industry gaining practical experience • Two administrators exchanging places to learn new management processes • A large conference where academics present new discoveries • The creation of a new joint degree between two universities • A programme for industry and academia to meet with government policy makers and share knowledge of a common problem ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Knowledge Transfer Tips and Tricks • The knowledge transfer agenda should clearly present how it addresses knowledge and capability gaps in the field, and how it links in with the personal career development plans of all those concerned. Example: “In line with his declared career development plan, Mr. Huxley will address his skills gap in kernel methods by attending and being certified in the courses TUG 313 Kernel Computational Methods and TUG 911 Advanced Statistical Mathematics in Q 3/Y 2”. • All Ko. T activities should link directly to the needs of the research agenda. • Complementary skills development must be clearly described in concrete detail. Example: “Dr. Wells will gain valuable management experience through 40 hours of mentoring by the head of department, Professor Verne, and 60 hours managing the project’s main research component”. • Focus on the outcomes of the knowledge transfer as matching career development goals and filling gaps in European competence, and be specific about the mechanisms and timing. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Knowledge Transfer A knowledge transfer map is a table or figure showing who has critical knowledge, who needs it, and how it relates to the overall knowledge management plan. Partner Competency Need Provider KTH Modelling AI <- JSI AI Applied Maths <- Uo. M TUG Green Tech Power Systems <- SIEMENS Uo. M Applied Maths Power Systems <- SIEMENS Power Trains AI, Modelling <- JSI, KTH Uo. D New Methods Applied Maths <- Uo. M WP 1 Knowledge Maths, AI, Modelling ECML, Skopje, September 2017 Partners Critic JSI, KTH, Uo. M, Siemens JSI, K Uo. M
Writing: Knowledge Transfer Another kind of KM plan: monitoring and management. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Exchange Programmes Exchange programmes and training structures are tricky to write and rely entirely on providing in-depth detail. Tips and Tricks • • Provide concrete detail about every person being exchanged, when, where, and for what purpose and outcome. Provide a chart showing movement and knowledge being transferred and how it relates to knowledge gaps, career plans, and core research. Bad: “Students will be able to choose from any of the 112 courses offered and will be assigned an appropriate academic mentor. ” … “An orientation will be offered”. Good: “To address the stated knowledge gaps in line with the declared career development plans, students will attend and be accredited with the courses in the following timetable…” … “students will be individually mentored for three hours a week by head of department Professor Genet or Professor Emeritus Camus who will be responsible for each student’s career development and research. ” “Three four-hour orientation sessions will be provided at the Nabakov International Students’ Centre on the first three days of programme commencement, where students will be given…”. Career development plans, knowledge gaps, knowledge network development ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Questions? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Proposal Writing: Management & Implementation Very few proposals have a realistic management plan. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Management & Implementation Be comprehensive. Get help. Show how. Tips and Tricks: WPs, Tasks, Milestones, Deliverables • • Tasks have timings, risks, dependencies, outcomes, and rationale linked to a work package. Work packages bundle tasks into discrete outcomes, deliverables, and milestones and require resources and personnel. A GANNT chart shows the organisation of work packages and timings and the flow of resources and personnel. A management description clearly describes who will be responsible for what, and how decisions will be made and risks managed. Every work package has a leader, and the leaders likely constitute a board. Every activity in the project requires a person named as responsible. Address issues of quality management and assurance, and how unforeseen challenges will be addressed. Do not over-do deliverables and milestones. 3 deliverables per WP, 5 milestones per project, 7 WPs per project, no more than 6 tasks per WP. Most fail this criterion because the project’s goals are not clearly linked to the management process. Present processes. Do not use an old project’s management section. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Management Structure ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Management & Implementation ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Management WP Frame ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Management PERT ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Management: Risk Table ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Management: GANTT ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Questions? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Proposal Writing: Impact Be specific. Describe why. Tips and Tricks • • • Most proposals fail on this criterion because they are not specific about the outcomes and impact. Be very specific. Discuss goals, measurement, documentation, marketing and adoption, and upkeep of impact beyond the end of the project. Impact on the European level must be linked to declared EU development goals – read the call text again. Quantify. Reference. Impact on the careers and organisations of those involved need to be specific and discuss why and how much and to what end. Impact on the public and scientific community needs to names: what journals, what conferences on what dates, what public events paid for how, for what audience, and for what outcome. Bad: “The project will seek to disseminate results to the public through the channels of web and printed materials. ” Good: “The project has received approval in principle for a short BBC documentary to be made about the research, paid for by the UK’s PUOS fund, in Q 3/Y 3, to be broadcast nine times in Q 2/3/4/Y 4. The project has made arrangements to present results for a general audience at the Edinburgh Science Festival in Q 2/Y 2 and Q 2/Y 3…” ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Impact Section THESIS SUPPORT ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Impact Table IMPACT, BARRIERS, METHOD, METRIC… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
RIA Actions: Gender (b) Methodology Where relevant, describe how sex and/or gender analysis is taken into account in the project’s content. Sex and gender refer to biological characteristics and social/cultural factors respectively. For guidance on methods of sex / gender analysis and the issues to be taken into account, please refer to http: //ec. europa. eu/research/swafs/gendered-innovations/index_en. cfm? pg=home This is not about the balance between men and women in your project. This is about understanding that research can be biased according to sex and gender in ways that undermine science itself. Not just in who is doing the research and what assumptions they bring in, but in issues of usability, acceptance, appropriateness and fitness of purpose, etc. Example: Electric vehicles are very gender-biased. What? Men worry they will not look manly in an EV, and women are scared of the charging equipment. Not all of them, obviously, but enough that EVs are designed to look feminine. Are they? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
A Gender Action Plan ensures that gender issues, including in research, hiring, firing, and management, proceeds according to best practice. It is not about counting the number of men and women working on a project. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
RIA Actions: Ambition (b) Methodology 1. 4 Ambition Describe the advance your proposal would provide beyond the state-of-the-art, and the extent the proposed work is ambitious. Describe the innovation potential (e. g. groundbreaking objectives, novel concepts and approaches, new products, services or business and organisational models) which the proposal represents. Where relevant, refer to products and services already available on the market. Please refer to the results of any patent search carried out. This is about making the primary case for your work being important and innovative, so do not waste it. First speak of the grand challenges you will address, then briefly summarise the limitations of the state of the art. Then introduce your innovations and explain why they are advanced and were not obvious to those before you (often other technology and research exposes new ideas applicable in other fields). What is innovative – how do you know? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
RIA Actions ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Yes, a whole page. Because it was a weakness. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Exploitation Be realistic. Tips and Tricks • • Exploitation doesn’t have to be about money – it can also be about increasing European knowledge and competitiveness. Understand what your project is really about. Show the project fills a gap in the knowledge or commercial market, and quantify that gap. Use numbers. Show the process from research to wider adoption, including milestones, and describe why the consortium includes relevant and necessary actors in the process. Be realistic and specific about outcomes and steps necessary, including beyond the life cycle of the project itself. Show an awareness and plan for IPR, and discuss possible obstacles. Link the IPR and business development plan to the larger dissemination strategy. Present other exploitation routes and models: open source, public understanding, trade and standards organisations, increasing European market readiness and competitiveness… Exploitation creates impact, and the two sections should reflect this. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Exploitation Table ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: SWOT ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Dissemination You disseminate to your colleagues in your field. You communicate to external stakeholders across Europe. You perform outreach to the general public. You exploit so that the knowledge is used and useful. Together, these create impact. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Dissemination ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Public Understanding Specific! ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Questions? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Proposal Writing: Details The devil is in the details. Every call has detailed criterion to be addressed. Tips and Tricks • Criterion such as Gender Issues, compliance with Code and Charter, Guide for Researchers, and Ethics are specific to the call and each need their own explicit paragraph addressing the issue directly. • Proposals often fail because they do not show an awareness of the requirements stated in the call. Nothing can be left implicit, everything needs to be explicit. Reread the call and make sure everything mentioned is explicitly addressed. • Pay attention to page lengths which are now usually by section. Annexes must be specified by the call or are removed from your application. • Letters of support must all be different and individual, if they are too similar they are discounted by reviewers. • Do not retrofit an old, failed proposal for another call… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Proposal Writing: Graphics ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Writing: Rogue’s Gallery Comments received through the years on professionally prepared proposals – S&T section only. • The proposal was too ambitious for the time allowed • The research proposed is not ambitious enough • The research seems like a continuation of previous work • Sounds like work they’ve already done • Proposal is development not research • Project outputs too hard to measure and not well described • Some partners seem to have no role in the research • Partners all have the same competencies and expertise • Research is not innovative enough • Research is not believable for the applicants’ profile • Research doesn’t matter • S&T section is unfocused and unclear • Inter-disciplinary research aspects are not clear • Role of industry in core project is not apparent • Description lacks concrete research tasks • There is no description of possible risks within the work • No responsibilities for individual tasks are provided • It is unclear how smaller research projects contribute to the programme as a whole • No idea what this was about • Proposal is too much vague • Exchanges and knowledge sharing within the research components are not well described. • Tasks and research goals are not evident in the deliverables list • Research schedule, milestones, and benchmarks are not adequately linked to other sections of the proposal • Research agenda is not innovative • State of the art description is incomplete • Background section does not make clear why applicants are suited to the project proposed • References are incomplete or missing • S&T section methodology is not well described • Nature of joint work not convincing • References provided are inadequate • Research not justified • Consortium makes no sense • Objectives are not clearly stated • Testing and validation are not adequately presented • Data availability is not explained • Privacy issues in data use are not explained • Gap between theory and commercialisation is not presented • Research fails to take account of… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Unfortunately, Luck. WHAT A LOT OF WORK! Luck plays an unfortunate role in applying for funding. A tale of two proposals… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
What it looks like when things go right. ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Secret Tips • New programmes are often give-aways with low standards. • Check the numbers: some calls have lots of cash but few applicants. Ask your National Contact Point (NCP) what are the most under-subscribed calls. • Think laterally: almost every call can fund your research in some way – explore other instruments (training, infrastructure, support for SMEs…). • Bug your NCP for matching or continuation funding channels. • Math! Math is chronically under-subscribed and so is often combined in the review calls with other disciplines like engineering or physics. Frame your proposal’s narrative around mathematics and submit it to that panel… • Pick an emerging and growing applied field, and dig into it… ECML, Skopje, September 2017
Conclusion Much of it is about the writing, being clear and concise. Read the call carefully and make a list of all issues to be explicitly addressed. Be realistic about goals and success conditions. Thanks to ECML! Contact: Richard Wheeler rwprivate@gmail. com QUESTIONS? ECML, Skopje, September 2017
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